I quit my full-time job a few months ago. Playing mom to a 2-year-old is a full-time job in itself and I found that leaving my toddler with hired help just wasn’t my cup of tea. And so after many long talks with the hubby, quitting my job to explore the opportunities of working from home and enjoying the extra hours with baby was what I was going to do.
Working from home, as easy as it sounds, is not all it’s made out to be though. Trying to put together more than 15 minutes of undisturbed work-time is a helluva task, what with baby calling every few minutes, the doorbell ringing, meals to be prepared, domestic help to be instructed, intermittent phone calls and just about anything else you could think of.
So after weeks of struggle and more stress than I had initially anticipated, I figured out a few simple rules to help make working from home work for me. So if you’re freelancing, telecommuting or even self-employed, here are some tips on how to make it work for you:
Draw up a schedule
Make a list of all your daily tasks and the time each requires. You may think you have plenty of time to work and you probably do, but quite often, that time is lost in tasks that take more time than anticipated or just for the lack of some simple time management. So make a list, put down the time each task requires, and get a realistic picture of the time you can dedicate to your work. Identify your most productive hours (some find that mornings are best, some prefer working late into the night) and find a way to free up that time for your work.
Prioritize and plan
Just because you are at home does not mean every little task requires your personal supervision. Look at the tasks that require your attention and tasks that can be delegated to someone else in the family. Organize your day in a way that maximizes your effort – club together all the tasks that require you to be out of the house (picking up baby from daycare, paying the bills, grocery shopping, etc.); instead of cooking one meal at a time, cook two or three dishes in enough quantities to last at least a couple of days.
Start off slow
In your enthusiasm to hit the ground running, do not bite off more than you can chew. Start off with one or two assignments and gradually increase your work hours. Taking on too much right at the outset can leave you stressed out, cause you to hand in slipshod assignments, or even cause you to miss deadlines (something that you want to steer clear of). So take your time and ease yourself into your work schedule.
Do your research
Working from home might present online opportunities that may seem too good to be true, and chances are they are! There are a lot of schemes out there offering hundreds of dollars for little work on your part, for a small fee of course. As tempting as they seem, be very wary, they might be scams to get you to give them money or they may even be illegal. So do your homework and if you are interested in more than a clerical job (data entry and the like) go deeper than the ‘hundreds of positions open’ to find a more rewarding, fulfilling work-from-home job. Read up, ask around and update your skills to suit the positions available.
Establish boundaries
This will be tough starting out, but it is just as essential. Boundaries help you balance work and home without one eating in to the other. Designate one room or one corner to be your workspace, close the door when you are working, switch off the phone, announce that you are working and are not to be disturbed for that period of time.
Of course, boundaries work both ways, if your work allows it, try to fix certain times that you will be available to your employer/office and times when you will not. Often colleagues or organizations begin to believe that the fact that you can log in to work means that you will, any time of the day or night. Try to establish fixed work hours as early as you can to avoid being ‘on call’ 24x7.
Treat work as work
Staying home makes it easy to delay breakfast, work through lunch and switch on the TV while you’re logged in. This is not the best or most productive method of functioning. Start your day the way you would if you were heading to the office. Get out of bed, change out of your PJs, have a good breakfast and plan your day. Take regular breaks and stick to your schedule, start on time and finish on time. As tempting as it may be, try to avoid switching on your computer once you are done for the day. Instead make a quick note on tasks you need to complete and schedule them in for the next day.
Set aside free time
Whatever your reason for working from home, do not underestimate the importance of setting aside an hour or two to relax and clear your mind. It’s easy to feel burned out with the blurred boundaries between your home and work life. If one solid hour is hard to manage, try regular 10-20 minute breaks, and no, playing with baby does not count (as happy as it may make you at the time). Alone time is the best way to refresh a tired mind.
Keep online distractions at bay
Being online for most of us means logging on to chat, having one browser window with Facebook open, another with YouTube and a third with Twitter. If these are not directly related to your work, don’t open them! If you need to be on chat, stay ‘invisible’ or ‘busy’ so that you don’t spend your mornings chatting with friends.
Keep in touch
When you’re working from home there’s a danger of retreating into your own little world, cut off from the world that is not online when you are. Take the time to call colleagues, work contacts and establish a relationship outside of e-mail. Try to establish a personal relationship with the people you interact with, connect with them and thank them for help extended to you. Not only is it polite, it will help you going forward.
Stay grounded
Finally, thank your lucky stars everyday that you are now working your own hours and are not trapped in the 9-to-5 routine. Think about it, you could be sitting in rush hour traffic, relegated to a tiny cubicle having to cope with office politics. If that doesn’t keep you enthusiastic and motivated about your work, nothing will!
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—About our writer:
Shifra Menezes has over seven years of experience in content writing and editing. She has worked on print and online projects for a number of leading corporates, some of which include the Tata Group and Aditya Birla Group. She has also worked in online news media as part of the content teams at Times Now and Rediff.com. She has experience in business writing, report and article writing and editing across print, web and multimedia projects.
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