Achieving Success when Working from Home

Are you tired of commuting to work every day? Are you tired of sitting in traffic, burning up expensive gasoline, and enduring the stop-and-go like thousands of other commuters? Are you thinking about working from home? Does it seem like the ideal situation? Does having not to commute back and forth to the office, and no wardrobe dilemmas to deal with appeal to you? Could it be that your childcare issues or your responsibilities with an aging parent are managed more easily if you were able to work from home? If you have the opportunity, you might decide to give it a shot. there are several strategies you can use to help make it work.

First, when working from home, it is important to shower and dress for work each day. To some, one of the luxuries of working at home might be to stay in your pajamas and get down to business. This will soon prove to be ineffective as you haven''t properly started your work day. Grooming is essential! Next, you need to establish a proper work space. A clutter free desk in a room of its own is best. If a separate room is not available, be sure that your work space is distraction free during your work time. Kids watching TV or another person having a telephone conversation going on while you are working are not going to help you to focus on your tasks. Also, take time each day to organize your work area. Do not let messes build up.

It is important to have set work hours for each day and to stick to these set hours! Do not let errands or catching up with a friend cause you to start late or stop early. If need be, do not answer the door or a telephone call if it is not work related during your set work hours. It is also important to schedule time with friends. You may miss the social interaction of an office setting, so take time to spend with others to fill a possible void you may incur. At the same time, you need to make sure your friends and family know that, even though you are physically at home, you are really at work.

Remember to prioritize your work and take care of the most important things first. Make yourself accountable for your work hours as though you were reporting to someone at the end of each day, or the end of the workweek. If you are still reporting to a work office, keep in constant contact with your supervisor and your co-workers. Continually contribute to the team and be essential to the success of team''s goal. Also, set "daily goals," and remember to plan something interesting to work on the next day.

If you find yourself getting side tracked, starting the day late, or falling short of your goals, assess whether you are really prioritizing your tasks correctly. An easy mistake is to work on the easy things first, but you are much better off handling the boring and difficult tasks first. In this way, you get the hard part of the day over quickly. If you can stick to this plan and follow through all of the undesirable parts, you will find the rest of your day flies by. Finally, part of your reasoning for working at home may be to help out with the kids, or to assist an aging parent. During your set work hours, you may want to hire a babysitter, or a home health aide, so that your distractions during this time are kept to a minimum and your workday is a productive one.