Negotiating The Work Life Balance:Building A Home Office

It’s a difficult process trying to juggle your family life and your career, even more so when you’re trying to run your own business or you work in a position of superiority. Having to manage your own workload and then monitor that of those working alongside or under you presents its own challenges and the process becomes even more complicated when you’re trying to catch up at home in the evenings with children running around your feet and partners wanting to go to the supermarket, watch the football or to take the kids to an after school activity.

Most of the problems associated with working from home aren’t to do with the kids or our partners though, they’re down to our motivation, concentration and attention spans. When we’re at work, we’re ‘in the zone’ and the moment we walk out of the door, we’re in personal mode again and ready to get home and relax. When that down time is compromised by work that has to be done for whatever reason, either ahead of an important presentation, the end of month reports or just because you’re running behind; it can be difficult to get into ‘professional mode’ in your own living room with the laptop on your knee.

Many homeowners will try to turn a small area of the house, or even a whole room, into a home office to allow them to close the door and focus on whatever it is they need to be doing; but the distractions of home life are often too great. Before you know it, and completely innocently, the kids are knocking on the door asking questions or wanting something or dinner is on the table and you have to stop what you’re doing, (or work at your desk, which means you’re not concentrating).

One popular solution, however, is to convert the garden shed into a form of work space outside the home so that you’re away from the distractions of television and family and you can focus solely on the job at hand. There are all kinds of log cabins or garden sheds from Garden Buildings Direct that can be built with this in mind, and in many cases it is better to buy a new building rather than convert your existing shed because you can design the inside with working in mind rather than trying to work through the sight of stained wood or the smell of paint and creosote.

They’re not just ideal for people who are working in the evenings or ‘remotely’ when they decide to work from home for the day, garden buildings can be used as full-time offices and many of the largest names in world business have started out from humble surroundings just like converted sheds and log cabins. For example, the world famous motorcycle manufacturer Harley Davidson started out when William Harley and Arthur Davidson met back in 1901, and the pair started to build their first bike in Arthur’s dad’s shed in their back garden in Arizona. There are similar stories throughout business – everyone has to start somewhere, after all.

So while it may be difficult to negotiate the work-life balance at times, or to concentrate with the television on in the background while you’re trying to work – it can be done. Switch off the television, steer clear of social networking sites and turn off your mobile phone, but you’ll still find someone going to the bathroom, the smell of dinner wafting up the stairs or the inevitable questions. With a purpose-built home office out in the garden, you can have your own private office in the peace and tranquility of the garden.