Bless technology for making our lives so much better. Once upon a time, work meant heading out, making it to office against the traffic, missing your family, working endlessly and finally trudging home. Now, we can work from the comfort of our home. And this cuts across most professions and designations. There are more than a few benefits to this alternative. Most importantly, when you work from home, your life and business are both under the same roof. You have the privilege of juggling time, family and work.
And not to lie, you can also be working while not bothering to change out of your pajamas - what could be better? Unfortunately it is not that easy as it might seem. There is a thin line between working and appearing to be working, and if it gets blurred, your career and personal life can be in turmoil. Here are a few tips to make sure you stay at the top of your game even when you’re not in an office.
1. Is Work-from-Home Your Cup Of Tea?
As an entrepreneur, you don’t have the privilege to ditch your work on account of a false headache. It is your work and you alone have to do it (and your team too but they work when you tell them what to do). You have to keep yourself self-motivated. But that is not easy for everyone. Is it difficult for you to work when you have nobody to remind you of your work load? Is it impossible to function without people and deadlines? With traits like that, you will have to ditch the idea of working at home. Acknowledge your personality and choose the work environment which is right for you. You know yourself best, so do a hard self-evaluation before you commit to the idea of a home office.
2. Create The Right Atmosphere
The brain has a tendency to associate its actions with the world surrounding it. Create a small desk at a specified spot in your house, which will be your workstation. Working out of your kitchen or bedroom is just inefficient. You want to be in a room where you are away from distractions of any kind. Try and choose a room which you can close the door to and be alone in if required.
Have the right equipment for your job too - table, pens, folders, computer, monitor, printer, high-speed internet, good lighting and so on.
3. Feel The Feel, Get In The Mood
When you do not have an office to report to and a team to appear in front of, suddenly everything in your daily routine changes. The alarm clock goes off at 10 instead of 8. You don’t bother washing your face or dressing up. Breakfast means a black coffee with a toast just so that you wake up. And the dress code is always pajamas. Basically it’s like a Sunday every day when you decide to opt for work-at-home. Don’t let that scenario happen to you.
If you really want this to work out, you have to stop undervaluing the process. Stop procrastinating and treat the home as your new office. Get up at the normal hour, have breakfast, get dressed, make your coffee and hurry to your “home office”. Stay away from facebook, WhatsApp and other distractions, except during lunch. End the day like you would on a normal work day and go off to do what you normally would have done once your workday is over. Just because it is home does not imply you have to be plugged in all the time. You work, hence, you have the right to enjoy. Do that, reward yourself for working.
4. Draw Boundaries
You are at home. And just when you are about to sit down to start your work, your son asks you to drop him to school since he is running late (and you are available with the car). Well, five minutes won’t affect your work so maybe you should go drop him off. You shouldn’t say no, right?
You are making the biggest error possible by confusing work with home-work. This is because home work here implies to the errands you have to run at home that can’t ever touch you at work. You have to be strong enough and manage your time to overcome this problem. After trying to stay motivated (and social networking sites) this is the greatest issue you can ever face when working at home.
Clarify to everyone who interacts with you at home that you are not available during some particular work hours for any sort of work, however urgent it might be.
So, you will have to let your son get late the next time he begs you to drop him to school. Remind him of the rules you have set for your work hours. If you are punctual and absolutely iron-willed in your time table no one can really bother you.
5. Don’t Forget Your Social Life
With almost nil interaction at the work place (since that is home now) you cut down a majority of the people you could talk to. Now taking into account that you are not a robot and you need to talk, it is suggested to get smart. Meet your customers over coffee or sign a deal during lunch. If you don’t do this, frustrations are sure to creep up soon enough.
Reach out to groups or individuals who have similar setups as you. They could be working in the same business as you or could be associated with home ventures. Meet up with such people. You may even call them up when in doubt since their work is quite similar to yours. This really helps to minimise isolation and gives you someone to call when you need a friendly ear.
Don’t underestimate the charm of spending quality time alone. It is a Refresh button to creativity. Take a day off every week and pamper yourself. It could be hanging out at a good restaurant or just a leisure stroll in the park. These kinds of activities help us in re-energising and reducing stress. A little order will be take you a long way in starting up your work-from-home career.