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Working at home is a lot of fun, rather like having a tooth pulled is a great way to lose some weight. While it is nice to be able to work whenever inspiration strikes — or chase your deadlines to their final moments — it’s also a bit of a pain to always have your work be right there, staring at you and demanding to be done.
The problem with having your office at home is that there will always be more work to do. If you aren’t careful, you’ll quickly find yourself working constantly and never taking time to do anything else. This is great if you want to retire in a hurry, but if that isn’t your goal the entire thing can lead to a serious case of burnout. If you get too burned out, you tend to see your life as nothing but a nonstop work week.
One thing about having a home office that really works is to have your technology be subservient to your life. You need to keep yourself from being the slave of your latest instant message or phone call at 3 am. You need to establish a schedule that works for you and stick to it, or your work-life balance is going to look more like a work-work-work-work-something balance. This is seriously dangerous unless you want to start hating your life in a hurry. If you value the life you’ve been living, you have to make sure you know when to disconnect from work.
