Strategies for Overcome Challenges of Working from Home

Recently, I decided to take the plunge and work from home. I have been writing articles on Helium and Associated Content for over a year. After several not so wonderful situations with a former boss, I decided to make writing my full time job. I have found that working from home can be very freeing and rewarding. I have also found that working from home can come with many challenges. I want to share my work from home challenges and strategies to overcome them.

When working from home, it is crucial that you manage your expectations. Many people think that working from home will be a bed of roses. When I made the moving to working from home, I thought that I would have a greater amount of free time. I started each workday by sleeping late, taking a shower, and then working out. I sat down to work at 9:00 a.m. This is about the time my wife gets off of work (she works a split shift). When she got home, she would want me to spend time with her. Before long, the day was over half gone and I had not done any work. My expectation was that working from home would give me ultimate freedom. In reality, I still had deadlines and a workload, I was just working from home. Working from home success required me to adjust my expectations.

Set aside space for your office. I live in a small apartment. Space requirements have made it difficult to set aside an office space. Initially, this fact caused multiple challenges. The only place that I have to work is our living room coffee table. My wife is off between the hours of 9 a.m. To 2:30 p.m.. Of course, these are the hours that I like to do my work. Yet, I do not want to interfere with my wife's routine. This puts me in the middle of a battle between doing my work, while having the TV going and my wife going about her day. Marsela expalins the importance of setting aside office space as, "Keep your office and house as separate as possible. Create an office that you really enjoy walking into and that has everything you want in one area. Organization books call it a "zone": an area of the house having one purpose."

Make regular work hours. One of the good things, of working from home, is being able to set your own schedule. The key thing is, you need to set a schedule. In an office, there are many things that may become "time stealers". Coworkers entering your office, extra request from your boss, and even office gossip can rob you of precious time. Working from home can be very similar. At home, forces like your wife, children, or even a buddy wanting to have lunch taken in the precious work time. Setting a schedule can help minimize these "times stealers".

Make your work hours known. Setting work hours can help minimize distractions. However, it is also important to let people know about your work hours. Letting your wife, children, and friends know when you will be working, offers several benefits. Everyone will know exactly when you are working and be able to schedule around your work time. This will help to minimize distractions and can greatly aid your productivity.

Setting work hours and letting your family know can help minimize distractions; however, sometimes these steps are not enough. You may find yourself needing some additional steps to overcome distractions. Pawlik-Kienlen describes these steps as, "Screen your calls and don't answer personal ones during your work day. Be firm with your kids or partner: you are working and unless their hair is on fire, you're not to be interrupted. Meet your friends for lunch or walks only during your scheduled break times (if you make exceptions, make sure you're not permanently disrupted by changes in your routine)."

There are many ways to control work from home distractions. Gregory offers multiple ideas for minimizing work from home distractions including turning off the new mail notification on your email, schedule calls in advance, avoid taking personal calls during work hours, minimize checking social networks, turn off instant messaging, and discourage personal visitors during work hours. These steps will help minimize distractions.

Remember to take breaks. While working in an office, remembering to take breaks can be easy. Often, you need time away from your office or even coworkers. When working at home, it is much easier to get sucked into your work. When I am researching an interesting article topic, it is easy for several hours to go by. While this may be fun sometimes, not taking a break can reduce your productivity and lead to burnout. Catone wrote, "Twenty minutes of fresh air is an amazing way to recharge myself for the rest of the day."

Find your motivation. Working from home can be great. You have more freedom than working for someone else. At the same time, you also have more freedom than working for someone else. You must be internally driven to get your work done. This requires having a motivation that provides this internal drive.

Watch out for procrastination. Procrastination can become a problem whether you are working in an office or at home. The problem with procrastination is, by the time you realize you are procrastination, you have lost valuable time. Procrastination has been my worst enemy working at home. My whole life, I have fought procrastination. Working at home offers me the opportunity to do thing that I could not while working (i.e. sleeping late, working out, etc.). However, without scheduling these things, I find that I can lose my whole day rather quickly. There are ways to overcome procrastination.

Setting goals can help overcome procrastination and help your motivation level. Setting goals will tell you exactly what you need to get done the next day. While I cannot tell you exactly what goals to set, I can let you know how I set goals. I am very money driven. Not for the sake of money but for the freedom it can offer me. I set the number of articles for the day based on my monthly bills. When I have written my article quota, I decide on whether to quit working or not. When I have reached my goals then my work day is over. Allowing your self to quit working, when reaching your goals, can help you keep a high level of motivation.

Working from home can be very rewarding. Working from home can allow you to set your own schedule and manage your own workload. The freedom of working from home can also bring challenges such as separating work and home time. Implementing strategies such as setting aside a work space, controlling procrastination, and setting goals will help you successfully work form home.

References
Marsala, Maria.n.d. Top 10 Challenges to Working At Home. DiversityWorking.com. Retrieved on December 15, 2009 form http://www.diversityworking.com/career/Advertising/Alabama_jobs/story/198.html

Pawlik-Kienlen, Laurie. n.d. Work from Home Disadvatages. Suite101.com. Retrieved on December 15, 2009 from http://psychology.suite101.com/article.cfm/work_from_home_disadvantages

The challenges of working from home. n.d. Odesk Blog. Retreived on December 15, 2009 from http://www.odesk.com/blog/2009/02/the-challenges-of-working-from-home-2/

Catone, Josh. n.d. 12 Ways to Keep Sane While Working from Home. Sitepoint.com. Retrieved on December 15, 2009 from http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2008/12/19/12-ways-to-keep-sane-while-working-from-home/

Gregory, Alyssa. n.d. The Ultimate Guide to Killing Work-at-Home Distractions. Sitepoint.com. Retrieved on December 15, 2009 from http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/11/09/how-to-kill-work-at-home-distractions/

Gregory, Alyssa. n.d. How I Mastered The Challenges Of Working From Home. Sitepoint.com. Retrieved on December 15, 2009 from http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/05/16/working-from-home-challenges/