Working at home - balance?

I work at home - and so does this person:

"Firstly, working at home means struggling to avoid doing chores around the house when I should be editing photos or working on my brand. Secondly (and definitely something I find even more tricky), being your own boss means that you are the one defining work hours, task schedules and editorial calendars. And if you’re not setting boundaries around that, you can end up working 18 hour days and suddenly everything becomes completely dysfunctional.

Putting boundaries in place to separate work and home life is not only important, it’s kind of necessary. It means staying healthy and makes your business so much more sustainable. Boundaries mean you can maintain healthy relationships with the people you love and keeping priorities straight mean that you can work hard, stay focussed and stay sane.
Since starting We Resolve, I’ve had to think a lot about what success actually looks like for me. The obvious picture of success is earning a whopping salary, but I’m not hugely motivated by money so working hard in order to get rich doesn’t get me fired up. What I’ve come to define my own success as is being known, and more importantly, being in demand. My version of success includes having a great relationship with my husband, family and friends and getting to enjoy time outside of work.

Which means there needs to be time outside of work.

Your version of success might look completely different to mine and will require its own set of parameters, but for me taking time out has to happen in order for me to stay in love with what I do. I don’t ever want to get to a place where I’ve had to work my butt off so much that I resent the work I do. I love my job and I want to stay in love with it! Are you with me?
One thing to clarify: I’m not saying don’t work hard. I’m saying work smart.

As I’m writing this, I’m on a train for a four hour trip. I planned this in typical work hours (it’s Friday afternoon) because I knew that I could have my laptop on the train and still be productive. One of the joys of being self employed is that you can make work work for you. Use the time you have, plan out ideas when you’re stuck in traffic or take photos of a cute coffee shop for a blog post when you’re out with a friend. It sounds simple, but I definitely need reminders sometimes!

What we’ve ended up in our house are a few ‘unbreakable’ rules. We always eat dinner together at the table and focus on our food and each other by putting screens away. We have a no screens after 10pm rule that means that we always get enough sleep and have enough energy for work the next day. We try to be generous with our money so that it never becomes something we try to hold on to or make our work revolve around.

As I said earlier, success is a personal thing and will look different for different people so the boundaries you create will be in line with this and will most likely look different for you too. Think about your priorities and try to put boundaries in place to make sure that these stay top. Your business, body and friends might even thank you for it."