Working From Home
Working From Home
If you're a Mum working at home, you may be juggling children, family commitments, running a household and working on your business. Make life easier with these few simple guidelines.
If you're a Dad working from home, you have the added distractions of wanting to spend time with your family while keeping the focus on your business and maybe you also take on some of the household, child-care duties too.
It's good to have a structure in which to work which creates a balance between ensuring that work gets done and enjoying the flexibility of working from home without getting overwhelmed.
Create an "office". If you don't have one already - clear a space that you can truly call your office. Maybe you currently work from the kitchen table or a corner of your living room. Is there a space you can clear which can be your office?
If you run your entire business from home, it's more than likely that you'll have a specific room that is your office.
- Does it look like your office?
- Does it reflect your business?
- Do you have everything you need to hand?
Perhaps your office also double as a spare room, junk room or storage area. Is it neatly arranged or are you surrounded by boxes and other clutter?
What could you do to improve the environment in which you work? Keep papers in files and folders that you can put away at the end of the day. Have clear space around you as you work.
Keep to your office hours. You can be flexible with your working day but don't be tempted to blur the lines between your work life and your home life too much. By all means take breaks during the day to have some 'home' life, or time to get chores done. But place a time limit around these. Set a fixed start time and finish time to your working day.
Think about why you have chosen to work from home instead of working in an office. If you want to have a day or half day a week when you don't work, then do that. Book it out in your diary at the beginning of the week or month.
You should be enjoying your time not struggling to juggle home life with work life. And that applies even if you do work in an office.
Set boundaries around your time. Have an answer machine you switch on outside of office hours.
Just because the phone rings - you don't have to answer it immediately.
Just because an email arrives in your inbox - you don't have to reply to it immediately.
At least not straight away. Schedule time each day to attend to these tasks and you'll be using your time more effectively.
Don't allow yourself to get into the habit of working all hours - late into the evening or on weekends just because your office is at home, only a few feet away and you can just 'pop in' to check emails.
Set boundaries with other people in your life. If you're in your office - you are working. If you get distracted, take a complete break and then get back into work mode. Be mindful of other people around you - if you're at home, they may expect you to be more involved. Explain when you can and when you need space, time or some peace and quiet.
Set the boundaries in the beginning and it will make it easier for everyone.
Working from home can bring a certain amount of guilt - you either feel guilty because you should be working when you are spending time with your family or you feel guilty when your working that you should be with your family.
Working for yourself is hard enough - don't be your own worst enemy and feel that you have to work all hours. You don't. Give yourself a break and keep some perspective on your work life balance. If you want to work four days a week, so you get to spend more time with your family, then do that! What's stopping you? Probably yourself.
Enjoy working at home and don't let it become a burden.
Copyright 2005: Clare Evans.
Working From Home - To learn more about this author, visit Clare Evans's Website.
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Many of the people I work with, work from home. Balancing work within the home environment can often be difficult.
If you're a Mum working at home, you may be juggling children, family commitments, running a household and working on your business. Make life easier with these few simple guidelines.
If you're a Dad working from home, you have the added distractions of wanting to spend time with your family while keeping the focus on your business and maybe you also take on some of the household, child-care duties too.
It's good to have a structure in which to work which creates a balance between ensuring that work gets done and enjoying the flexibility of working from home without getting overwhelmed.
Create an "office". If you don't have one already - clear a space that you can truly call your office. Maybe you currently work from the kitchen table or a corner of your living room. Is there a space you can clear which can be your office?
If you run your entire business from home, it's more than likely that you'll have a specific room that is your office.
- Does it look like your office?
- Does it reflect your business?
- Do you have everything you need to hand?
Perhaps your office also double as a spare room, junk room or storage area. Is it neatly arranged or are you surrounded by boxes and other clutter?
What could you do to improve the environment in which you work? Keep papers in files and folders that you can put away at the end of the day. Have clear space around you as you work.
Keep to your office hours. You can be flexible with your working day but don't be tempted to blur the lines between your work life and your home life too much. By all means take breaks during the day to have some 'home' life, or time to get chores done. But place a time limit around these. Set a fixed start time and finish time to your working day.
Think about why you have chosen to work from home instead of working in an office. If you want to have a day or half day a week when you don't work, then do that. Book it out in your diary at the beginning of the week or month.
You should be enjoying your time not struggling to juggle home life with work life. And that applies even if you do work in an office.
Set boundaries around your time. Have an answer machine you switch on outside of office hours.
Just because the phone rings - you don't have to answer it immediately.
Just because an email arrives in your inbox - you don't have to reply to it immediately.
At least not straight away. Schedule time each day to attend to these tasks and you'll be using your time more effectively.
Don't allow yourself to get into the habit of working all hours - late into the evening or on weekends just because your office is at home, only a few feet away and you can just 'pop in' to check emails.
Set boundaries with other people in your life. If you're in your office - you are working. If you get distracted, take a complete break and then get back into work mode. Be mindful of other people around you - if you're at home, they may expect you to be more involved. Explain when you can and when you need space, time or some peace and quiet.
Set the boundaries in the beginning and it will make it easier for everyone.
Working from home can bring a certain amount of guilt - you either feel guilty because you should be working when you are spending time with your family or you feel guilty when your working that you should be with your family.
Working for yourself is hard enough - don't be your own worst enemy and feel that you have to work all hours. You don't. Give yourself a break and keep some perspective on your work life balance. If you want to work four days a week, so you get to spend more time with your family, then do that! What's stopping you? Probably yourself.
Enjoy working at home and don't let it become a burden.
Copyright 2005: Clare Evans.
Working From Home - To learn more about this author, visit Clare Evans's Website.
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Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould has trained over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start staging businesses. Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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