Business Hours and the Home Office

Filed in archive management on May 9, 2008

© roland

I recently realized that although I have a thriving home business, I've never set down any official business hours. I do try and take at least one day a week off, but other than that I am pretty much always available to my clients. Since they are located all over, from Oregon to the island of Malta and everywhere in between, sometimes my business hours are a bit wacky. For example, 10am in Malta is 3am here in New York City! I've thought about setting down some concrete working hours, but I find leaving things open and flexible works best for me. What I do instead is set a list of goals for each day. Once those goals are complete, my workday is pretty much done, although I still check email regularly and respond to clients as needed. I've read several articles that state people who work from home have hard time turning off and leaving the office, since it's always there. I don't seem to have that problem, although I admit business is seldom far from my mind. I'm a compulsive planner and always looking ahead.

How do you handle your work day? Do you have set business hours or do are you flexible and free wheeling like me?