Homing from work – What personal tasks Are OK/Good to Do At Work?
There was an fascinating article in Greedy Associates a few months back about “homing from work” — trying to accomplish work/life balance by getting personal tasks done during the day. I hadn’t heard the phrase before, however it’s obviously something I did while working long hours at the legislation firm, as well as something I’ve advised people to do (to specific degrees) when, for example, advising people to try to in shape social gos to with buddies into breakfast or lunch Camiseta Selección de fútbol de Corea del Sur dates, getting a midday workout in, or even keeping a recurring visit (therapy, personal trainer) or a regular doctor’s appointment. Still, other times I’ve advised people to prevent doing things at work (for example, not having long wedding event planning phone calls at the office), either since it’s unprofessional or it’s poor for work/life separation. So I believed we’d discuss: what do you believe are things that are appropriate to do at the office? What are the things that are almost finest to do at the office as well as make you more productive as well as happy, as well as which are things that are acceptable — however just barely? What are the things that are “hard NOs” in terms of homing from work? My own listing may look like this, I suppose:
Productive personal things:
Doctors visits (no other time to do them, really)
Anything that can be accomplished within 60 minutes between the hours of 11-2 (your “lunch hour” — a mid day workout, a walk or lunch date with friends, going to the drugstore to pick things up, a manicure, Camiseta CF Monterrey a blowout, etc.)
Anything that can be confined to a 10-minute period at any type of point in the day (reading a news story or blog or two, inspecting Facebook, buying an on the internet sale, personal research, etc. — the issue is getting sucked into something longer than 10 minutes!) (Are things that make you more productive at work — yet are personal in nature — in a different classification entirely? everybody needs a mental break at some point from your job. Do 20-minute power naps in shape in this list?)
Other acceptable personal things, within reason:
Quick telephone phone calls or in-person meetings with people connected with other non-work areas of your life — wedding event vendors, alumni mentoring, the nanny, etc… I’d state these ended up being more acceptable if you can do your task while speaking or taking the meeting. For example, believe of the old stereotype of the wall street baron barking orders into a cell phone while his tailor is there fitting him for his expensive, bespoke suit. (This is an fascinating example anyways since it pleads the concern — do the rules modification if you’re an underling working 20 hour days versus if you’re a manager working 20 hour days?)
Career-related advancement (networking lunches, events, mentoring, etc) — it usually will not be associated Camiseta SSC Napoli to your task however frequently makes the most sense during working hours
On the occasional basis, anything that gets you to work no later than 60 minutes after your usual arrival time (appointment, breakfast with a friend, etc) or takes you away from work no earlier than 60 minutes before your usual departure time (leaving early to catch a flight, seeing your kid’s play, making up a missed personal training appointment, etc.).
Unacceptable personal things to do at work:
I have the hardest time with this list, in big part since it depends upon your office, exactly how you work, as well as what your manager views as acceptable. For example, if you’re working almost every weekend, most nights, into some early morning hours… stuff’s got to get done sometime. When I was in this zone, I tried to keep the general concept that, as long as my billables were ok, if I occurred to be at the office when I was doing something personal (or, was doing something personal that I might have done on a night/weekend when I had chosen/been needed instead to work) then it was OK. however if you switch to a 9-5 type of office — even if you’re still working evenings as well as weekends since of exactly how you work — then you may discover yourself with a much longer listing of “unacceptable” personal tasks, since your manager may view them as much less acceptable.
Readers, what are your thoughts? are there any type of “hard nos” on personal tasks at the office? Does your listing of “things that are more effective during the workweek/make you more productive at work” look different than mine? What house tasks do you do at work?
Pictured above: Paper clip heap, originally uploaded to Flickr by Niki Odolphie.