How to (Successfully) Work from Home

More and more, I am hearing co-workers and friends alike express the desire to work from home. With the technological advances available today, it's becoming an avenue many employers are willing to venture down. What a nice thought it is; to work from the comfort of your own home - no commute, no rush hour traffic and you could even manage to start dinner a little early. It may seem like a fairy tale to some but the truth is there are several reasons an employer might choose to allow employees to work from home; from cheaper costs in renting office space to less need for supervision staff. The purpose of this article; however, is not to debate whether or not you should be able to work from home, but rather to assist you in being productive once you have requested and been granted permission to work from home.

When I agreed to work part-time from home, I right in to the general thinking that all would be wonderful and I would get an abundance of work done at a faster pace, while in a more comfortable environment. The everyday distractions of the office can sometimes hinder us from completing our work in a timely fashion, so I was ready to see the difference in my work performance at the office versus at home. As excited as I was to crack down on my work, I'll be honest in saying that I did grow giddy at the thought of having the ability to throw a couple loads of laundry in the wash. I quickly realized that it's easy to get into trouble when working from home. Even though I didn't abuse my work from home status, I did have to learn how to manage my time, be disciplined and conform to my new work environment.

1. Veto the Notion of Completing Chores

Other than possibly some light tidying up, don't plan on getting a ton of housework completed on the days you are working from home. You don't spend two hours of each day at the office cleaning, so really, it is not realistic to assume those two hours are going to simply appear for you to deep clean your home. If you do take this time, you'll notice the work you manage to complete will be less than the work completed while at the office, which means your boss will probably notice too.

2. Rise, Shower and Dress...

Just as I admitted to the thought of doing laundry during my time working from home, I will admit that I did try to sneak a little extra sleep those first few days. I thought that I could get some extra sleep, then simply get up and work in my pajamas. No one sees me, after all, so who cares, right? Wrong. First of all, I couldn't stop feeling like I was stuck in this funk. Having no shower and still being in my pajamas simply did not motivate me to work. All I continued to think about was snuggling back into my bed or curling up on the couch with a good book. If you are going to work from home, you need to get up at the same time you would if you were going into the office, shower and dress. The plus that you can actually take advantage of is that you can choose to wear your comfortable jeans with a cotton t-shirt and some sneakers as opposed to a business suit. But remember not to get too carried away with the casualness. I did notice that what I actually enjoyed about continuing to rise early was that without having to commute, I had some extra time to watch the Today show, read the paper, have some coffee...whatever I wanted, really.

3. Terminate Possible Distractions

Whatever time your work day is set to begin, that is when you need to turn off the television, set the home telephone ringer to silent and cut off any potential distractions. You wouldn't be hearing your phone ring or glancing at the noon newscast if you were at the office and your boss is paying you to churn out the same amount of work, so it's best to keep these distractions at bay. You can choose to use whatever time you are allotted for lunch to check your home voicemail or catch some quality tube time, which is an advantage to working from home.

4. Avoid Your To-Do List for Home

Don't even look in the drawer you keep your bills in or think of those thank you notes you have yet to send out. Filling blocks of time throughout the day doing such home to-dos will result in your completed work diminishing over time.

5. Keep Paying for That Child Care

This is, by far, the biggest misconception among those who want to work from home: I can save money on child care by working from home and taking care of my own kids. Honestly, those of us with kids know what our homes are like on the weekends and what parent can tell you that they have a full 8 hours to themselves? Unless you are the kind of parent who will have no qualms with sticking a child in front of a television all day so that you can complete your work, you had better come up with an alternative plan here. I know of some people who work from home in the evenings, when parent #2 or a family member is home to take care of the kids. This way, money is saved on child care and the work is still getting done. Some employers; however, have issues with this, as most business is conducted during the day and they will want you to be available for phone calls. The bottom line is this: expect to get done what you would get done if you were reporting to work and know that there are no requests for chocolate milk or baby Einstein at the office to distract you.