Small Business: Working From Home - Fundamentals
Small Business: Working From Home - Fundamentals
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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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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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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Cheryl MatthynssensCheryl is a life skills coach, licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a 20 year entrepreneur. Cheryl's dedication to achieving a life of balance led to her expanding her teaching from the simple managing of life's daily challenges to adding financial well being as well. A direct marketer with DrinkACT, she is gaining ground in the online community with her concepts of making sure business owners, entreprenuers and employees have well rounded life styles. She opened up a small affiliate site - The Balance Guide- to help others find resources for mental and emotional well being. Visit Cheryl's blog to see more of the diversity beyond business she has began offering online at www.thebalanceguide.blogspot.com - Visit Cheryl Matthynssens's Website |
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John AlexanderJohn has taught keyword research and SEO skills to small groups of business owners and Webmasters from over 80 different countries world wide since 2002. John is also the Director of Search Engine Academy ; Co-director of Training at Search Engine Workshops offering live, SEO Workshops with his partner SEO educator Robin Nobles, author of the very first comprehensive online search engine marketing courses at SEO Training Online and the SEO Workshop Resource Center. I look forward to hearing from you! - Visit John Alexander's Website |
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