There are two views of working from home. The first is the one that points out all the free time you’ll have now that you’re able to decide your own hours, take on whatever projects you want and become a real buzz in your industry. You see yourself as the go-to person, constantly on the phone and will opportunities galore. You’re a real solopreneur, doing deals out there in the real world and constantly scanning for opportunities. Compared to your day job, you’re living the high life, and it’s amazing.
Then there’s the other view. This is the view that doesn’t see working from home as a triumph, it sees it as a last resort. You’re only working from home because you got pushed out of your old job and now you’re desperately scrabbling around to find somebody – anybody – who’ll buy your services. What’s worse, you’re low on confidence, and you’re not thriving in an environment where you have to generate your own business. You find yourself wasting time, having unnecessarily long lie-ins and spending an undue amount of time on the internet doing things that aren’t work related.
Clearly, these two views of working from home are very different, so what can you do to make your experience more like the former and less like the latter?
Manage Your Snack Intake
If there’s one thing that can happen to home workers, it’s that they can quickly become grazers. When you work from home, there are no social pressures not to allow a mountain of empty chip packets to mount up on the desk beside you. Plus, eating snacks all the time will slow you down, drain your concentration, and reduce the quality of your work. If you have to snack, snack on stuff that’s healthy and takes a long time to eat. That includes things like whole pomegranates and nuts that are still inside their shells.
Get Mail Forwarded
The last thing you want while working from home is to have all of your mail sent to your home address directly. You need the flexibility to have it forwarded to wherever you are so that you don’t miss those all-important client letters. Global mailbox forwarding allows people who work from home to get their mail forwarded to wherever they are, enabling them to keep their personal address private.
Skip Household Chores In The Day
When you’re working, you’re working. For many people working from home, doing household chores during the day can be tempting, but experts say it’s a big “no-no.” Chores should be saved for the evenings and weekends, otherwise, you’ll end up wasting time during the day and get into a habit of focusing on domestic issues when you should be thinking about business.
Your Weekends Are Sacred
People start working from home usually because they want a better work-life balance. Nothing destroys the quality of your life more than a two-hour daily commute. But all too many work-from-home types want to be “different” from their competitors, so they open up their weekends for business. If you do this, make sure that you have some extended downtime during the week. You don’t want to be like a regular stressed up office worker, looking into the blue light of the work phone seven days a week.