10 Tips for Working from Home

Congratulations! You officially have your dream job of working from home. You create your own hours, wear whatever you want, outline your own priorities. It’s wonderful! At first, you love the lack of routine, enjoying life without an alarm, and creating your own schedule. But after a few weeks, you find yourself in a funk.

Welcome to the work-from-home slump. We’ve all been there. The secret is self-discipline. Self-discipline is KEY when working from home. Oddly enough, there is freedom in discipline.

Here are my tips for staying out of that dreaded work-from-home slump and getting on to slaying your business goals:

• Plan your day out the night before. You know the saying, “either you run the day, or the day runs you.” This is exactly why you need to plan out your day the night before. Without a general idea of what you need to accomplish and when, you’re likely to find yourself starting late and running in place.
• Wake up early and get to work on time. “Early” is relative here. If you are a night owl and you prefer to work late, your “early” would be different than a morning person whose brain activity shuts down at 9 p.m. The point is, set standard business hours and come up with a routine. You need to be reliable for yourself and show up daily.
• Get dressed! You don’t have to dress for success, but don’t roll out of bed and begin work in your pajamas. Take a shower, get dressed in different clothes, and “go” to work. This simple step will help you not only plug in energized and ready to go for the day, but it will also keep you focused during your work hours.
• Create a schedule for your work day and your goals. Set goals and plan out how you will achieve them. When will you hit them? How will you work towards them? What are your milestones for this week, month, year, life? Come up with five specific, manageable tasks you can do each day to get there. If you do this, you will strengthen your discipline and confidence.
• You have to be focused. Working from home can be challenging. Every time you look up from your task, you’re likely to get distracted. It could be your phone, that pile of laundry by the hamper, or the plates left out from breakfast. Rather than give in to these avoidance tasks, think of getting up or checking your phone as your reward for completing your tasks.
• Create an ideal home office space. You want this to be somewhere that you want to be. I love my space to be bright and inviting with lots of natural light. I have it decorated with things that motivate and inspire me.
• Get out of the house. Avoid burnout by scheduling daily gym time, blowout appointments, work from the local coffee shop. You are not on house arrest. You can leave and you should. Your health and sanity need you to!
• Socialize with others. You’re likely working alone which can be isolating. Go out and talk to other human beings. Attend local meetings, maintain regular gym times to make friends, etc.
• Watch stress levels. Being your own boss is stressful, don’t let it get to you. Success takes patience. Whenever you feel that overwhelming urge of pressure, change your environment. Go for a walk outside, take a working vacay, whatever you can manage, just change your environment. It will work wonders!
• Outsource when you can. Find a way to outsource things you don’t like doing. If you know what your weaknesses are, stop trying to make them your strengths. Outsource your cleaning or taxes or whatever that “thing” is so that you can keep your energy and focus where it needs to be. Especially on those income producing activities!

Bonus Tip: Keep personally developing. Continually up level yourself. Take one hour a day to learn something new via podcasts, events, books, whatever works best for you. Stay up on newest trends in your industry to keep competitive. Follow and learn from those doing more advanced activities – they may even be in another field. Learn from them and apply the skills or tools to your business.

Being self-disciplined in these tips will allow you to get more accomplished during the time that you are “at” work. This way, you can fully enjoy the time freedom of working from home!

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Blog Article Curated by Southern Social for our incredible client, Jana Kennedy at www.janakennedy.com