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Tips for working from home
I will list some tips for working from home, be it if you have to work around children or even if you don't have children.
General tips for working from home
Try not to let your work dominate too much of your time. It's hard I know as your workplace is only a stone's throw away. The whole idea of working from home for some people is to actually be able to spend time with their families. I find this extremely hard to do, I'm always popping in to my office area to work, and to update this site of course.
Set up a separate area or preferably a room that you can close yourself in, in order to be more productive in your work. And in order to sound more professional when speaking to
clients
on the phone - at least you can shut the noise of the house and children out whilst talking. (With toddlers and babies, I try to make phone calls when they're sleeping, but you don't have that luxury with incoming calls). I know of a fellow VA who works in an open room of her house. I don't know how she focuses on her work with family walking past her, TV noise, etc.
Explain to your family what working from home will actually mean. My husband still can't understand why the bathroom sinks are dirty when I've been home all day. Ugh!!!! Um I've been WORKING in my office when the toddler sleeps, and then running errands and selecting one or two house cleaning chores a day, then reading and spending time with the toddler and then school pick ups and then preparing dinner. Then eating, bath time, spending time with the children. Then my husband gets home and then I finally get to go into the office for a few more hours in the evening. So sorry the sinks will have to wait.
Just because you work from home it doesn't mean that you are no longer professional. Actually you have to come across even more professional than you ever did, in order to gain respect from clients. So answer phones professionally, even dress a bit more professionally as I find if I look professional I then act professional.
Stay disciplined with your work, structure your work hours and don't get distracted from your work. Otherwise you will never bring in a proper income. What keeps me focused is the fact that when it comes to
billing my clients
at the end of the month I will be happy with the amount on my invoices, so I am very disciplined. One major thing that can eat up your valuable time is reading the copious amounts of emails that come through from groups or networks that you may belong to. Don't succumb to reading them all in detail and only answer a few if you can assist a fellow work from home professional.
Tips for working from home if you have children
Some of us are able to work around our children, especially if they are in school, so that's a great chunk of time in which you can work. Others don't mind working late into the evenings when the kids are asleep. But for others a form of childcare a couple of days a week may be the answer if you just can't seem to get your work done.
You may have chosen to work from home so that you can be more active in your child's schooling, social activities, etc, but try not to get too caught up in too much of this activity as it can really limit the time you have left on which to focus on your business.
Continuing from the point above about your family, explain to older children why you're working from home. I do this to be able to take my child to school and back again and not have him go to before or after school care programs. Also to be there for him when he needs something, I'm only in the room next door if I do pop in to do some work whilst he's awake. He loves having his mum around. He'll pop in for a chat or to ask for a glass of milk.
I have more information on the
start up as a virtual assistant
page as well which goes into more detail on working from home and the benefits and further tips.
Please do peruse the rest of this site as there is so much more information and tips for working from home scattered throughout.
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