Working From Home Efficiently

By Ken Cobb

If you work from home, you know that somehow you always end up with the kids’ toys under your desk. If you do not have a spare room to house your office and do not really have a desk either, you will find that working from home efficiently is even more of a challenge! While overcoming this challenge is possible with ingenuity and commitment, there are some simple steps you can take to set yourself up for success rather than failure.

• Separate the family from the business as much as possible. Have a different phone number for your business related calls, even if it is just your cell phone number. Use a different email address, even if it has to be web-based. Have a computer folder where all your subfolders and documents go. In other words, do not chance that your kids will answer the business line, or the teen who thinks she is emailing her BFF about the latest shenanigans at the home economics class in the afternoon is instead emailing to your clients.
• Be fair to family and clients. When you are committed to working, do not suddenly pack up and take the kids to the fast food burger joint – unless you are on your lunch break. Similarly, if you are ready to sit down as a family to dinner, do not suddenly get up and answer the business line. A clear separation cuts both ways and will generate a lot of goodwill from your family members who are more likely to let you do the work you need to accomplish when they know that the evenings belong to them.
• Keep an area devoted to your business. No matter how cramped for space you are, if all else fails, have a tackle box with your office supplies, computer disks, and other items you need to do your job. Take out what you need and put back what you are done with at the end of your work time.
• Taking good care of your computer is essential to working from home efficiently. Update your anti virus and spyware definitions often, run frequent sweeps, and do not download frivolous games and questionable bits and pieces of software. The danger of unwittingly inviting a Trojan virus into your computer and thus leaving your business lame in the water are too great!
• Resist the temptation of taking the business with you wherever you go. Working efficiently from home requires an understanding of boundaries, and seeing you key away at your daughter’s ballet rehearsal is not setting a good example of a boundary being observed. Instead, live in the moment and relish it: if you are at work, work with all your mind and heart; but if you are at a soccer game or ballet recital, give it your undivided attention.
• Last but not least, plan for vacations and other times away from the business. Efficiency comes from a lack of burnout, which in turn is predicated on sufficient rest in between jobs and assignments. Take time off to make the time on more efficient and qualitatively productive!

Ken Cobb is the founder and CEO of Next Level Enterprises, LLC an industry leader in home business Internet Marketing, Consulting and CRM Solutions.

For more information: info@NextLevelEnterprises.com