Working from Home and Making it Work
Working from home offers the best of both worlds, but notwithout its unique challenges. Coping with living where youwork, and working where you (and your family) live, can be morecomplicated than it appeared when you first thought up thosegreat home base business ideas. Here is a look at a few of thecommon issues and some tips on how to master them.The end of the workday routineThe alarm goes off at the usual time. The kids head off toschool and your partner heads off to the ...
...regular workenvironment. You - proud new home business owner - are suddenlyleft in a quiet house. It doesn't feel like a work day. It feelsa bit disorienting, actually. Why?We're creatures of habit. We organize our lives, to a greatextent, by recognizing cues, or signals, that psychologists call"triggers". Triggers, simply, are the events or surroundingsthat we learn to associate with feelings, and actions. Triggersgive us permission, or instruct us, to behave and feel incertain ways. Make sense? Stay with me.We've been learning these associations all of our lives and oneof the triggers we learned all the way back in kindergarten isthat if we are home, it's a day off, a holiday, or we are sick.You work out there at the office - you play or relax in here, athome. If you weren't raised on a farm, or in a family thatoperated home based businesses, working at home is a foreignidea. Its likely that all of your old associations about beingat home will trigger many feelings and motivations, but nonewill tell you that you are at work.How to cope with old triggersIf you can't keep 'em, get 'em to join up. Keep as much of yourold work related routine as possible. Get up at the usual time,shower and dress for the office. Keep business hours forbusiness and as much as possible relegate yard work, laundry andcleaning the bathrooms to after work, or the weekends - justlike you had to do when you had a job outside the home. Setaside a room, if possible, to be the home business place. If youdon't have a spare room, set aside a corner, or nook andseperate it from the rest of the house with a bookcase, filecabinets, or whatever you have available. Until you have the newhome business triggers, simulate being at work and fool your oldtriggers into working for you.Nobody thinks I'm working!You've told everyone you are now working from home, but no oneseems to get it. Your mother calls and wants to chat. Yourfriends call and want to chat. You partner calls from his, orher, outside job on break and wants to chat. Your Sister needsyou to watch her kids, your best friend needs help moving onThursday. Your children, even your partner who should knowbetter, interrupt you with problems, questions, or just to tellyou about a funny thing that happened today. What is wrong witheveryone? Triggers.Just like you they have an adjustment period to go through. Theylearned trigger associations, too. Intellectually they know youare working, but subconciously their triggers are saying,"He/she is at home, they aren't really working"How to copeTechnology has made screening telephone calls are easy. Explainto everyone that you can't take personal calls during workinghours, unless its an emergency, and then get call display. Itwill leave a record of who called so you can get back to themafter business hours.Children and life partners are another matter. You can't ignorethem - why would you want to anyway - but you do have to work.So, teach them some new triggers.One home business client of mine taught her family that if thedoor to the home business office was closed they needed to fendfor themselves for a while. If a red bandana was tied to thedoorknob, that meant don't even knock unless somone is in needof medical attention.Another, who didn't have an extra room to use as an officetaught his family that if he was wearing his Calgary Flames caphe wasn't to be disturbed. Your family loves you and wants youto be successful. They'll abide by the signals if they know whatthey are.
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