Working from home the easy way

On Monday, the first day back from two week's holidays, when I was going to hit the ground running to complete my April freelance goals, I spent the day in bed.

Didn't count on getting sick, did I?

But it was a good lesson. While it's important to plan ahead and set goals, you have to leave a little room for the uncertain and the unpredictable and good old bad luck, and not get too cut up about it when things don't go your way.

On Tuesday I was feeling better but although I had a dirty house, which could wait another day, I had a backlog of laundry that couldn't. Plus I was already behind on one of my self-imposed work deadlines.

My husband decided to work from home for the day, and it's amazing how much work both of us got done. Working from home is a breeze when you have a like-minded partner.

He was able to work hard, uninterrupted by work collegues passing by his desk, unnecessary phone calls, and the lure of a downstairs cafe.

I worked hard, partly because I felt bad not to when he was right behind me at the kitchen table, industriously tapping away in the quiet of the house and taking the odd important phone call.

We even managed to have a lunch date (just takeaway Pho from the local Vietnamese restaurant at our kitchen table but we rarely eat alone together so it felt like a date!) and get three loads of laundry washed and dried.

I don't know exactly what he got done, but I wrote the article I wanted to have done, did some planning for the rest of the month, wrote a book review and began a second book review before I was ordered to have a nap!

We even got all the laundry put away, kitchen cleaned and lunches for the next day made before the kids' bedtime, so I chilled out on the sofa and watched Survivor guilt-free.

That was pretty much my perfect work-from-home day, but mainly because my husband was around, doing the same thing, which is rare.

So I think a trick for working successfully from home is to take the good days with the bad.

There's no point getting too stressed when an unproductive day, or even a whole week, comes up which is beyond your control.

All you can do is to make the most of the good days when they come, which they inevitably will.

Image by John Pavelka