10 Reasons Working From Home Is Harder Than Working In An Office

Because you aren't at the mercy of a nine-to-five, you're not capable of relying on the structure of a nine-to-five. Thus, you're always working, whether it's at some ungodly hour in the morning or some ungodly hour at night. Hell, you've probably worked while doing your business on the toilet (be honest) and you've definitely worked while enjoying a much needed cocktail (or three) in the evening. The flexible schedule can be great, when it's not killing your ability to have healthy work/life boundaries.

There are so many misconceptions about working from home, the most prominent being that you're never really doing anything. It's "easy" to work from home, so of course you can take on that extra project or do that extra report or give that extra presentation on Monday with absolutely zero notice and little information, right?

Sometimes the whole not showering, working sans-pants portion of working from home can be fantastic. On the other hand, it can leave you feeling unattractive, unmotivated and, well, unclean. It's so easy to be lazy, hit snooze a few too many times and focus on what you absolutely have to get done in a day, and ignore things like self-care.

Distractions are everywhere. Absolutely everywhere. Whether it's your kid or the television or YouTube, there is no one there to make sure you're staying on task and there are no site-blockers to keep you from going down the rabbit hole that is Tumblr.

If you're not organized, you're going to have a tough time getting work done within a respectable and productive timeframe. If you're going to be successful when working from home, you have to be on top of your shit and extremely self-motivated.

Whether you absolutely love having coworkers or your experiences with others in the office have been less-than-satisfactory, making the switch to working from home can still leave you missing the social aspect of an office job. Is it great to not have to deal with people on a day-to-day basis? Sure. But it can also be lonely and kind of boring and how in the world are you going to get your daily dose of gossip? Kanye and Wiz can't go at it every week, you guys.

Because you don't have a set schedule — and you're always "on the clock" — working from home can be tough on your relationships. Whether it stresses your partner out because your home office looks like it has exploded and you're always answering emails when you should be paying attention to something they're saying; or it's your friends, who miss you at happy hour because you're not done working when they are, having no office to leave your work at means you carry it with you, and that can be problematic.

Discipline and organization go hand-in-hand. Like I said previously, no one is going to be looking over your shoulder, making sure that you're doing that thing you're supposed to be doing. If you set a deadline for yourself, you're the only one who is responsible for making sure you adhere to it. If you don't want to do a thing but have to do a thing, you're the only one who can make you start. The freedom is great, but sometimes it can be difficult to motivate yourself to do the not-so-fun stuff.

You can't blame any mistake on anyone but yourself. I don't think the "my dog ate my work report" will work in this instance. You're not around your coworkers and your boss isn't there to point a finger at, so along with being the only person who can receive praise for the work you do, you're the only one who has to suck down the criticism, too.

You're not walking around an office or walking to an office or walking from your office to that necessary happy hour, so exercise becomes that much more important. When you're working from home, it's extremely easy to become sedimentary, so for health reasons, you need to make more of an effort to get up and get your body moving. Ugh. It would actually be kinda great if those "people who work at home do nothing and nap all day" myths were true. That sounds amazing.