A home-based business can consume you

When people hear I am a home-based business owner, their first comment is usually a funny remark about working in my pink fuzzy slippers (actually, they’re purple). I must confess, though, many winter days would find this to be a true statement.

The clothing, though, is the least of the issues for many home-based business owners. I asked fellow entrepreneurs what they found to be the biggest hurdle. Many stated that their business seemed to consume them because work and home were one and the same. They lack the discipline to keep the two separate.

Every waking moment at home is spent in their office pounding the keyboard. If they do leave the office, they find themselves constantly “stopping in to check emails” or remembering they needed to do just one more task. Then 2 hours later, they are still working. Often, attention to the other aspects of their life suffer. Whether it’s a lack of discipline to stop working or a compulsion to continue to focus on the business, it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that relationships with family members and friends are affected, the upkeep of the house suffers and ultimately health can become a factor.

So what can someone do when they find the dishes piling up, the laundry isn’t done, the grass is now 8 inches long, they can’t remember the last time they had a family meal together – and they still can’t walk away from the business? Take an eyes-wide-open look at your daily routine and ask if this is absolutely how you want to spend the rest of your life. Sometimes just being aware is enough to create the change.

Give a true assessment of your work habits. Are you really being productive, or just doing busy work? Are there things that you can stop doing that won’t affect your customer service? Is there something you can reduce or eliminate that won’t affect the quality of your work? Can you outsource some of the daily routine?

Create some physical barriers for yourself. If you find you’re ‘stopping in’ to check emails every time you walk by the office door, there are a few things you can do to eliminate this. First, just close the door; lock it if necessary and put the key on the opposite side of the house. Even if you have the key, you still have to make the effort to get the key and unlock the door. Put a sign on the door announcing - to yourself - your office hours. Turn off your computer. When you think about turning it back on, it reminds you why it’s turned off! These seem simple, but they work. I'll confess that I use a few of them myself.

Knowing you can serve both your personal and work life equally well will provide a sense of balance, plus you’ll probably be better at both of them. And you’ll be able to do it wearing your fuzzy slippers.

What techniques do you use to create the balance?