Working from home is a dream come true for most people; both socially as well as financially. You don’t have to deal with the stress of getting to work and dealing with co-workers. Instead you have a commute of a few feet and leisure of your home.
But for those same benefits, this is also the main issue people have when working from home: staying focused on work and creating a space which is professional and useful.
With so many people working from home these days, there are plenty of handy tricks you can use to assure you get more done and enjoy the work you’re doing.
Here are five of the best tricks to make sure your new home workspace is the best it can be.
Set a Schedule:
Family members have a hard time distinguishing when you are free and when you’re in work mode. It is recommended to set a work schedule. Make sure once you have set your schedule you keep to it.
If members of your home start to see you are making exceptions to your schedule, they will ask you to make exceptions on their behalf as well. It may be difficult at first to stick to staying focused at first, but as you become accustomed to your work schedule, you’ll find it’s quite easy.
Do Not Neglect Accounting:
No matter what your chosen profession is for making money at home, you need to be paid. If you have been working in an office, or for any type of employer, you may not be used to seeking payments. However, if you don’t set aside a time to complete your accounting at least once a month, you’ll never get paid for all the hard work you’re doing.
Set up a schedule you can keep to regarding your accounting. If you invoice all your clients once a month, set aside the appropriate amount of time to look over your books and invoice. If you simply cannot manage to track all of your accounts, you may want to bring in the help of an accountant.
You can hire a freelance accountant to look over your work and tell you who you should be invoicing and when. There is also software available to automatically invoice for you.
Establish a Working From Home Routine:
As soon as you step into a professional work environment, it is easy to go from personal time to work mode. If all you’re doing is sitting in the work space within your home, it can be tricky to get into work mode.
The best way to get yourself into work mode is to have an established routine you perform before you get started with your work. You can alter the lighting, turn on music or even light a scented candle. The routine you establish is completely up to you, but it’s important to repeat it every time you sit down to work. This helps to alter your mindset from relaxing at home, to working on your assigned tasks.
Most employers are worried about productivity by people working from home. As long as you stick to the routine, you’ll separate yourself from those who simply cannot hack working at home.
Stay In Communication:
The separation from you and those you work with can cause you to feel isolated and possibly make you feel emboldened to slack off a little bit.
One way to assure you’re not going to fall to the dark side of making money from home is to stay in communication with your team. If you don’t have a team you work with, make sure you have communication with your clients and your business colleagues.
The more your communication keeps your head in the business world, the more likely you are to stay focused on what you should be doing during your established business hours. Using communication forms such as Skype allows you to have face-to-face meetings which require you to dress for work and take your time very seriously.
Cut Yourself Some Slack:
Keep in mind your work environment is never going to be flawless. You should expect to fail from time to time. No matter how regimented you are in your schedule, there are going to be times when you skew from your path.
Don’t feel bad about not being perfect. If you ever feel uncomfortable about neglecting those in your home because of your work, remember if you were in an office, they would not even see you.
As time goes by, you’ll get better at working from home. Those in your home will grow accustomed to your schedule and you will become more focused on your tasks. Your productivity will increase the more you feel like you’re at work rather than working from home. Utilize these tricks to get started and embrace the joy of working from home.
Featured image courtesy of Flickr – Lars Kristian Flem
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