A common complaint among women who work from home is that friends, neighbours and other family members don’t take them seriously. There is a common assumption that if you are at home then you have all the time to do the things that other people don’t. Most home workers say that their grown up children expect them to babysit, their husband wants to bring the boss home for dinner, and the neighbours want them to take in parcels and pick up their milk. In addition to all the expectations of help, people feel that when you are working at home they can just drop in at any time.

If you work from home then you need to create boundaries between work and other things. Some women take over the garden shed, add office furniture, usually just a desk and a chair, and make themselves unavailable. If you don’t have this option then you need to select a space, perhaps a corner of the dining room or the kitchen. Have some things that are dedicated ‘office furniture’ even if it is nothing but an old chair and small table. Set yourself a daily schedule and let others know about it. Tell them that you will be available to them outside of certain hours, they won’t like it to begin with, but protecting your space and your time is the only way to make a success of working from home.