Let’s talk limits! Without limits when it comes to your work and work times, you’ll find yourself in the midst of burnout faster than you can imagine. Suffering from burnout can lead you right back to where you don’t want to be–in the office, convinced that this “working from home stuff” is impossible to do successfully.

What are limits? Limits are similar to the boundaries we talked about last week, but limits are something you set for yourself. These are your own personal “rules” to adhere to–which means they can be structured in whatever way works best for you.

Why should you set limits? That’s an easy one…because if you don’t, you’ll work yourself into the ground! Working from home affords you the opportunity to work smarter–it doesn’t mean that your whole life needs to revolve around work.

What types of limits should you set for yourself? Here’s the shortlist:

• Work days–Choose which days you will work. Depending on what type of work you do, you may have to work Monday-Friday or some other pre-planned set of days. Whatever the case, set your work days and try to (mostly) stick to them. Leave days for rest. You need them, everyone does.
• Work hours–Define the hours that you will be working. I mentioned this in my previous post about boundaries in terms of helping you get others to respect the fact that you are working even when you’re at home. This is an important concept to mention here (again), for a different reason. Don’t feel that because you have the “luxury” of working from home that you have to work twice as many hours as everyone else you know–unless that work translates directly into money that is (and this is the key phrase here) worth your time. As someone who works from home, you should be looking for ways to get your job done faster and more efficiently to leave you time to work on other projects you’d like to pursue or just to relax.
• Availability–Don’t put yourself on call 24/7 unless it’s a necessary part of your job. If a client calls at 9 p.m. at night (and believe me, they’ll try!) and this is during your “off” hours, let it go to voice mail and get back with them during your working hours. If you work in a field where quick response time is necessary even after hours, set clear expectations of what is an immediate response type of situation. If you take calls in the middle of the night, or let a client treat little things (that could wait) like emergencies, they will. You set the tone–so set it. You’ll have no peace otherwise.
• Vacation–You may not have a bank of PTO if you are self-employed and working from home, but plan for an allotment of vacation time each year. My husband used to work at a company that bought back vacation days at the end of the year–as long as you’d taken 5 consecutive vacation days already. The company owner was smart, he understood that everyone needs some time away to unplug and recharge. It makes for more productive workers. Work-from-home people are no different. Ideally, you should be figuring out ways to snag yourself more days off while still maintaining a comfortable salary, not penalizing yourself.

I’ll see you next week, with another topic to help make you a better WAHM!