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Work at Home without Distractions: 4 Habits to Avoid
By Meaghan Montrose
Rolling out of bed at noon, sitting with your laptop on the couch in your pajamas, sipping on coffee with your favorite soap opera playing on the T.V. This sounds like the perfect work at home experience right? Well, it sounds great but if this is how you work everyday your business if going to suffer.
There are plenty of benefits to working at home (perhaps a blog for another day) but one of the disadvantages is getting too comfortable in the relaxed setting. I am by no means saying that it is not possible to work effectively in your pajamas or while you are enjoying a morning cup of Joe. However, completely abandoning traditional work standards and expectations can take a toll on your productivity. If you become too relaxed and let yourself become distracted by the many temptations around the house you will end up in a routine of half work and half play that leads to half the success.
Here are some habits to avoid in your daily work-at-home life:
1. Don’t sleep the day away. Set an alarm to keep a relatively consistent schedule. Obviously there is flexibility here (that’s a major perk of working at home), but you don’t want to confuse flexibility with laziness.
2. Don’t stay in your pajamas all day! Although you aren’t leaving the house you have to remember that you are working. Staying in your PJs is something you want to save for a lazy Sunday. You should get up, shower, and dress as if you were going out of the house to work. (You can keep the slippers on!)
3. Dont watch television or listen to the radio while working. These are just distracters that will slow you down. Instead, stay focused on your work for a few hours in a quiet environment. You’ll get much more work accomplished this way and then you can reward yourself by scheduling a break during your favorite daytime show.
4. Don’t mix your personal business with your work business. When you are working you want to stay focused on the task at hand and not be distracted by your own personal to-do list. It is best to devote chunks of time exclusively to your work instead of mixing in non-business related activities such as talking to a friend, checking personal email, searching for gifts online, or downloading music. As with point #3, schedule breaks ahead of time for dealing with your personal matters.
Topics: Starting/Running Your Tutoring Business, Uncategorized, Work from Home | No Comments »