Working from Home - Some Rules to Follow

[OnefortheMoney]

I'm still amazed at the number of home-based business owners who think that they can work from the comfort of a table in their kitchen while the kids are spilling drinks all over the place and the dog is chewing through the laptop power lead during a vital recharge.

Working from home requires great discipline, great organisation and some sensible working habits. Here are some rules I always follow myself when I work from home:

1. Have a designated work area away from distractions. You can't work from the kitchen table if the room is a hub of activity within your home. Create your own office and use that space exclusively for work. Don't be tempted to do anything else in there in your spare time, such as surfing the Internet or chilling out. You'll only come to resent being in your office and productivity will fall.
2. Be professional and get dressed in the mornings. Forget the idiots who say they're making thousands of dollars every month in their pyjamas. Sitting in bedwear all day makes you lazy. Get up, shower, brush your teeth and dress for work. If you do end up having to leave the house for something like a business meeting, you'll be ready to rock and roll. If you have to interrupt your work to clean up, it just adds up to more lost hours in the day.
3. Have a start time and a finish time with scheduled breaks along the way. Don't be tempted into hitting the snooze button and doing an extra hour later in the day. The chances are that you won't do that hour anyway. A couple of 15 minute breaks and a half-hour for lunch are about right if you are working an eight-hour day. Take an hour for lunch if you work 9 hours or more.
4. Eat properly. Don't spend all day picking as every trip to the fridge is ten minutes away from your work. Prep a sandwich for a mid morning snack to be eaten on your break and have a decent-sized lunch to keep hunger at bay. Top up on fruit during your afternoon break.
5. If you really have to work late to meet a deadline, don't let it affect your next day. Be up at the same time and follow your usual routine. Everybody has to work late sometimes, but not everybody has the luxury of staying in bed for an extra hour or two every day.
6. Don't spend all day checking emails or, even worse, checking what your friends are doing on Facebook. Check mails at the start of the day and once more after lunch. Going to your inbox every fifteen minutes is time consuming and wasteful.

[IM Today]

One more to add - Avoid procrastination at all costs. Remember that tomorrow never comes and if you put things off until the next day, the time it takes to catch up is continually eating into your profits. Be as regimented and disciplined as possible at all times. You still have responsibilities even if you are the boss and if you aren't getting your work finished on time, your business and reputation will suffer.

[Chris Hexton]

All good points. I've found that working at home on something with a business partner always makes me much more productive. The feeling of 'I'm letting someone else down here too' always motivates .

[EmilyF]

I'm working from home this morning but it's becoming more of a rarity these days. I'm really aware of the distractions so I work with the TV and radio off and switch off my personal mobile phone. I set myself a target for the day and don't stop until I finish. I try to think of the rewards of cracking on and getting finished. If I have everything done early, there's more free time for me. If I slow down of get distracted, I won't allow myself to finish until everything is done. You have to be really disciplined but setting a daily target for what you want to achieve certainly helps.

[elitebag]

In fact It is very hard to follow all of these especially the time to work.If you do international business,the time will be different and you can work as schedule.Having a office at home is very important in fact ,I agree with that.