You have to get out of the house.
This isn’t a horror story, I guess.
I know this may seem like an obvious thing to say but believe me, when you stay in the house all the time you go nuts.
You need to get out into the fresh, or maybe not so fresh air every once in a while. I understand you may like your house, it’s where you keep all your toilet roll and scarves but believe me when I say:
You have to get out of the house.
I don’t really ever want to go into work. Sadly, if I want to keep the lights on and my belly full it’s a place I got to go to. I don’t have the option of working from home. I work in the service industry. Specifically, I’m a manager at a cinema. Now I could work from home, but I don’t think they’d like it too much. In fact, it would probably be looked at as a conflict of interests.
Are you a person who has the option to work from home? That’s good, are you going to take them up on that offer or do you work for yourself? Before you take them up on the proposal, have a little consideration.
I live in a semi-detached house. When I first moved in I was like this is excellent. It’s not too far from my “proper job” at the cinema, and I can work on writing and blogging at home. Sor to the ted.
This did not turn out the way I intended. My “office” was in my room. Instead of being the diligent little worker, I expected myself to be I would avoid the work. I would get up late then immediately leave the room to avoid work. It also affected my sleep. My justification was that it didn’t matter because I could work wherever I wanted, so I would put it off. Working whenever I wanted meant I didn’t.
That wasn’t the last straw, though.
Do you wanna know what the last straw was?
It’s a bit gossipy, you’ll think I’m not a good person.
The last straw was my neighbours.
I’m not being a tattle-tale, but on the few occasions, I did make use of the workspace in my room they made it difficult.
How?
By continually screaming and shouting at each other. These two have kids as well. I think they only had kids because they were running out of things to shout at each other about. Now with kids, they have a whole new world to yell at them about.
“PUT THAT DOOOWWWWNNNNNN!!!!!”
I hope they put it down.
Here’s the thing the kids are good as gold. On rare occasions, I see them, and they’re not having their heads chewed off, they are polite and cordial.
The parents are turning the kids into yaps. Which means the frequency and the decibel level is going up and up and up.
Anyway, I’m digressing, let’s focus on the real victim here:
Me.
It was affecting my work, don’t they know I have to write 300 words about a dog that vacuums a space station?
World-changing stuff.
You wanna know the kicker?
Both parents work from home.
I was like, “Is this the ghost of Christmas yet to come?”
I viewed it as a sign and thought to myself, Kieran, you have to get out of the house.
There was a part of me wanting to tell them, “You have to get out of the house,”. Then again but who am I to judge (disregard all the prior judging I did).
I found an office to rent, have been here for a year and my productivity goes up. There’s no part of me worried about people checking up on me or external distractions. The office is for work and work only.
I’ll be honest, the guy at the desk beside me has tried talking to me a few times. He’s taken the hint to not bother. This office is a sacred space for me. I’m here to work, and you are too.
You can work from home, maybe you have an actual office, a sacrosanct quiet place people know not to disturb you in. If so good for you.
You can have your work and home mix together and resent home because you associate it with work.
Or you can rent some office space and have a dedicated area to work.
Either way, you have to get out of the house.
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Thank you and have a great day,
Kieran
