I work from home. I know, you’re saying, we’re academics, we *all* work from home. True, but my paying job is also remote. I moved to a work-from-home situation formally in March of 2020 when the pandemic hit, but I often worked from home or in spaces other than the office before that because my employer was flexible with my school and teaching schedule. This meant that I often completed mind-numbing data entry late at night while watching tv or organized digital documents late at night while watching tv (yes, there’s a trend here). This meant that I wasn’t trying to do these things in the office while others were adding to my pile of work to do or asking for help. It also meant I could fit more work into a day than regular office hours allow and didn’t have to try to do important writing tasks late at night when my brain was mush.
When I first switched to working from home, I was prolific! I mean, I ignored my dissertation of course, but I worked more hours at my office job than I ever had when I went to the office *and* I produced more than I normally did in that time. I was really enjoying what I was doing as well. With the move to remote working came a switch in my duties which offered me some freedom to explore some of the more organizational aspects of corporate work while also increasing my participation in technology, employee training, and marketing conversations. All of this meant that I was very keen to work as many hours as my employer was willing to pay.
At the same time, I was completing the academic semester and “working” on helping my students through completing their course assignments, followed by grading those assignments, and various administrative duties. This work was also engaging! Students who barely spoke in tutorials, were suddenly appearing at Zoom office hours and engaging in every online space I had set up for them. I felt a connection to my students that I’d been missing for the past 10 months in person.
Finally, I was working on some ongoing writing projects. Yes, the dissertation was nominally one of those, but I also had a few ongoing articles and delayed presentations I had to get through. In addition to the actual writing of these items, I was also working on rereading research and notes that I hadn’t touched in a while and trying to set out a new schedule for completing the work of my dissertation.
These various types of work had and have their various pros and cons but they *are* all work. Having been a student or aligned with different levels of education for years (and years), I know that we often have a hard time thinking about certain types of activities that we perform as work. Part of this is, of course, because we’ve been trained not to think of it in that way – often because it is devalued in comparison to other types of work, but also so that others can take advantage of those in lower positions to reduce their own workload.
Since beginning to work from home full time in March 2020, I’ve tried many different schedules, tried different ways of working, and organized both my space and my daily routine many times. I still don’t have a perfect way of doing things and my days often get derailed which frustrates me and I occasionally think that’s due to my inability to keep home and work separate. Then I remember that, as I mentioned above, working in the office was just as disruptive to my daily schedule. Travelling to and from school or office was a major disruption to my day. Several important interruptions at school would change my daily routine as well. When I consider my work-from-home daily schedule, I can see that it is generally much less distracted than my in-person working situations have ever been.
I have since quit working quite so prolifically at my office job for many reasons, but one main reason is because it wasn’t as much fun and felt like I was spinning my wheels. This is *mostly* due to the employer rather than the remote working situation. I find that I am increasingly making very clear distinctions between “work” and “not work.” It is more difficult to stop myself from thinking about work, but I have actively (due to a dead MacBook), divided my “work” and “non-work” digital spaces as well as the physical spaces. I have an office space with a desktop computer. I have other non-office spaces where I can engage with my tablet or phone. I try to ignore work-related emails (whether school “work” or office “work”) unless I am sitting in my office space. I make use of apps to shut down notifications when I am working on something important so I won’t be interrupted. I have others I use when I’m painting, drawing, or crafting in some other way and don’t want “work” to interrupt.
While it’s important to remember that all these activities we perform are “work,” the beauty of working from home (or having a flexible schedule), is that you can tailor it to your needs and working abilities. Other than when you must be available to colleagues (meetings or possible check-in times), scheduling your work around times when you can go for a walk to wake your brain up or rearranging your different types of work to best suit your energy levels, is one of the benefits of working from home. The problem arises when there is no separation between “work” and “non-work” or when all your time becomes “non-work” time – I’m told that is either childhood or retirement!
An Aca-Geek Girl Speaks 