Whether you are aiming to work the CMC markets in your favour or you have a telecommuting arrangement set up with an employer, transitioning from the world of office worker to home-based-worker can be a bit of a shock to the system, to say the least.
While this can be an incredibly fulfilling and uplifting way to work — and one which, of course, allows for the freedom to stay involved with your child’s upbringing while simultaneously working — there are a few tips you should keep in mind.
Here are some suggestions for adapting seamlessly to working from home.
Take a walk every day and try to interact with people
When your job can be done from home and your shopping delivered straight to your door, it can be all too easy to end up barely leaving the house or interacting with other people for days. This is potentially disastrous for your mental health and wellbeing.
For this reason, it is essential that you make a priority of finding time each day to get out of the house and walk around. The exercise, the fresh air, and the sun will all benefit you greatly.
In addition to just walking around, you should also do your best to interact with other people on a daily basis. Ideally, you will find a social group who you can meet up with for coffee on a regular basis, but even just chatting to a cashier is better than nothing.
Investigate some time management apps and tools
When working from home, you will likely find that you have a great deal of flexibility in terms of when you actually work. Generally, as long as you meet your deadlines, clients or employers will not care if you have been grinding out your work at 3:00 am, or at midday.
This is a good thing, in one sense, but a bad thing in another.
Maintaining as regular a work-schedule as possible is a fantastic way of keeping yourself focused, disciplined and motivated. However, mothers all know that regularity will not always be possible. For this reason, it is essential that you are disciplined enough to use every free hour as wisely as possible. Services such as TimeDoctor or RescueTime can help keep you accountable for you spend those precious minutes, as can books like 168 hours by Laura Vanderkam.
Create a dedicated workspace, and keep it as separated from the rest of the home as possible
Psychological triggers can have a major impact on how people relate to the world around them and navigate its challenges. Consider ex-smokers who get immense cravings when having their morning cup of coffee, for example.
Is coffee in any way linked to cigarettes? Not really, but the habit of smoking while drinking a cup forms a strong psychological trigger.
In order to work these psychological mechanisms in your favour, you’ll want to set aside a part of your home to use as a study, even if it’s only a single desk. This space must be for work only, and it must be kept neat and professional. When you sit down here to work, all your instincts should snap into “professional mode”.