When do you sleep?!

[indigo_rose99]

In theory, when I had an ordinary office job, I worked 8am to 5pm. I had an hour off for lunch.  Once or twice a week I worked later than 5:30pm. I did not work weekends.

As a self-employed person, I typically had one work-related task at a time.  Many days, just an hour or two responding to an email or call.  The longer-term projects mostly work course development and I had plenty of time in advance of the class to polish.  Very low pressure. 

Now I have a traditional job.  Well, sorta.  More traditional than being self-employed.  There is no being "finished" at my job.  Or "caught up." There is always more and more tasks for me to work on. There are multiple layers of deadlines stretching out into the future.  I work through lunch, every evening, and either work chunks of time in the weekend or feel enormously stressed because I'm NOT working during the weekend.  Talking to my friends who telecommute, they say that I should either designate times (7am-4pm being my choice) or a limit of hours per day.  In conversation yesterday with an old friend who telecommuted for years, she suggested that if I keep at the pace I currently am, I will have an overwork meltdown.  There must be a balance, and I am not doing a good job of finding it currently.

I have been short of sleep for weeks.  Or what feels like weeks.  I have not had more than 6 hours in a night (8 is healthy for me, with at least 10 once a week to stay sane) in multiple weeks.  Mostly I am getting 4-5 hours of sleep every night.  I'm snapping at T.

So I slept in this morning.  I felt guilty, but...  T has conference calls tonight, which means I will (whether I slept in or not) be working while he is conference calling.  

I think this is a step toward that BALANCE thing.  Baby steps count, right?

Comments

baby steps

[fraeuleinchen.livejournal.com]

I think baby steps don't just count... they may be the only way to sustainably change behaviors!

Though I'm sorry to hear about your troubles with adjusting to the new gig, I was glad to read this update. Thanks for sharing your story/woes. Hope your baby steps carry you far!

[raaga123.livejournal.com]

Think of it this way -- if you work yourself to burnout, your employer will (essentially or literally) lose you, which isn't to their benefit either. So if you think about it, a good work ethic demands that you moderate your work ethic. ;-)

[tiger-stripes.livejournal.com]

This. Have a long term goal, but have baby steps along the way.

My work has ebbs (slow periods, like right now), and periods where I'm going to be working in the evenings too. Make sure there are certain times you aren't working so you don't burn out.

I was the same way at first, now I make sure I do the work. Do you have things that are project based? You're always going to have "ongoing" shit. That's common with any "normal" job. :)

[ovrclokd.livejournal.com]

i'm sorry you're finding the new situation so challenging! *hug* did you get my reply to the email discussion?

successful telecommuting is fundamentally about setting boundaries. the owners of those tasks and deadlines would be perfectly happy for you to work 24/7 to fulfill them; it's your responsibility to figure out how much you can comfortably and sustainably work, and let them know when their expectations cannot be met within that framework. this is not a failure-to-accomplish on your part! it's good communication about your bandwidth and availability.

you wouldn't be expected to work those hours if you were commuting in to a traditional workplace - or, if you would be, then something went horribly wrong during their job description process. :-/ the only difference with telecommuting is that the external societally-accepted boundaries between work & not-work time aren't present. you _must_ construct, communicate, and honor your own equivalent boundaries, or you'll get eaten up by other people taking advantage of their absence.

after 8 years, i occasionally still struggle with this myself... but overall, i've found a workable solution. if you want to chat (or vent, or pick my brain) about it, call me any time... *hug*

[indigo-rose99.livejournal.com]

I did get your email reply and have been thinking about it.

It isn't just the SETTING of boundaries, it is the accepting of them as "I've done enough for today." I feel like I need some sort of personal marker of "enough," and I have no idea what that is. Life with its irregular demands does not help.