Tips for Working From Home
If you work in internet marketing or run any kind of ecommerce site than you are probably working from home so you already know about the benefits and problems that can arise from the situation. My biggest problem is that working from home seems like a license for some people to bother me at any time they want. I'll be working away when someone will drop by to chat for a few minutes, something they definitely wouldn't be doing if I was working in an office. During the summer if someone has the day off they'll call me up to go golfing, so I have to keep a pretty strike schedule of silencing the phone during my working hours and keeping the door shut to the room in my house I use as the office.
At least the stigma of working from home seems to be going away. Back in 2002 when I started my online business it seemed that everyone thought I was just goofing off all day, and some even asked if I was ever going to get a real job. Of course I thought I was working a real job, I just happened to love sleeping in, staying up late, and taking an afternoon nap. I wasn't working any less than any of my 9-to-5 friends, in fact I was probably putting in close to double the hours they were, but just at different times of the day.
Here are a few tips I have for those of you who either work at home or are thinking abou it:
1. Know Your Style - If you have problems staying motivated on your own, then why do you think it's a good idea to work from home? You have to be self-motivated since nobody will be monitoring you.
2. Create a Work Space - Don't work in your bedroom or at the kitchen table. You need to have a room set aside in your home that you use specifically for work, one in which you can close the door to the outside world as a signal to everyone else that you can't be bothered.
3. Find Your Daily Schedule - I rarely get up before 7 AM and I like to get in a morning workout and shower before starting my day. This means you'll frequently find me on the computer around 8:30. I'll work for about three hours and then take a lunch at 11:30, come back and work for an hour or two before taking a short nap. Then I'll get after it again for a few hours before dinner and some social time with the wife. Most nights I'll log a few extra hours in late at night before hitting the sack after midnight. This is what works for me and I don't think I could function in an 8-to-5 environment (I tried, it didn't go so well).
4. Interact - One problem I have with working at home is the lack of human interaction some days. I'm just working away at home with nobody else around and it can get kind of lonely and boring. I tend to go out to eat more than I probably should and go out with friends for quite awhile on the weekends. You should probably try to find people to go to lunch with or do activities with to fill up your evenings, otherwise you'll turn into a hermit.
If you liked this article, you may also be interested in: