What happens when you tell someone you work from home? What reaction do you get? If they consider your work-at-home status an early retirement, you understand the need telecommuters have to justify their at-home existence. May 
of us have a hard time convincing friends and family working from home is a legitimate career option. Squash assumptions that you’re lazy or watching soaps by using these tips to help others understand you really do work at home.
of us have a hard time convincing friends and family working from home is a legitimate career option. Squash assumptions that you’re lazy or watching soaps by using these tips to help others understand you really do work at home.Get Dressed for Work
Alright, I know what you’re gonna say, “Tess, I took a work at home job so I could ditch the corporate clothes.” I hear ya, but if you don’t want friends and family to treat you like you lounge in bed all day, don’t dress like it.
While your telecommute dress code doesn’t have to encompass a suit and tie or pencil skirt and heels, it also shouldn’t consist of uncombed hair and the same pair pajamas you’ve been sporting for two days. Take a little time in the morning to clean yourself up. Take a shower, brush your teeth and hair, and put on clean, casual clothes. Trust me, doing this will signal you’re “going to work,” even though you’re not leaving home.
Establish a Routine
Despite its rigidity and monotony, working in a traditional office gives employees a structured day. You should have the same disciplined schedule at home. Creating a daily routine similar to one you would find in out-of-home job will keep you on pace and set boundaries between your work and personal lives. Include the following in your daily schedule:
• Getting ready time: Give yourself time to get up, shower, get dressed and eat a nutritious breakfast
• Start time: Begin your work on the hour to avoid checking social media updates or browsing the Web
• Break time: Schedule strategic five to 10 minute breaks to stretch your legs, check in with loved ones, read Facebook, or browse The Onion. Check out Lainie’s post on the Pomodoro Time Management Technique.
• Lunch time: I know this one is hard. Resist the temptation to eat those leftovers in front of the computer. Use this hour for actual eating instead of errand running or working.
• Ending time: Give yourself a concrete cutoff point to your workday, shut down your computer, and resist the urge to do “just one more thing”
Train Your Friends and Family
Forget training a dragon, work on your family and friends. Reinforce your routine by teaching others your schedule. Treat your loved ones like Pavlov’s dogs, butreplace the ringing bell with a big fat “NO!” to their work time requests and invitations. No matter how much you want to join your BFFs for Happy Hour, don’t break from your schedule and fall into a telecommute trap that will jeopardize your productivity, performance, and position. Avoid the following:
• Taking calls from your SO outside your scheduled breaks
• Agreeing to drop off or pick up the kids during your allotted work time
• Leaving home to run errands
• Using work hours to do laundry or other household chores
• Answering instant messages, social media requests, or texts from friends while working
• Agreeing to drop off or pick up the kids during your allotted work time
• Leaving home to run errands
• Using work hours to do laundry or other household chores
• Answering instant messages, social media requests, or texts from friends while working
Prove Your Personal Time
Most people rush to punch the clock and leave work for the day, but when you work-from-home, that desk haunts you. And it isn’t as friendly as Casper.
Telecommuting is a gnarly trap for working extended hours, weekends, and holidays. If you don’t watch yourself, you will end up working so much your loved ones may feel neglected, or question if you really are working so much and not just wasting away the hours on Farmville. If you show your family and friends your personal time is just as valuable as your work time, they be more willing to respect your work. Demonstratethat you value your personal time in these ways:
• Schedule at least one day off per week
• Make time for vacation
• Learn to say no to or renegotiate special client projects
• Don’t work when you say you won’t
• Turn off your computer at the end of your work day
• Make time for vacation
• Learn to say no to or renegotiate special client projects
• Don’t work when you say you won’t
• Turn off your computer at the end of your work day
Publish Your Schedule
Sometimes seeing is believing.The best way to prove to your friends and family that you really work from home could be as simple as documenting your schedule of weekly activities. 
Print a list that you can stick to your fridge or memo board, or share your schedule with your family via email. Make updates to your schedule as your demands change so that your family can stay abreast of your work week, and highlight times when loved ones can contact you throughout the day. Keeping your family in the loop will prevent everyone from going loopy.
Print a list that you can stick to your fridge or memo board, or share your schedule with your family via email. Make updates to your schedule as your demands change so that your family can stay abreast of your work week, and highlight times when loved ones can contact you throughout the day. Keeping your family in the loop will prevent everyone from going loopy.
Has it been difficult for you to convince your friends and family that you really do work from home? How did you work through it, or is it still a work in progress?
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