So you’ve been offered the chance to work from home. Whether that is for a company or you are self-employed as you launch your own business, be warned it has its drawbacks as well as benefits. Even ‘at home’ the notion of where you work will have a big effect on your success and, just like choosing a real office, your virtual office is all about location, location, location. When choosing where you set up your workspace keep the following in mind:
Comfortable doesn’t mean comfy
Just as doing business in your underpants is possible when you work from home – some offices too we understand – it isn’t recommended if you want to be in the right mind-set to do business. Equally, making your workspace too relaxed an environment can affect where your head is at. Laying on a bed of feathered pillows is great to relax your mind when you want to go to sleep but when you should be focusing on some killer sales tactics it clearly isn’t going to help. You need to be in surroundings that don’t make your back ache but equally you wouldn’t feel embarrassed showing to a client.
Clear from distraction
However much you love your work, temptation is a hard thing to resist day in, day out. If you love your gaming, don’t situate your working space within easy reach of your games console. Keep that as a treat. Have a productive few hours and then use the benefit of working from home to have a gaming session, but don’t make that opportunity over-tempting by sitting alongside it all day.
An Air of distinction
Even if you live and work in a small studio space, make sure you set-up clear lines between what is workspace and what is living space. Even if it is a different chair, make the difference between where you relax and chill and where you do ‘business’. It’s all about the mind-set and psychology again but it is an important step to take to ensure that what you do in your business day has real meaning to it.
Mix it up
One of the negatives of working from home is the lack of social interaction, which however sociable you are or not, will eventually get to you. So don’t be constrained by the ‘from home’ bit. Consider it more as ‘on location’. With the plethora of public wifi facilities available and the strength of 3G and 4G signals there’s no reason why you can’t act just as efficiently sat in your local library, coffee shop or even local park. Just a different location will help reinvigorate your mind so you needn’t choose a busy space if you don’t want to be too sociable.
Working from home could be the best move you ever make, equally it could be your first step downwards in a spiral movement away from productivity. Keep focused and keep the benefits of home-working something a little special and you will soon begin to understand why so-many love the telecommute over the real commute to work.
