Today was an interesting day. My supervisor told me last week that I had enough work to keep me busy for a while and that if I wanted to work from home, I could. So I did. It's interesting though. I've been working from home for about 8 years now...as a supplement to actually going into the office. I've often found that unless I had to push work to meet deadlines, I usually went home and didn't work, with the exception of checking e-mails, answering my phone, and returning messages. Granted I have had to work at home lately because of workload issues.
My problem with working from home usually revolves around everything else I need to do at home...you know, all the things that magically get done - laundry, house cleaning, dishes, etc. Somehow at the end of the day all of that gets done, and when I'm home, it usually happens between the hours of 8:30 and 4:00.
Today was different. I have something to prove - that I can put in a full 8 hours from home in the same time I have been putting in 7 at the office. I have to prove that it is possible to be an engineer AND work from home via laptop and network connections over our DSL line. And, I did it. I worked a full 8 hours AT HOME without being distracted by the laundry that was literally piled up on my kitchen table. I set up a separate table in our office (a.k.a. our bedroom) so that I could spread out as needed. I opened up the blinds (it's amazing what just a little sunlight can do to brighten a day) and I got to work literally the minute I put the kids on the bus. With the exception of a couple of slow connection times, bathroom and lunch breaks, I pretty much sat in front of the computer for 8 hours.
I got a lot accomplished and I gotta say, I could really get used to this working from home thing. Not to mention the fact that by NOT driving 35 minutes one way, I have roughly an hour of additional time in my day. AND I'm saving $$ on gas and childcare! Woo Hoo!!!
It's probably a little too early to celebrate, but the fact that I proved (if only to myself) that I can actually work 8 hours at home is worth a celebration in my book!
No comments:
Post a Comment