Working From Home: Dealing With Challenges

Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011 at 09:54

Working from home can be wonderful for many people with careers that support such an option. Your commute is all of 2 seconds, thereby saving wear and tear on your car, while your fuel costs and carbon footprint is also greatly reduced. Plus you get to spend more time with your family instead of constantly driving to and from work. But working at home can also be incredibly challenging to remain productive, at times. Whether your work is deadline/project-based or a by-the-hour telecommuting arrangement it takes discipline to remain focused. Don’t have the discipline? Then try utilizing some of these tricks until you can find your center again.

300px Marek Garztecki 20077 Working From Home: Dealing With Challenges

Image via Wikipedia

Do what works and stick with it.

That is until it stops working. If history shows that you’re more productive in the morning then set your clock every work day and stick with it. More of a night owl? If your work allows that then ok, you’re on the night shift, but that means no television, Web surfing or chatting for a specified number of hours unless it specifically involves work.

Dedicate a space to your work.

True, not everyone has this kind of luxury, space-wise, but if you can make an office it’s highly recommended. There you can be surrounded by inspirational work items and keep your questionable brand of organizing from infringing on the rest of the house. If your work is computer-based spend the money on a better-than-average chair and desk because you don’t want to spend all of your hard-earned cash constantly going to a chiropractor or in traction.

Get out of your jammies.

But isn’t that one of the best perks about? Well yes; and if you find that you continue to be a hotbed of ideas and productivity at things other than watching cartoons then please disregard. But if you find yourself becoming less and less effective and focused with work matters this may be part of the reason. And take a shower and brush your hair for goodness’ sake!

Devise workday rituals.

Figure out your own tricks for staying on top of your game, whether it’s no phone calls until noon, pinning inspiring quotes to you wall, nursing that long-cold coffee… it doesn’t have to be cookie-cutter but find what keeps you rolling. Have you found that 20 minutes of lunchtime yoga gets you back on track? Do it and do it regularly.

Get out of the house.

There will come times when no matter what you try you just can’t get motivated. This is the time to get up and move. Take a walk or jog around the block, walk up to the corner café for lunch, etc. (though skip the liquid lunch if you know what I mean). Sometimes a new setting is all it takes to get things rolling again. If your work is Web based and quiet you can even head up to your favorite indie coffee shop and work from there, if not too distracting. And don’t forget to use the restroom when you need to! No joke, when in the groove it is very easy to forget about taking care of your most basic bodily functions and that’s just not good for your health.

However you choose to go about your work from home situation you need to find whatever works to make sure that you reamain really dedicated to the work at hand, so that your “great new job” doesn’t become your “old job”.

Author Emma Bell writes for Coupon Croc. Need ink for your home office? grab this discount voucher.