How To Get People To Respect Your Work From Home Hours

You may be thinking you’re alone in this situation… But you’re really not. It’s MUCH more common than you’d expect.

What I’m talking about here are situations in which someone either works from home for someone else, or they work on their own business. When it’s the latter… people will respect your work hours even less.

Is this you?

Are you trying to be productive while working from home and getting interrupted by calls from your friends asking you to hang out, or maybe your family members asking you to pick up their laundry because “you’re home and you can get it”?

Don’t feel bad about this situation. You simply haven’t dealt with it correctly yet, that’s all.

If this is a problem for you, I’m going to assume you’re a nice person who cares about other people. Someone who would openly do a favor for someone else just because you know they need it.

There is no problem with that! The only problem here is that the people in your life are not respecting you or your boundaries.

It is entirely their fault? Not really. Sure, they COULD respect you already, but it’s also up to you to set boundaries. If you don’t set boundaries, people will walk all over you.

Let’s say you’re an online business owner and you always work from home. Naturally, people who are close to you are just going to be imagining you at home. They’re not going to be able to imagine the part where you’re incredibly busy because of all the tasks you want/need to accomplish on any given day. They are just not able to imagine that because they don’t have your perspective of the situation.

They only have their own perspective.

So, it is your job to “loan” out your perspective to others. I know it may feel nice to brag and talk about how awesome it is to work from home, but also try to talk about the challenges it brings you. Be specific too. Tell them how yesterday you had to complete 10 different assignments and explain what each of them entailed. Make those close to you IMAGINE with their mind what you’re actually doing every day. Otherwise, they’ll just picture you at home comfortably typing on your computer.

If you can do this, that is fantastic. It will definitely help. BUT it’s not enough.

You also need to set a clear schedule of hours in which you cannot be interrupted and in which you are NOT free for anything. No matter how fun it may be.

You pick the time. It can be the classic 9-to-5, or 10-to-3 if you work fewer hours, whatever!?You decide what works best for you.

Now comes the most important part. You need to use that information to SET BOUNDARIES. You need to tell everyone what your work hours are. And if they don’t take you seriously, tell them they should. If they still don’t… well you’ll have to show them you’re serious.

You can’t pick up any calls while you’re working and you can’t just text all the time. Set boundaries for yourself too. Start being unavailable.

Most importantly, if someone tries to get you to run an errand for them or invites you to hang out, you have to just say “What do you mean? I’m working, I can’t”. If they say “Oh come on, of course you CAN”, then you have two options:

Option A, you reply with “What would you say if I called you at your job and asked you the same thing?”. This isn’t the best option. This option will only work with people who are very self-centered and can only see the world from their perspective. Also, they might get defensive with you and say “How is that the same? I have a boss who won’t allow me to do what I want”. If they use that argument, you need to explain that your self-discipline is what will make you succeed, so you CAN NOT give it up. Just because you’re your own boss, doesn’t mean you should be a bad one who runs the company to the ground.

Option B, on the other hand, will work with people who CAN understand someone else’s perspective. In this option, you just explain the work you have before you. Let’s say you’re a writer. You’d say “I’d love to help you/hang out with you, but as you know, I’m currently in my work hours and I have to finish writing 50 pages today. My deadline to finish my book is coming up next week and I am in a real tight situation. I have no room for distractions, so we’ll have to raincheck!”.

One of these two options will get people to back off from you 90% of the time. So, try them out! You’ll see it feels great to prioritize your own needs over the needs of others and you’ll become AT LEAST 2x more productive.

If these two options don't work, just hit the other person with "How am I supposed to do that?". Make them see the problem from your perspective and make them try to figure out the solution. They will tell you how, and then you can explain how what they said isn't actually feasible because you need to get X, Y and Z done before 5 PM, or whatever time.

Having said all of this, some people will STILL not respect you. If that happens, why would you want to keep them in your life?

Only people who respect you should be in your life.

That is a mantra I will forever live by.

So, don’t waste any time. Start setting boundaries ASAP! And just watch your life change.

Never stop hustling,

- Dez

P.S. Feel free to check out my website?https://kaidezen.com/?for more information on my Life Consulting services.