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Small Business: Working From Home - Fundamentals

Written by: Steve Bunyan

Article Overview: 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.

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Small Business: Working From Home - Fundamentals

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.

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Home > Home-Based-Business > Steve Bunyan > Small Business Working From Home Fundamentals
Article Tags: clutter, concentration, distinct components, effectiveness and efficiency, external environment, inner thoughts, maximum effectiveness, number 1, personal life, personal space, physical environment, reflection, stress levels, temptation, time and money, tip number, top tip, working from home, workroom, workspace

About the Author: Steve Bunyan
RSS for Steve's articles - Visit Steve's website

My name is Steve Bunyan, I'm 44 years old and I live in Rugby, Warwickshire. I'm passionate about helping people to excel. I believe that we all have it in us to be great. Why am I a life coach? Simply because I love helping others to discover what makes them truly happy in life and because I'm really good at it. I don't have a degree in psychology, I'm not a therapist or a counsellor and I have no medical training. I do have a Diploma in Neuro-Lingustic Programming and I was also trained by the Citizen's Advice Bureau as a Generalist Adviser. I have run a number of my own small businesses and have also had formal sales training. Apart from that, my experience is from life. Yes I do a fair amount of reading, but reading is not a substitute for experience. My goal is to help others to experience life to the fullest and get the best from it they possibly can. With that goal in mind I am currently writing a book about attraction, dating, relationships and love. I may then, go on to write a more general book about living a fulfilling and happy life and perhaps even a third one about running a small business

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