​Office workers clock out at the end of the day. You should, too.

Read the intro to the "Work From Home Tips" series here.

It took a year into my career to start telling my peers that "I would give up my left leg" for some time off of work. Less than two years later, I burnt out pretty badly, and it took a good year to recover.  

What happened? I was in the "Do what you love and you never stop working" phase of my dream job. Most days I spent time Monday through Friday working on freelance work, only to work on my webcomic on the weekend. I did my best to not do any work on Sundays, but there's a certain energy when your home is also your place of work. The way I saw it, it's not that I worked at home, but I lived at my place of work. There was no boundary between work and leisure time. 

Around the time I burnt out, I distinctly remember reading tweets from fellow comic artists who had day jobs and did comics on the side. They couldn't wait leave work to go home and make comics. As a career comic artist, one would think my reaction would be pity. Instead, I was jealous. The opportunity to leave a place of work behind to go home and not worry about work for the rest of the day--and on weekends (!)--seemed like a dream.

Of course, it didn't have to be a dream. I just had to set up boundaries. I had to adapt the concept of clocking in and out of the office to a home office setting. The luxury here is that this concept can be extremely flexible. After all, when you work from home, you're your own boss. That being said, finding out what works requires a ton of trial and error. 

Many people who work from home maintain a regular 9 - 5 workday. The second 9 o'clock rolls around, they must be at their desk working. Once noon hits, it's time for lunch. There are probably a couple of 10 minute breaks in the day, but once 5 o'clock hits, progress is saved and work is done for the day. On Friday afternoon, work isn't revisited until Monday at 9, sharp. Whatever your daily schedule is, when the time has come to stop working, you stop working. No ifs, ands, or buts. We'll discuss schedules, time management, and what to do when a deadline is looming in the next post. 

The work day is over. You're free to do as you please! So now what? If you're not already out of the office, leave--at least your desk or general area, if your living situation allows. I understand that this can be difficult, especially with social media and YouTube videos calling your name. However, ending the day in my opinion not only comes with time, but in physical space. Go to a place you associate with free time. For me, this is my living room, my backyard, or my painting desk in the office. The more time away from the desk during your time off, the better. I think it's even fine to come back to the work space after doing something else, it just has to happen after your mind and body understands that the work day is over. 

If you're like me, finding things to do in your free time is difficult. The urge to work is strong, and it's always on the mind. I touched upon this dilemma for myself in this post about how I discovered painting to be my favorite free time activity. As I said earlier in this post, my webcomic was my free time activity for a very, very long time. However, this was extremely flawed, because I did comics for my day job. Yes, there is something magical about making your own work, but essentially I was doing the same thing. The good news is that, at the time, I made enough on my webcomic to incorporate it into my regular work hours, and it has remained since. However, even if I wasn't being paid, I would still treat my webcomic as my job, since it requires a regular schedule. 

If you already have a favorite activity that has little to do with work, you're already way ahead! If not, as I said in the post, look into your interests. If they take you outdoors, even better. 

Working from home is an endless experiment, and hopefully these tips have been giving you ideas on how to improve your work life. 

 

Do your best to have a dedicated, comfortable home office space.

Read the intro to the "Work From Home Tips" series here.

It would be nice if we all could have the office of our dreams, of course, but sometimes you have limitations. Maybe you still live with your parents, share the office space with a partner or room mates, or maybe you just don't have the cash or space to make your office as cool as you'd like. I've been at all of these places at some point, so my own philosophy is doing the best you can with what you have. 

When I was recovering from burn-out, I remember waking up from an afternoon nap absolutely dreading to get back into the office. I took a mental step back and thought, "why?" and came to the conclusion that the office space I had was cramped, as it was in a 10' x 10' bedroom in my house, and I shared it with my partner. Our bedroom, meanwhile, was 15' x 15', nearly twice as much floor space, as is typical for a master bedroom in Southern California. We decided to swap the rooms and we both have found more enjoyment in both our office space and our work. 

Not everyone has the ability to swap whole rooms like this, but I'm still a firm believer that less-than-ideal spaces can be made more ideal. Take a good look at your office space. Is it uncomfortable somehow? What could you do with what you have to make it better? Even small things, like rearranging furniture, displaying a plant or a beloved collectible, or a keyboard pad can make your space better. And if you can afford it, nicer furniture like a high quality chair is worth the investment. A tip: if you want high quality office furniture on a budget, look for used office furniture liquidator. They often get furniture from businesses that move or shut down, and you can get your hands on a used Steelcase or a Herman Miller office chair for a fraction of the cost.

​I acknowledge a lot of this stuff sounds extremely obvious, but some may not believe the investment or care of an office space is worth it.  I'm giving you permission to invest in your space, whether with money or time. Your work will be better as a result. 

