More and more professionals are cutting ties with the traditional office and clocking in from the comfort of their own homes. While the idea of working from home is music to many professionals’ ears, telecommuting isn’t as easy as it sounds. Fewer sources of motivation and abundant distractions can render productive professionals useless. A sound strategy can mean the difference between productive employee and couch potato.
Organize your home office, follow a schedule and take advantage of helpful tools to stay productive from home.
Limit Distractions
Create a separate place to work that is not in the middle of all the household confusion. Ideally, you will be able to create an office in the attic or basement away from the kids and the regular household activities. If you don’t have an attic or basement, consider a guest bedroom or turn your unused dining room or formal sitting room into an office, but make sure to install a door to keep out noise and other distractions. If you want to create the ultimate home office, consider converting a detached garage into your own private work space.
Schedule Your Day
Second, organize a schedule for the day. Depending on the type of work you complete at home, you should know approximately how many hours you will need to spend working. Set a schedule of when you will begin working, how long you will work, when you will take a break, and when you will finish for the day. Too often when people work at home, they actually spend more hours working than if they went to the office. Give yourself a specific amount of time to spend at the “office” and then leave work and return to your home and family activities.
Get Organized
Once you have the location of the office settled, begin to organize your documents and files. The easiest and most convenient way to virtually organize all of your files is through Google Drive, a cloud computing application that enables you to access documents anywhere you have an Internet connection. Google Drive also offers offline mode, according to Internetproviders.com, so users have access to documents even without Internet access. If you have a meeting downtown, get a call from a client while at the coffee shop, or go on vacation, your files are ready and waiting whenever you need them. Not only will Google Drive give you access to your files wherever you are, it is also an excellent way to back up important information in case your computer crashes.
A productive home office can make your job seem like a dream job. The flexibility and convenience of working at home is economical and environmentally friendly. Join the millions of other people who walk just a few steps and begin each day working in their home office.
