Working from home can be a fantastic way to spend more time doing the things you love, as this way your time is less tied up with busy commutes, pointless meetings, idle chit chat and gossip around the water cooler, busy work, and constant distractions with other people vying for your time.
Indeed, there are many benefits to working from home, and with today’s opportunities to work remotely and automate your business by automating and outsourcing processes, for instance, you could use DSC Personnel to take care of your recruiting needs and there are all sorts of online programs and apps that can save you time and money with regard to running fundamental aspects of your business.
The one thing that is essential, when working from home, whether you have a traditional business or an online business, or perhaps even work for a company as an employee, is to set up a good space in which to work that will allow you to feel comfortable and relaxed yet focused and productive. You want this to be secure, quiet and a place where you will not be disturbed.
Many people, when they think about working from home, have images of lounging around in their underwear, working in bed with their head propped up with a few pillows, and whilst this can be nice at first, it quickly gets old and can lead to a real slump in productivity.
Ultimately, you’ll want a distraction free environment that allows you to focus on the task at hand, and ideally will differentiate your ‘home’ from your ‘home office’.
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SETTING UP THE SPACE
The first step, in setting up your office is to declutter the space, as you simply cannot focus when there’s clutter everywhere. It might feel like a waste of time, given how pressing your work is, but the initial time investment spent decluttering the space will pay dividends in the long run.
It’s imperative you create a distraction free environment that will allow you to focus on your work without distraction, therefore decluttering the space that will become your office is a vital first step to create a minimalist and peaceful environment to assist your concentration.
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HAVE A ROUTINE
Working from home can be a blessing but also a curse; on the one hand your commute is now greatly reduced, which has huge benefits in terms of convenience and cost reduction, but it can also create a less focused state meaning your productivity is likely to suffer.
In part, that’s because there are simply too many distractions to contend with, but also, if you’re used to a a morning ritual of getting dressed in business attire (rather than sweatpants or your dressing gown) and being around colleagues all day, this is quite a contrast to now having all the time and freedom in the world to live life on your terms.
You can, however, have too much of a good thing and it’s therefore important to have a routine that will enable you to optimise your time, as structure will keep you focused.
For instance, you could set yourself a lunch hour between a set time each day, or adopt the approach that many successful people take which is to get dressed for work, as if you were going to the office. It’s also important to get out the house in order to beat isolation, whether this is sitting in a park with your work, a coffee shop, or even a library.
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WORK WHEN YOU’RE WORKING
It’s can be way too tempting for your attention to drift anywhere other than on work, at the best of times, but if you’re in an office environment you are held much more accountable; imagine sitting in the office watching Netflix, rather than getting on with work.
Indeed, you might have to parent yourself and set up your own ‘parental controls’ that allow you to restrict the content you’re able to access in order to remain focused. This is one of the greatest challenges with working from home, we are all natural procrastinators, and you can end up in a state of half working, half relaxing – some people even work with their favourite TV show on in the background.
The best advice on this front is to “work when you work” and rest when you rest; not multitask in two completely different spheres.
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DELEGATE
A lot of times, small business owners find themselves working in the business rather than on the business, as the leader navigating it toward success. Instead, they are doing everything from the accounts to the window cleaning.
This means that you are often working incredibly long hours, for potentially little pay, leading a life with no time to enjoy what truly matters in life. Whether you’re a business owner or an employee, there are always ways to delegate certain tasks, to free up your time and focus on what matters most.
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EAT THAT FROG
World renowned productivity expert, Brian Tracy, encourages people to tackle the most challenging, dreaded and uncomfortable task first – and to pull this off like a plaster, on the basis that once this is out the way you will feel a sense of achievement that will build momentum throughout the entire day.
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BATCH TASKS
The opposite of multitasking is batch-tasking; which is where you focusing on a single task at a time, but plough through a group of similar tasks in a session. This means your effectiveness increases per task and your efficiency will sky rocket.
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APPRECIATE YOUR FREEDOM
It’s important to make the most of your life, yet all too often we feel the grass is greener on the other side, so take some time to appreciate the fact you are able to work from home and are not stuck in an office somewhere. Go for a walk when the weather is nice, go and watch your children in the school play or sports match – do all the things you want to do, when you want to do them, and appreciate the gift of freedom working from home can offer.