When I tell people that I work from home, they almost always tell me how lucky I am and how they wished they could work from home too. I mean, I can’t lie. There are some really wonderful benefits to working from home. But it is not all coffee breaks and freedom. We have a funny way of looking at our own situations in a negative light while we see only the positive in the situations of others. I guess that's why they say the grass always seems greener on the other side. And to be honest, I only saw the benefits about working from home before I started. It was a bit of a rude awakening. To keep from underestimating the drawbacks of working from home yourself, take a look at these 10 unexpected work from home challenges (and how to overcome them).

10 Unexpected Work From Home Challenges

1. Your own expectations

The first thing you will need to get a handle on are your own expectations. What do you think of when you think about working from home? Do you imagine what it will be like and how you will spend your days? When I first started working from home, I thought I was going to have the best of both worlds. I thought I would be able to do my work uninterrupted, have plenty of time to take care of my kids, and be able to spend more time doing the things that I enjoy because I would save so much time not having to commute, etc.While I do have the best of both worlds, I also have all the other parts too. My kids seem to want attention only when I am working; sometimes they have to watch each other because I need to work; and because I work from home, it seemed I was always working and still never had any freetime. At first I was upset, because my environment and situation hadn’t changed to accommodate my plan and expectation.It turned out that I needed to find a balance between my own expectations and my reality. In some cases, like with my kids, I had to understand that sometimes, they will need me when I am working. But others, such as the working all the time, needed to be fixed right away. Try to be realistic in your expectations before you start working from home, and be flexible until you find your balance.

2. Other people's perceptions

The second work from home challenge I ran into was what other people thought I could do because I work from home. They seemed to believe that I have no set schedule, that I can just spend the whole day doing X,Y,Z because I work from home. My kids would think that because they could see me, I was available. Other people seemed shocked that my house was still messy, even though I am at home all day. They seem to be stuck on the home part, but I probably wouldn’t have the home if not for the WORK part. My solution to this is just to continually remind them that I WORK. The majority of people I know also seem to have a hard time taking my work seriously because I do it from home. This is my biggest work from home challenge, because I can’t do a whole lot about it. I had one family member tell me that I should “get a real job”. I think this is partially because they are envious. I just keep reminding them that I do work and in extreme cases, I just ignore them. You really can’t control the opinions of other people, but you can control how you react to it.

3. Being interrupted

This goes hand in hand with number 2. Be prepared to be interrupted! For some reason, people will think that you are available because you are at home. The only thing you can really do is let their calls go to voicemail during your working hours. Even if you are on a break, don’t answer because it will set a bad precedent.

4. Finding work-life balance

Just like other people have a hard time separating your work from you being at home, you may too. It is hard to find work-life balance when it all happens in the same place! This was another hard work from home challenge for me. I seemed to either work too much or play too much when I was first figuring out my work from home routine. Finding balance was tricky. I do have a home office set up in my basement. It's a finished basement, so it is a nice place to be. This helps me with balance because I can be in work mode in my office and life mode in the rest of my house. There are many times however, that I need to work more portably and so I will use my laptop and work from wherever. When this is the case, I make sure to only work during the times I am supposed to. It is hard to resist the urge to write just a few more words when I should be doing sometime else, but it gets easier each time you do it.

5. Setting your own hours

This is a tricky one! Does your job require you to interact with others or is it something you can do on your own? It is easy to set too many or too few hours for yourself. I have made both mistakes. It is easy to think that you can work more hours since you work at home. I used to try to schedule my work hours around a newborn baby. I was available to work for 2 hour slots at really random times of day and night. I was trying to cram 8 hours of work into my day and I just didn’t have that much time to devote to it. I had to scale back, so I decided to work for 2 hours a day and that was all. The schedule was great, but I didn’t make much money! I was finally able to settle on a 4 to 6 hours work day. This is what works for me. Think about the hours you can realistically work - a balance between always working and not working enough.

6. Staying focused

There are a lot more distractions at home than you may think! Having a designated office space helps a bit. But most of the time, I work on my laptop in whatever random location I happen to be in. That is how I structure my work right now because my home life is very demanding and not on any type of schedule. I have a toddler with Down Syndrome and I have to balance his needs with work right now. I know that after each meal, he will happily play by himself for 30 to 45 minutes. I am able to use this time to work on tasks that require my attention, but not my full attention. That way I can focus on both work and keeping an eye on him. When I need to work on something that requires all of my focus, I wait until he is asleep or someone can watch him for me. I try to schedule my work around the times I will be able to be the most focused.

7. Wearing all the hats

Chances are the work you are doing from home is not office work. You may be a teacher, an accountant, or even a doctor who works from home. If you do any of these things from home, you probably don’t have an office manager or accounts receivable department at your disposal. This means that those tasks will fall on you. An undeniable work from home challenge is having wear the hats of many jobs. I am not great with numbers, but I have to be my own accountant. In order to do so, I had to brush up on my accounting and math skills. You may need to spend some time gaining proficiency in many different jobs at first, and it may seem unfair because there is no compensation, but be patient. All of the hard work really does pay off in the long run!

8. Cabin Fever

Have you ever seen The Shining? If you have, you know how being stuck in that hotel all winter affected Jack Nicholson’s character. Sometimes, working from home can leave you feeling stir crazy and in need of a change in scenery. Staring at the same 4 walls day after day can be a real drag. I remedy this by making sure to get outside everyday. People who commute to work at least get a little time outside each day and you should too. In fact, I make sure to schedule a walk outside into my daily routine. Each morning, after breakfast, I take a 30 minute walk outside. During my walks, I am able to put all of my thoughts in order and plan my day.

9. Loneliness

Along with cabin fever, loneliness is an often unforeseen work from home challenge. Unless you video chat with people as part of your work, working from home can be very lonely. I am a bit of an introvert and there are times that I can go a week straight without needing to talk to another human being, and even I get lonely working from home sometimes!If you are a social, extroverted person, make sure that you schedule in some social activities to your week to keep you from feeling too isolated and alone.

10. Mastering self-discipline

It all really boils down to this in the long run. Can you make yourself do the things you need to do instead of doing what you want to do? Even more, are you disciplined enough to know when you need to to what you want to do before you burn out! That is when you become a true master of self-discipline. At that point, you will have overcome all of these obstacles and it will be smooth sailing in your work from home endeavour.