Are You Serious About Working At Home?
Having been a full-time remote worker for about 4 years, I have learned that working at home requires commitment. To make the most of the schedule, you have to be mindful of what is happening with your business and others. If you're serious about working from home, read on for some tips on how to find time and keep it from disappearing into digital ether.
The first rule of remote work: Don't work too much! In theory, if you simply work less hours in a day and are more productive (or just as productive) as ever, there's no reason why you should be frustrated or become bored with your lifestyle. This means doing only what you want to do and not getting stuck on lengthy meetings or trying to do too much in a day.
The second rule: Don't work too little. We all have a hard time making our ideas happen, but the reality is that if you don't work consistently, your goals will probably never get done. I know this is hard because you may feel like a productive human being when you're working from home, but the problem is that in order to truly start bringing in money, you need to build a brand and create subscribers for your online business. In order for that to happen, you need to create an online presence and make people aware of what you're doing.
So, let me paint you a picture. You have a dream to do something amazing and make it happen. You go to the garage and get out your tools, start digging in and getting ready to build something amazing. A few days later, you start building your business, and you're working on something new each day. You start posting blogs on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter; uploading videos on YouTube; creating PDFs of your work; while working on the next round of comments for your website and all those other extracurriculars I mentioned—and then some! And by the time Christmas rolls around you've put in a full month at home.
It's been almost a week, and you haven't put much into any of your online endeavors because you're still putting in long hours at the office. Your spouse or significant other is beginning to ask why you're not doing the same amount of work from home that you were when you were at the office—and that's a good question. You know deep down that your brand is suffering, but it's easy to ignore and keep going. And then life happens; maybe someone gets sick or a family member calls with an emergency and suddenly, you've been out of town for a full month and haven't put anything into your business for weeks.
When you finally return to regular habits, you put a lot of effort in for a few weeks—maybe even months. And then life happens again, and before you know it, you've been gone from the virtual office for a couple more months. Before long, your business becomes abandoned and your dreams never materialize. What were once plans for expansion are now just low-paying freelance work that brings in so little money that it barely covers the costs of running your business.
In multiple ways, this is what happens when good people lose their way. The Internet is full with stories of those who set out to create something amazing but end up working too much or not enough—and not getting anything done either way.
So, how do you keep your business from tanking and make the most of your time?
First, try to build in an hour for yourself every afternoon. Take a walk, go to the gym, or just sit down for an hour and do nothing but rest. This is important because it's very easy to get caught up with all of the things you have to do and forget about your goals. A little rest will help you to focus and regain some energy, allowing you to get back on track.
Second, stay mindful of what's happening with your business. Whether you're working from a traditional office or at home, it's important to stay productive, aware and active. It's also important to make sure you're part of the team in order to improve your team and make sure everyone feels like they are being included.
At first, try not taking meetings with clients via email. Try being in the room with them rather than sitting at home behind a laptop—and think about what they are doing while they are there so that you can ask questions or otherwise remain more connected.
Third, when you're working at home, try to bring in as many people as possible. Whether it's a fellow business owner or a relative, go out of your way to bring someone else into the mix—whether it's though someone else who is also working from home or through word-of-mouth. You may even want to consider forming a virtual team that works on business things together.
If you're the only one who works from home, and there is another office worker in your company, I highly recommend that you take turns working from home and from the office at least twice per month. This way, you can keep up with both sides of the business while not being bored or depressed because everyone else is gone.
Fourth, start doing a little bit every day. If you're going to be working from home, it's easy to think that the only way to make things happen is by putting in a ton of time. But this isn't true. A little bit every day goes a long way. Working for an hour every other day will double your work every month—and you'll have time for a lunch break!
Fifth and most importantly, stop thinking about what you can do without and instead focus on what you can do with. We have all the tools: phones, email, and the Internet. All we need to do is learn how to use them.
How do you know when you're ready? Don't get me wrong—just because you're working from your home office doesn't mean you're not ready. It means that now is the time to start building and putting one foot in front of the other because we never know where life will lead us. And when that happens, we'll all be proud of how far we've come.
I'm Kristie at www.johnthecommonsensemoment.com.
Image: Thinkstock/Comstock Images Inc.
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Kristie Abolaji is the author of "A John The Commonsense Moment Guide: How to Build an Online Business That Gives Customers Everything They Want, While Still Getting Paid" which you can grab for free at www.johnthecommonsensemoment.com/free. Now, Click Here to subscribe to www.johnthecommonsensemoment.com and get additional FREE bonuses! Follow Kristie on Twitter at @JohnTheCommonsns and like her Facebook page at www.facebook.
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Do you have any thoughts, stories or personal experiences to share? I'd love to hear them. Leave a comment or email me at johnthecommonsensemoment@gmail.com.
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