I know first hand the challenges of working from home. Don't get me wrong working from home is great, however it can become easy to get distracted. Here are some tips to prevent that from happening. 1. Use your workspace ONLY for work! Get in the habit of only doing work in this area, if you start to use your work area for other things such as online shopping, going on Facebook, and surfing the web, it won't be long before you are using what is supposed to be your work time doing other unproductive things. However, if you create a good habit and only work in that spot, over time your mind will become trained to switch into work mode when you sit in your work area. 2. Start work with a definite goal. Don't sit down to work and simply say "okay I'm going to spend 2 hours working today" and have no idea on what you are really going to be working on for those two hours. Instead before you sit down to work identify specific things that you want to accomplish. By saying "okay I have 2 hours, I'm going to spend 1 hour writing a blog post, 30 minutes researching how to use a Wordpress membership plugin, 15 minutes responding to work related email, and 15 minutes setting up an rss feed on my new blog" you are will make better use of your time because you already know what you are supposed to be working on. 3. Use a timer. This point ties into the previous one. By designating a set amount of time each task, it will help you shut out all other distractions and focus better to the task at hand.
good points and also there is another article that I started for working at home http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/RetirementandWills/EscapeTheRatRace/weston-10-rules-for-w orking-at-home.aspx Hope it helps give you somemore ideas.
It's also important that you get your family and friends to understand and respect your "working" time. This way you aren't interrupted unnecessarily for frivilous reasons, just because you are at home. Hermas
OnlineHelper Great post. I totally agree specialy with the second point. For me it was very important to make a plan in order to really do something. I am not making fun but now i have a hour-by-hour plan for the day. Does is work? Not really And that's because the things i want to finish in one hour take actually more then that But I am happy with my new way of working at home. It is really productive
Agree with that. At the end of the day i always make my checklist for a new day.. For me to make my time equal..So when it comes to my job, i do finish it before doing anything else. Have a time management.
katereber This is what I do to. Although I automate everything with a tool for time and task management, it's still the same concept. After a day's work, I evaluate myself and then already list my priorities for the next day. That way, when I log in the next day, I will already have my set of work ready. Also, part of planning those priorities is setting a specified time for each. I make sure I strictly follow the time and also put the difficult ones first.
Ironically enough I claim to work from home, but I usually go to my College library to do most of work from home business ventures lol
When you become full time and you have to spend some time each day on your computer, you have to let your kids or family know that you can not be distracted at all.
