I worked from home today. There’s a lot that people don’t tell you about working from home. People think that it’s all fuzzy slippers, tv watching and couch sitting, but it’s actually a lot more taxing than that. Because here’s the thing about working from home – you actually do a lot more work than you would in the office. I know that I had heard this before, but now that I have done it on occasion, I can verify that it is very true. They say that interruptions can cost us up to six hours in a work day. You only need one day away from the office to understand that six hours may even be an underestimate.
According to this story, interruptions are tolerated because:
- People honestly don’t realize how costly and insidious interruptions are.
- They don’t know how to curtail interruptions in a professional way.
When I read the word insidious I practically cheered out loud in my empty apartment because it is just so perfectly suited to interruptions at work.
But I digress.
I had to be home to get some work done around the house today so I made the most of it (i.e. didn’t burn a vacation day) by working from home. But by late in the afternoon, I was ready to break free. It’s certainly a luxury to call your dining room a temporary office, but even a pseudo-office is still the office and one can’t survive on work alone.
So, I hopped on the boat.
Right below where we live, a five minute walk away, there’s a boat they call The Q to Q Ferry. The Qs are The Quay (our side) and Queensborough (my friend Cara’s side) and the boat runs every 15-30 minutes going back and forth between sides. This is the first summer of service all week – last year’s pilot project ran only on weekends – and I’m hopeful that it has been successful because it’s super convenient for visiting. Even if you just want to get out on the water, where else can you go for a $2 boat ride, hmmm?
So, I went to visit Cara and we had a little visit, she loaded me up with homemade baked goods and then I came back home.
Once I had a little breather and came back home, I did the one thing that had been nagging me all. day. long. I made blueberry jalapeño jam. ????
I also forgot to eat dinner.
So I had cookies instead.
And then I worked some more.
Working from home ain’t as glorious as they make it out to be, kids. Sigh.
