PMI Home Business

In recent times, the phenomenon of working at home has steadily grown in popularity. People are able to enter various avenues when working from home nowadays; whether you are simply taking advantage of the home computer and internet, you have decided to set up your own business or you have chosen the profession of a freelance writer, working from home can throw up many conundrums.

Speaking from experience, it can be difficult to find the motivation to begin work on any given day at home and then persevere with it. It can be of particular complexity if you have only just begun to work from home, having spent the majority of your time in an office. But, during my time as a freelance writer, I have come up with some tips to remain productive throughout the day. It is my hope that they can in some way assist you:

Have a work room

The best tip that you can follow is to set aside a room specifically for work. It doesn’t need to be a grand study, as long as it’s quiet and holds whatever you need for working. This way, once you enter the room you know you’re in your work environment and it’s time to get down to business.

However, some people may not have a room free in the house, a common problem if you live in a flat (again, personal experience for this one!) or have a large family. If this is true then the best you can do is disconnect anything that could be of distraction, such as the TV. Even getting someone to block access to certain distracting websites, such as social networking websites, can do wonders for channelling your internet usage into helpful sites, rather than spending 2 of your working hours chatting with a friend about last night’s football game on an instant messenger!

Give yourself a schedule

Set yourself a realistic time table and condition yourself to work to it. Make sure you don’t do too much or too little work a day; remember, not doing enough work won’t bring in the money you want, while doing too much work is likely to lower the quality of what you produce. A good time to set is around 5 hours a day with regular breaks.

This time table isn’t for everyone of course, and those who have other commitments such as a family life, college or university studies may find it hard to reach this target. It’s important to set your own boundaries.

Make sure everyone else knows your schedule

An essential tip if you live with family or flatmates. Social distractions can often be the hardest to resist, whether it’s just going for “a quick half” at the local with a flatmate or reading a story to a son or daughter.

Don’t multitask

This is something freelancers may particularly have issues with. While it is commendable and encouraged to dedicate some time a week to looking for other jobs, make sure you’re not on more than one at any given time! Apart from being difficult to change your mind set from one task to another, writing a paragraph about dental insurance in the middle of an essay on the Cold War can seem out of place to say the least.

For some, having just one task at a time can be difficult, especially for students. This is what makes rotating days so useful, so you can do one day of your freelance work and then concentrate on your studies the next. If you find yourself with a large work load this might not be possible, but actually having a different location to do each type of work can help to create a barrier between the two; for example, doing university study at the library and freelance work at home can help create a gap between the two and set your mind to that particular task.

This article was written by Lewis who is a freelance writer for medical and dental websites including the Cosmetic Dentistry Guide.

Filed under: Business by Scott on Wednesday, May 4, 2011 | Social tagging: home based > tips > work from home