No wait…let me explain
Forty minutes. For over eleven years, that was how long it took me to drive each way, to and from, the office. Traffic really wasn’t that awful from where I got on and off the highway, and there was something kind of nice working in downtown Saint Louis.
But yes, when I had to do it twice a day, five days a week, I complained like every one else. People drive like idiots when it’s rush hour, and on days when it’s raining…forget it. I mean, FORGET IT! It was like playing a video game, and not one of the fun ones.
And what’s with all the ladders and mattresses? It’s like there’s an entire population of people that sleep on the floor and are unable to clean their gutters now. What the hell, you guys?!
Well, today, I work from home.
I have been for just over a year. I know, sounds great, right? But actually…no wait, yeah actually it is great.
It can be tricky as you have to be smart about setting up boundaries between work and homelife, but it can be done. Being a one-man operation on a business venture skews the balance a little because a part of you is always kind of working, but yeah, it can be done.
Those 80 minutes I used to spend driving are now allocated to other things like getting my kids ready for school, exercising a little bit, handling other items on the to-do list, or getting a headstart on a busy work day.
My commute is now 15 seconds.
Yep. From the chair I’m sitting in right now to going upstairs to the kitchen is fifteen seconds. Flat. Nice, right? Yeah, it is…but a while back, I realized that after years of having forty minutes to “get on my game” on the way into work and forty minutes to “wind down” after work on my way home, I was having trouble completing either of those transitions in only fifteen seconds.
Here’s the deal. When I get upstairs, the door behind me isn’t even closed before I need to be dad to three awesome boys. It’s a great gig if you can get it, by the way. But just sixteen seconds earlier, I was head down on a pitch email, or a phone call, or checking in with a supplier, or brainstorming collaboration ideas with another business owner. Whatever.
Fifteen seconds can be a log time for a lot of things. Transitioning from business owner to dad is not one of those things.
Now, I’m not complaining…I promise.
I’ve heard of people that work from home that actually get in their cars…drive around for a while, and then come back home. A sort of manufactured commute. I guess you gotta do what you gotta do, but that seems excessive.
Recently, I’ve been trying to schedule my day accordingly, where the most immersive activities are towards the middle. It’s helped a ton. It allows me to ramp up in the morning while I’m working, and then wind down in the evening while I’m still wrapping things up. Some days, though, it just isn’t in the cards.
It’s weird to think now how important the commute was to my actual day when, at the time, I just saw it as an inconvenience. Working from home, it turns out, has its advantages and challenges like anything else.
But for right now, it’s pretty great. The more I think about it, a forty minute transition is hardly even needed anymore as there is very little difference – if any – between being an entrepreneur and a father. I mean for real, they’re pretty much the same thing.
Hmm…perhaps that’s a blog post for another day.
#bewhatyoumake
