| Brief Guide to Working From Home |
| Working From Home |
| Having worked from home for over 20 years the author is convinced of the advantages of home-working but still remembers many of his early problems which had to be dealt with. These hints are intended to help your efficiency, your sanity and to reduce domestic tension. Working from home does not suit everyone but perhaps there is a lot you can do to make it work for you. This is not a guide about working for yourself but about working for yourself from home. A desk-work occupation is assumed but many of the ideas apply even if you are doing more physical or artistic work. |
| Why work from home? |
|
| Biggest problems in working from home are: |
|
| Keeping "Golden Hours" special |
| The biggest problem with people working from home is not working too little but being distracted. The best solution I've found is to treat the golden hours (9am to 5pm on weekdays) as rather sacred. Don't arrange social meetings during this time and if people "drop in" then you should keep discussions quite short or arrange to see them in the evening. If you explain the idea to your family and friends they will probably respect that and help to give you peace - but don't expect them to read your mind! When you've opened the mail and the sun comes out and you look over your garden you may be tempted to get this or that "small gardening job" done. Your partner or others may have the same thoughts for you. If you want to be effective in your work … think 5pm and think Saturday morning! |
| A-B-C lists |
| Working from home means you don't have so much pressure from others in the same office but equally you don't have the stimulation to remind you of the jobs that need doing. I have found that it works well to do a list at the start of each day and then to go through the list marking each job with an A, B or a C. A is for the jobs which really have to be done on that day, B is jobs that should be done on the day and C is jobs that it would be nice to do. This can help you to get the important jobs done and not to worry too much about all the stuff that you haven't done. |
| Your own room/office, if possible |
| It is a luxury to have enough space but trying to work from the kitchen table is sure to be difficult. If you can organise to have your own room that is much better, and you could think about arranging the furniture to help you enjoy working there - Don't have you back to the door or your nose to a wall! |
| Broadband and answerphones |
| In today's world of email communication and vast web resources you almost certainly need a broadband connection. You will need to think about how the phone is answered when you aren't there, but you can set the tone of your business by having a cheerful and short message. If possible try to use a different computer than the rest of your family. Children on the office computer are a particular hazard and you should try to establish a strict separation between work and home computers. |
| Social cushion |
When you start working from home you often miss the group of people asking how you are, sharing their gossip and generally providing a work social life. Don't despair, you can do things to re-create some parts of this. Some ways of doing this are:
|
| Finding places to meet up with customers and suppliers |
| Sometimes you will probably want somewhere to meet your newer or bigger customers or suppliers, so you need to have a few local places you can meet. These can be local hotels, conference rooms, a nice pub or a restaurant. In my experience most people who meet up are most concerned about being able to set out papers and hear what is said and least concerned about eating exotic food. |
| Summary - make the most of it! |
| You are saving vast costs, giving yourself lots of freedom but you are still a social animal and easily distracted. You need to work on creating structures that make it easy to work happily and effectively. Good luck! |
| Comments, copyright and linking |
|
Comments on this brief guide would be welcome. Also, please let us know if you do put in a link to this guide from your website and we will try to reciprocate with a link from us to your site.
Copyright: these pages are protected by copyright and reproduction of this material is strictly prohibited. Copyright belongs to Giant Games Limited, owner of the briefguides.co.uk and onlineshopping.co.uk websites. © 1997-2006 Giant Games Limited, but you are welcome to have a link to this webpage. |