The Live and Time of Thomas Asner

Working at home is a wonderful thing to do, but of course nothing is totally idyllic and there are always going to be some downsides to an otherwise perfect situation. So here are my opening shots at what working from home means to me and what I would love to improve but somehow just can't see it ever happening.

For starters, the one thing that makes working in your own office space inside your own home really so worthwhile is also one of its biggest disadvantages. I'm talking about time. When I first started out, I couldn't believe how much extra time I had clawed back from the days I used to commute regularly to a city office. All that time wasted in transit from home to office and back again was now mine to do with as I pleased and initially, i used it wisely to catch up on some much needed sleep!

Oh, you thought I was going to say "work" did you? Not so. I was always tired when I worked in the city office mainly because I had to get up so darn early in the morning to get there, so as soon as I had the opportunity to reclaim an extra two hours worth of slumber in the morning, I grabbed it with both eyelids! My working day still started at 9am and I felt great. At least for a while, anyway.

The problem was, I got used to sleeping in later and later and my start time slipped to 10am, then 11am and I found myself working later in the evenings to compensate. I also found myself eating at my desk, as well as snacking a lot more because it was too easy to do. So my weight began to increase and my fitness, which was never great to say the least, became almost non existent.

Soon, I was working into the night because I wasted so much time during the day procrastinating and my sleeping got worse and I ended up being every bit as tired as I used to be when I worked in the city. Something, I decided, had to be done.

That something consisted of a real self inflicted kick in the behind as I set out to drag my lethargic carcass out of bed earlier and start to get some exercise, along with working on managing my time better. But they are the subjects of further posts which I intend to add to this blog I have recently discovered I could write and will follow on as I find the time to write them.

Thom Asner