Making time for what's important

As I find my bearings working from home, I am realizing that maintaining my priorities is proving more difficult than I anticipated. Just as I have been for the last 30 years, I am still my own boss. However, going to the office each day helped me define my work life and the rest of my life. These days it is too easy to return to my writing desk after dinner, again after my evening walk, and again before going to bed. It used to be that I would sit by the fire in the winter. It used to be that I would sit on the patio in the summer. It used to be that I would sit in my chair and read a book for pleasure. I have discovered that since I began working from home these priorities have suffered.

Working from home requires discipline. Of course, there is the discipline to begin, but there is also the discipline to stop. For me, the latter is more difficult.

Knowing that the office work day ended at five o'clock provided the accountability I needed to tend to my priorities. As simple as it sounds, I am finding that the antidote to my priority dilemma is to set a well defined quitting time. For me, quitting time is signaled by the dinner hour. Once it is time to cook dinner, it is also time to shut down my work life and returned to real life.

The risks for failing to manage my priorities are profound. All of the things I used to do included my wife, but there is only one chair in my home study.

How are you managing your priorities?