Another thing to make an office space enjoyable is keeping it tidy. It is certainly a task easier said than done, but I can summarize how this is best done:

• ​Only keep tools you use every day and only your favorite decorations on your desk. Store everything else. Other than computer equipment, I keep my Nintendo Switch, my favorite teacup, three potted plants, a notebook and pen, a rock, a little Spyro the Dragon figure, and a small model airplane on my desk. Other people will have less or more, and it's up to you to find what items on your desk makes you happy and do your best work. I know people who love having nothing at all on their desk, and I know people who love having their entire figurine and comic collection proudly displayed near their computer. Both are valid.
• Keep like things with like things. This is a very basic organization principle, but it took me an absurd amount of time to learn. On my desk, my top drawer has pens, paper pads, and other miscellaneous office supplies. Below that, is a drawer with art supplies that aren't paints, brushes, pencils, nor pens, which are below that. Below that, my paints and art paper pads. Below that, are electronic accessories. The few paper material I have are in vertical paper dividers (which you can easily make out of cereal boxes) on a bookshelf behind the desk. Merchandise and convention supplies are organized in similar ways in the closet. I used to store art supplies both in my office, garage, guest room, and even the bathroom at some point (don't ask.) Now, all art supplies are in my office drawers, so I know where they are if I'm looking for something, and not in one of those other areas.  
• Don't keep things you don't like or need. Essentially, the "Konmari" method. It's definitely worth looking into her ideas, as they've changed me to be more organized and only keep what I love or need--not just with office supplies, but with basically everything, really. The best part about this principle is the fewer stuff you have, the less you have to deal with and maintain, which means more time available for other things.

Next week, I'll talk about the idea of clocking in and out at home. 

This was a subject I've been thinking about writing for a while now, but because I spent most of my online time on twitter, I didn't really know of a good way to share what I've discovered of working from home. Being several weeks into COVID-19, it's little bit late to be topical, but folks will always start the journey of working from home regardless.

Disclaimer before I go further with this intro, this is mostly stuff I wish I read when I was leaving college and starting my career in comics working from home. I know some of these tips don't work for everyone but I hold the belief that every piece of advice is worth listening to--implementing is another story, but that's a different topic for another day.

Going back to working from home, I'll start with bit of a background: I've been working from home since I was on my way out of University in 2015. My internship was even done at home. At first, I didn't really have a schedule that I stuck to, and I often waited until the last minute to get things done before their deadline. Each week, I would promise myself to work better, but that didn't happen for a while. After almost three years, my bad habits caught up to me and I burnt out, hard. I was starting to dislike my job to the point where I was jealous of people with day jobs. They were able to go home and not be concerned with work for the rest of the day. I also remember telling people--quite frequently--that I would give my left leg for a week off.  "Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life" quickly turned into "Do what you love and you never stop working." 

When I burnt out, I took a long, hard look at my career. I was working the job of my dreams. How could I possibly hate it? Am I in the wrong field? That was my worst fear: that I worked so hard on this thing I thought I loved, only to hate it. I thought about every opportunity that I turned down in order to pursue my field, and worried I made the wrong choice each time. 

Thankfully, I had the resources (namely, the emotional and financial support of my significant other--so I acknowledge that I'm in a relatively privileged position) to take a few steps back and figure out what I needed to do to make my job a joy again. It took me roughly a year and a half to get to where I am today. I have a routine that allows me have equilibrium with work and rest. 

Here are the three main ideas that made me love my job again, all of which I'll make a separate post in the upcoming weeks (and will link as they are posted in the next upcoming Fridays). 

• A joyful work space
• Clocking in and clocking out
• Dedicated work hours for productivity and improvement

To quickly summarize these, I firmly believe you cannot work well unless your space, using Marie Kondo's terminology, 'sparks joy'. If the idea of sitting down at your desk fills you with dread, it's possible something about your space could be improved. Improving your physical space improves your work. 

Office workers clock in and clock out. That shouldn't change just because you work from home. It is important to have a routine to start work, but it's even more important to stop work--both regarding the end of the work day and weekends. It is so easy both procrastinate starting work and get so caught up in it, you don't stop. After a certain amount of time is over, work for the day must end. This is especially difficult if your job is your dream job--the work is so much fun you almost don't want to stop. Stopping is not only important for your mental and physical health, it's also important to step away from your work.

Organizing what you do each day is also important, and the most recent discovery of mine regarding my career. Time dedicated to "career maintenance/improvement" is just as important as the time you put into your main gig. 

By now, you can probably see why I'm splitting this subject into multiple posts, so this concludes the topic for this week.