If you run a small business, especially if you are just starting out, working from home can be a great way to run that business. It can save time and money, make life more flexible and solve all sorts of other issues into the bargain.
The big difficulty most people face when working from home is being able to separate their work life from their personal life. So here are my two top tips to get you focussed on the fundamentals of working from home.
TOP TIP NUMBER 1: De-clutter The external environment in which we live is both a reflection of our inner thoughts and it directly affects and steers those thoughts too. If you live and work in a cluttered physical environment your mind will feel cluttered and you will find it difficult to concentrate or prioritise. If however, you de-clutter your workspace (and your personal space too), making it tidy, removing unnecessary and unrelated items, arranging it for maximum effectiveness and efficiency and keeping everything in its place, you will find that your concentration improves, your focus is sharper, your ability to prioritise increases and your stress levels drop dramatically.
De-cluttering alone can have an incredible effect on your ability to cope with changing demands. Try it – the results may simply astound you.
TOP TIP NUMBER 2: Separation This has 2 distinct components; 1. Have a separate and clearly defined space for your work. This is best achieved by having a separate room used only for work. Resist the temptation to bring your home life into your workroom and vice versa.
2. Separate your time. Set yourself clearly defined working hours. During those hours you should be in your workroom and only come out for pre-planned or comfort breaks. Then, equally importantly, when it is not time for work, don’t spend time in your workspace.
Clearly, if you have a caring role to integrate into your day alongside work, this may prove to be a challenging goal, but the aim should be to separate these two aspects of your life as much as is reasonable and possible bearing in mind your own individual lifestyle.
Separation is very important because it allows you to focus on one thing at a time. If you are surrounded by household chores and distractions like a TV or people who want to chat, it is extremely hard to stay focussed enough to be effective and efficient. If however, you do separate your work and home life in this way, you will not only achieve more in your work, your home life will be hugely more rewarding too. This is simply because you will give each of them your full attention and the commitment they truly deserve.
Controversial as it may be, from my perspective as a Life Coach, the idea of ‘multi-tasking’ is one that has been cooked up by ineffective people as an excuse for poor performance. To make matters worse it has then been adopted, especially by busy women who have multiple roles and has somehow become ‘cool’. I believe that this may be an effort to level the playing field with their male counterparts. My advice ladies, is this; celebrate your differences from men – don’t try to overcome them. They are a part of what makes you women and you should be very proud of them. Multi-tasking is in my opinion not a key skill or soft skill – it is a meme or mind virus which perpetuates the problem of being unable to focus and thus achieve your personal goals.
Small Business: Working From Home - Fundamentals - To learn more about this author, visit Steve Bunyan's Website.
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