The Benefits of Working from Home

You hate waking up early in the morning, putting breakfast together and then running to work? If you thought there is no way out of this rut and that you will have to keep your 9-5 job to pay all your bills, no there is a way out. Working from home has become a reality. If you have weighed your options, thought of how you want to go about setting up your own business, then you can confidently resign your full time job. Make sure you know what you want to do when you decide to work from home and how you want to do it. A concrete plan is always a blessing.

There are of course several benefits of working from home. The oscillating performance of the world economy, followed by a change in lifestyles foretells well for the home-based entrepreneur. Many of us now want to combine our careers with running our families. Given a choice we would all opt out of the rat race and spend more time with our families and be more proactive in raising our children. The technological innovations in the past decades have also made working from home easier and more feasible.

However, for those who have joined the growing at-home ranks, the same benefits that attract professionals to this lifestyle can present problems if not carefully managed. Let us examine a few of these issues:

The Flexible Schedule

Part of the benefit of working from home with a home based business is the freedom to make your own schedule. However, the danger is that you often catch yourself thinking, "I'll get back to this later, after.." Working from home definitely affords you luxury in your schedule, but you must be disciplined to ensure this luxury doesn't become a liability.

More Family Time

On the positive side, you will be present to see your child grow up, and deal with crisis in the family immediately, before it gets out of hand. However, you will necessarily be the next problem solver whenever your spouse isn't available. When working in a traditional office, these crises wait for you. When you work at home, they seldom wait.

No Commute

Commute is never a problem. It is easy to see the benefit. But, on the flip side, you are likely to be so occupied with your work for most of the day, that your spouse and children may ask you, "Are you home from work yet?"

Three Tactics

So how does one manage this interesting dichotomy? The following are tactics that may be used to make working at home actually work.

1. Work first, play second: Having a flexible schedule is great but don't reward yourself with time off before your scheduled project work is done. Also, you must compensate by starting earlier or working later in the days prior, if you anticipate any non-work related interruptions.

2. Set boundaries for family interruptions. Make some arrangement where your family understands where to draw the line with regard to making inroads into your work schedule, while working at home.

3. Schedule your workday: Sounds simple, but as with a "regular" job, work-related emergencies come up. In most cases, however, interruptions after the workday has ended can wait until tomorrow. Preferably, don't attend any work-related calls after your workday has ended.

These steps don't work in every case of working from home but neither does working in the standard office environment. But they do minimize the hazards and help make working from home a joy and more disciplined.

Here's just a tip you can use when you finally decide to put in your papers and start working from home. The organization you work for will require you to serve a notice period of atleast one month. Make use of this one month to build your home office. If you have leaves accumulated then use them to get practicalities in place. For example, if you are setting up an internet business, get your computer in shape, get a good and reliable internet connection, power back up etc. Organize a work place for yourself, preferably in your study room or in any quiet and well lit corner of your house. Stay out of your bedroom as it might tend to put you to sleep towards the afternoons, stealing your fire and productivity. Most importantly stay focused and positive.