Get Work Done in a Home Office
Working at home can be difficult. When you are home it is easier to become distracted, especially if your family members are around, or if the dishes have not been done. Here are some tips to keep you on track and getting your work done in your home office.
Steps
- Establish your work hours and stick to them. Notify your family members of the hours you choose. Ask your family members to respect your work hours and to avoid distracting you during that time.
- Refrain from scheduling personal appointments during your work hours so that you can devote all of your work hours solely to working.
- Setup a business login and a personal login for your laptop to keep programs and bookmarks separate. This will help you to avoid checking emails on your personal time or playing StarCraft in the middle of a teleconference.
- Define a specific work space or room that will only be used for work. Talk to your family about staying out of that space or borrowing supplies from it.
- Promise yourself that you will not come out of your office, during work hours for the purpose of catching up on any household duties.
- Get dressed for work. You don't have to put on a suit if you are working from home, but you will feel more professional if you get out of your pajamas. This feeling will carry over into your work product.
- Keep your home office clean and decluttered. Only allow work related items to be kept in your office. Anything else will become a distraction.
- Be sure that your home office is well stocked with all of the supplies you need to conduct your business. If you do not have what you need to conduct your business, you may go searching in the house and become distracted by the growing laundry pile, or the high grass in the back yard. Running out of the correct supplies can lead to a loss of productivity.
- Create a daily work schedule and post it some place visible in your home office. Looking at your schedule will help to keep you focused. Try to stick to this schedule to ensure that you meet your daily requirements.
- Clear up and plan. At the end of each work day, put away things you have been working on, look at your schedule, and lay out the work which you will do the next day.
- Stay out. Once you leave work for the day, close that home office door and do not go back in. Do not think about work matters until the next work session.
Tips
- A co-working space can give you a place for business meetings or for a more professional atmosphere when you feel the need.
- Changing your environment by going to an Internet cafe or another WiFi hotspot can let you get away from home obligations and get your work done.
- Ask your family members not to disturb you while you are working.
