These days, it is very common for people to work from home. Even people with office jobs often find ways of working one or two days per week from home. I would say about 70% of my work is done at home too, and from my experience, it is not always easy. I think there is a classic image of someone who works from home, looking all comfy in their PJs and lounging around on the couch. In reality, working from home can be very difficult; it can be hard to separate your personal home life from your work life, getting distracted by your home is extremely easy and you feel very alone for a lot of the time. I have learnt a few things about working from home that have really helped me deal with these issues, so I have decided to put them all in a blog post here, in the hopes that they might help some of you! Here are my top 5 tips for working at home.
- Have a clear work space.
Having a work space that is ONLY for work is extremely important. Of course if you can have your own home office, that would be ideal, as it would be a separate room that you can enter and leave. My apartment cannot accommodate me like that, but I do have an area, with my desk which is where I can do all my work on my computer, and an area for practising violin too. I keep this area totally free of 'home' stuff - this could be clothes, books, plates etc. And I also make sure that my boyfriend knows that this is my work area so he is also careful not to put his stuff there either. If you live with other people too, this is very important.
- Get dressed.
Although when we work from home it can be tempting to just roll out of bed and stay in our dressing gowns all day, I have found that I am MUCH more productive in my work if I get up properly and get dressed in the morning. There is something about approaching my work in the same way that other people who go to work in the city approach theirs, that lets me know this is serious work time and I honestly get so much better work done this way. I am not saying we have to wear suits or anything uncomfortable - even if we only wear lounge-wear or jeans or something, being properly ready for the day is important. So choose your ideal form of work-wear, and get dressed every day!
- Plan your time.
For people with office jobs, it is often quite clear what work they have to get done every day. They might have deadlines or meetings or presentations that they have to work for. For us home-workers, our time management is often a lot more free, and up to us to plan. There are lots of different ways of planning your work time. I have seen people who divide their time into 40 minute slots and then plan how many slots they fit into each day, before and after lunch etc. I also know others who sketch out timetables and plan what work goes where according to what they have to do. Even if you are just like me and simply make lots of lists, divide them up by priority and work your way through them, it is really good to have some kind of plan for your work hours. Also, just being very clear about what your work hours are - what time you start and finish every day and deciding if you work weekends or not - is a really good discipline and really healthy for your personal life too.
- Be strict.
For me this is the most difficult one. Working from home means that I have so many distractions - it's so easy to think, 'oh I can just get that load of laundry on before I start working', or 'I will just clean up the kitchen now'. When friends ask me if I am free for coffee on Monday, it feels so difficult to explain to them that, although I am at home, I am NOT free. It is also really easy to slide into taking loads of breaks here and there, because you can - you don't have a boss looming over you telling you that you aren't allowed to go out for a bit. We just have to be really strict with ourselves. Work time is not free time, just because we work at home. We cannot spend our own work time doing house jobs or meeting up with friends - they have to be done later.
- Find ways to network.
The number one complaint I hear from people who work from home is that it is a very solitary life. We don't have colleagues to gossip and take breaks with, we don't get to work on projects with other people, we don't get Christmas parties or any other social events that come with working in an office. But there are ways of dealing with this. There are so many people out there who are also working from home, maybe even doing the same jobs we are - we just have to find them. Whether its joining social media groups, reaching out to people (either online or in real life) and putting ourselves out there, it is really important to network. For me, I have just discovered Twitter Chats and am absolutely loving sharing ideas with other bloggers - all people like me, working from home. So whatever you do, look for similar minded people join the community of home-workers!
Labels: Life
