Real Work at Home Job
When my employer wanted me to start tracking my hours I was all for it. I know I work a ton of hours and I welcomed the chance to show that off a bit.
It wasn’t until I realized How I Worked that I had a problem tracking my time. I have a Real Work at Home Job and I usually get to make my own hours – and some times those hours come in the middle of the night. Other times my work hours mix with all the other hours.
Let’s take the implementation of one of our new sites.
I tell the boss “I’ll through a little something up then we’ll hash out what we want and what we need.”
I have the project basics and it’s a small project so there doesn’t need to be several long meeting for this one.
This is my day:
* Get girls off to school.
* Turn on laptop, download current version of software.
* I changed the name servers of the domain – that’s going to probably take 45 minutes, so I whip up a cake mix while I wait.
* I check every 10 minutes or so, but nothing.
* I create the database, then line the cupcake tin with papers.
* Check back, Great! Domain is pointing to hosting.
* Jump into cPanel and lock in that domain.
* I unzip the software, that only takes a second
* I start to FTP the software to the hosting – I pour batter into the papers and I’m able to get my second batch into the oven and wet laundry into the drier just as the upload finishes up.
* I install the software, setup the site, grab the second batch of cupcakes out of the oven, put information into the website and realize I’m missing a few things. I email the marketing director for the information ……….
I text message the marketing director ……..
* While I’m waiting I get the logo up, but the site doesn’t look quite right.
* I stare at the screen for a half hour with no inspiration.
* I turn on Amazon cloud for some music and start making frosting.
SUDDENLY in the middle of mixing up frosting it hits me! I need to remove the sidebar from the homepage – that will make all the difference!
* I leave the frosting mid mix, leap to the computer and start creating a custom template – now I’m in the zone. I code for 2 hours changing parts of the template. A quick run to the basement to put more wet wash into the drier then back up and I open Adobe Illustrator and start tweaking the logo.
It looks pretty good as I run out to meet the bus.
I get the girls in the house, a snack in front of them and answer the door when In Home Support arrives.
This is probably what we look like!
IHS starts therapy with my youngest daughter. My oldest daughter sits down to do her homework and I see that I have an email from the marketing director with the information I requested.
I start entering the information into the website, but I stop a half dozen times to grab a band-aid because IHS got a paper cut, find extra led for the mechanical pencils so my daughter can finish her homework, answer the phone, respond to text messages from work and my husband and turn on the Christmas lights.
I run down stairs and grab 2 baskets of laundry hoping one of them has clean PJ’s for the kids.
Get back up stairs to see an email from one of my bosses, his email isn’t working at home.
I answer that email hoping he remembers to check his phone for his email and then I start dinner.
I receive an email from the office, they have questions. I email them back as fast as possible because it’s almost time for them to leave.
This is how I feel!
I close the laptop as I put dinner on the table and we all sit down to eat.
After dinner the girls get showers and around 7:45 IHS leaves.
The girls are in bed at 8:30 and I open the laptop again and finish up the new site and email a link to the marketing director and my boss.
Then I start working on the upgrade for a main site ….. and before you ask ….. I couldn’t work on coding for the main site and the new site at the same time. There is not enough Adderall on the planet to initiate the focus needed to keep that much code straight in someones head. That is why I made cupcakes while installing and coding the new site – one project at a time and everything gets done.
I work for the next 4 hours without looking up from my laptop – and I realize I’ve worked all day, but I can’t log all those hours unless I’m log in and out each time I sit down and get up from the computer.
PLEASE NOTE: If I were at the office I would just be sitting there waiting for stuff to happen. I still wouldn’t be able to bounce from project to project because that would be far to confusing, but where at home I do mindless tasks during the wait time so my brain stays focused on work.
I’ve worked from 9 in the morning to midnight, but it’s hard to log more than 6 total hours – however, I’ve created an entire website – that looks pretty darn good by the way!
My boss is impressed. The marketing director is all excited. My kids loved the cupcakes, they are wearing clean PJs and I crawl into bed a little after midnight feeling very satisfied with my day – even though I don’t have the most impressive time sheet.
Some nights my youngest daughter wake up at 1am and jumps on her trampoline until 5am and I work then since I have to be awake while she’s awake. I work and check on her every so often, some times we have a little snack and then she goes back to jumping and I go back to work.
There are days that I sit down and work for 6 straight hours, but many times my job requires that I wait for something to upload, download or format and if I switch to another project than all my focus must be on THAT project, meaning the current project gets put to the side. If I did that nothing would ever get done.
So while I wait, I do mindless house work, or call the school, or email my bosses long boring detailed messages that I know put them to sleep. At the end of the day everything gets done, except the laundry – it never gets folded.