Of course not! However, you do need to differentiate between your ‘office is in your home’ versus you ‘live at the office’. … and you need both a home and an office. This may all sound like nonsense at this point but you will see what is meant by this. Everybody needs so much space, and how much space they need depends on what all they are doing there.
The problem with living at the office is that you become slightly obsessive about always working. There are good and bad elements in all things. Having an idea at 1:00am is a good thing, and you should take some kind of action as soon as possible after you have a bright idea, or you remember something that you either need to do or didn’t do.
However, if you have already worked more than 8-12 hours, you need to rest and totally remove yourself from your work at times, regularly. Just make a note to do it tomorrow. Shut the PC down, shut the door – somehow block it out lest you sneak back to work at all hours!
People who work at jobs and in careers definitely don’t usually want to ‘bring their work home’ with them, and it’s best not to; including emotional baggage and ‘normal’ stress that goes along with the whole routine of get to work, be at work and go home from work routine. Many work at home part-time, or partially ‘telecomute’ nowadays, and they also have the dreaded ‘day job’ to go to at times. Your routine can be varied somewhat. This might not be a bad idea.
At least the day job has a start and stop working point, and then they get to struggle in traffic for their ‘punishment for a job well-done’. The commute at least is a break from the actual work — if anything good can be said about all that chaos. When the end of the day comes, and they leave work, they can stop and don’t think about their job until the next day — so there are breaks in the routine. Not so when you work at home unless you make it part of your routine to start, stop and take breaks as a rule.
If you work too much you will begin to resent it sub-consciously, no matter how much you love doing what you do. Wait! What about all those images of people sitting out by their swimming pools with cocktails in the ‘hardly-work-from-home fast money ads’? It is said ‘some people work to live, and some live to work’ – either way it’s ok. However we need to balance everything just right – enough work and enough rest.
They say that when we sleep and rest that we cleanse our minds and it is definitely critical for our bodies to have rest, relaxation and sleep on a regular basis. There are theories and studies that say that people who take ‘cat naps’ are more efficient – sharper. To take naps, or at least shut our eyes for a few minutes is not slacking unless we are not getting our work done (and maybe it is because we are too tired). Best to take frequent short breaks to rest your brain, eyes, neck and arms — even sitting at your PC or desk for long periods is hard on your back, so better get up and stretch and walk around a bit if you can.
Get your circulation going. It’s the only way to stay on top of it! No excuse to stay home from work on a ‘sick day’ when you work at home either!
