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How do I balance home/work life as an at-home MT?

Posted: Jan 10, 2015

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

;

Treat it like the job that it is. - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
Where you do the job is irrelevant ... it is a JOB and you have to treat it like one.

If you worked on-site, you would be expected to get your work done in your 8-hour tour. Nothing changes because you work at home.

Assign yourself working hours, shut your office door, and work. Get the work done in those hours.

Working at home requires the ability to self-monitor or self-supervise. How to do that is not something everyone just knows. If you can't contain your work now, you might not have had to do this before. Try putting yourself in a supervisor's shoes. What would you do about an employee who was at work 16 hours a day to get 6 or 8 hours of work done?

I see your point - runningoutoftime

[ In Reply To ..]
I am extremely productive when I work outside, but I do allow myself to sometimes get distracted at home, working an hour or two at a time.

Please see message - Anon

[ In Reply To ..]
As simple as it sounds, when your work shift is over, turn off your work computer, shut the door to your office and don't go back in there. I also believe that some people just cannot work from home. My husband is one of them. I never had a problem working from home. I never turned on the TV during work hours and had no problem focusing. When my shift was over, I didn't give my job another thought. I don't mean any of this in a negative way. My husband is very smart and is a very hard worker, but he just could not focus when working from home (loves to watch TV) and could not separate work from home life. If I am understanding your question correctly, I think the most important thing for you to do is to work only your shift. When your shift is done, that is your family time.

Thank you... - runningoutoftime

[ In Reply To ..]
I also sometimes have trouble focusing, and when I'm at home it seems like there is so much to take care of, that I allow it to interfere with my work. I need to figure out a way to keep it separate in the time I have left working at home.

I have always struggled with this - and finally left MT all together.

[ In Reply To ..]
I have been an MT for over 17 years and I did well in the beginning because my kids were little and I had to work when I could so I could take care of them. so I typed really fast and furious and got my work done pretty well. Now that they are grown and adults I started struggling terribly with working at home. One, because I was extremely burnt out doing this work. Two, it is very hard for me to focus because I was so bored doing the work and I would rather do household chores, cook, etc instead of typing. I always felt like a failure because I couldn't balance life and MT work. I finally got out of doing MT work and work outside the home part-time and have a new life that I just love!! When I was at home, the best thing that worked for me was putting a timer by my desk and I would not get up, check an email, go on the internet unless I was researching something I was typing. It seemed to be the best "babysitter" if you will that worked for me. In reality it was time for me to get out of transcription. It was always a struggle to stay focused for a long time and just wasn't a good fit anymore. Not everyone can be so disciplined to work at home or sometimes it's just time to move on. Personally I felt like life was passing me by sitting in a chair all day and that was seriously depressing. I have a purpose now everyday and couldn't be happier. I wish I would have gotten out of MT a long time ago to be honest. But if this is the thing for you, you have to find something and force yourself to sit and work. You'd be surprised if you actually sat and worked for an hour how much you can get done! Maybe play a game with yourself, after an hour, I get to do this or that, or how many lines can I type this hour and try to beat that. It's all about disciplining yourself and doing something you don't want to do. Good luck with that. It's not easy...I know!!

When I have a really hard time focusing... - clyde

[ In Reply To ..]
I put a chair in the corner of the room and pretend that it's my boss, sitting there watching me work.

The other advise you've gotten is excellent. Work your hours, then turn off your computer and close your office door and don't think about it until your next shift. That's what works for me too.

I also don't have a landline, just my cell phone. It's a MotoX and has a feature called Assist. It allows me to put into my phone that I'm working (they call it in a meeting) and when it's set to that mode (I have it automatically scheduled to turn on and off at the start/end of my shift) no calls go through to me unless they are my "starred" contacts (my kids, their schools, work). You can also set that feature so if somebody calls back twice in 5 minutes that it'll let the call go through to you.

home/work life - Jackie

[ In Reply To ..]
Balance as you would with any job. When you are working, you are working, do not disturb. When you are doing home life, no working. You cannot mix being an MT and watching the kids in the yard or making lunch and changing diapers if you want to make money. Every interruption takes 15 minutes more to get your mind back into your work totally. So, the choice is yours: are you working or are you home? Did you "buy into" the fallacy you can make money as an MT while taking care of laundry, the pets, the kids, your mother-in-law on the phone? It is a career. Treat it as such.

Agree completely - runningoutoftime

[ In Reply To ..]
Love the advice, and it makes sense. When I'm working, focus only on working. When I'm not working, don't be tempted to do a report here or there. I've been working as a medical transcriptionist for about 20 years. I didn't fall into it thinking or knowing I would ever work at home. Unfortunately, that happened due to outsourcing at a hospital I loved. I trained while in high school at a technical school and by interning and on-the-job training. I am hoping to get out of it sometime soon. Thanks again for the advice.

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