Working from home, telecommuting, owning a home-based business, operating as a freelancer from your home and taking outside meetings too is the dream of just about every cube jockey this way of the Pacific Ocean.  Working at home can be a truly productive experience.  The more you know about how you are going to transition from your office to your home if you are a salaried employee can be a bit more tricky.  If you own a business you decide if you need an office of not.  If not, that home-based business is often run from the home obviously.  According to a study from the Families and Work Institute, 87 percent of people surveyed said that more flexible schedules would allow for better managed work and increase their personal lives in a positive way too.

Here is my countdown Top 10 List:

10. Establish Your Office Environment  – it is so hard to bounce from location to location even inside your home and be an effective home-based employee or business owner for that matter.  You need to carve out your space and buy a chair.  I can’t tell you how much sitting at an office chair can put you in the office mood

9. You May Want To Ease Into It – In order for you to make your dream of not waking up two hours early every working day of your life to sit in traffic, wait on a bus or train or even the green folks who bike, walk, run, job, roller blade or even skateboard to work may want to suggest to their superior.

8. Make Your Case Clear – Working from Home is not a new concept so if you plan the clean break approach I suggest that you make your case by selling this idea like you would any other sale.  For example, working from home allowed you to avoid morning traffic and start your day earlier than usual–everyday!  Being more productive with your time leads to an increase in happiness and we all know a happy sales person / business owner is an effective sales person / business owner.

7. Remove Distractions Before They Arise – The small and obvious things like turning off the radio and TV are a given.  One issue that you might find difficult is to talk to your family should you work from a room at home, in the attic, basement or even the good ole’ garage.  It is very important that they know even though you are in the house that you are at work and shouldn’t be disturbed during certain hours.

6. Separate Entrance – If you plan on having clients meet you at your home office it is prudent to set up a separate entrance or discuss the best way to a client enter leading them straight to the home office.  The last thing you need is a dog jumping all over someone or kids screaming in the background.  If this were an actual office that wouldn’t be the best first impression.

5. Stay In Contact and be Available – The worst thing you can do is go home after convincing your boss or whomever that working at home will increase your productivity to only cut yourself office from the office.  Go by the office at least once a week to stay in close personal contact should you have been allowed to go home from an office position.  If you are a work from home business opportunity owner then staying in touch with your customers is critical.  Also let your colleagues or clients know your work schedule so they know when to expect to be able to reach you during those hours.

4. Increase the Tech Tool – This is a must for anyone working from home.  Get the fastest Internet speed you can afford, WiFi, a headset so you can walk away from the desk if you really need to.  This is not enough though.  Collaboration tools such as QuickBase, JoinMe, Skype or DropBox just to name a few allow your colleagues to see your real-time edits, projects you’re working on and comment on them.

3. Work or Personal? – You need to set strict hours as I’ve mentioned twice now and separate your work To Do list from your Personal To Do list.  Making your bed, doing laundry, picking up the kids or dry cleaning are not work tasks.  You should make a plan to plan how to carve out your personal time.

2. Get Dressed – Almost everyone will tell you that they feel better in nice clothes.  Working in your underwear seems like a great idea at first.  Make sure that you dress like you are a pro.  You don’t need to wear a suit at your home office.  You do need to look presentable and your productivity will increase too.

1. Shut The Computer and Cell Down – One of the biggest hurdles of working from home is knowing when to stop and for many workaholics stopping is even more difficult when you have a home office.  You’ll find yourself working 20 hours a day in some cases.  My suggestion is to set your hours and stick to them.  Once your off work, shut the computer down, close the laptop, turn the cell to vibrate if possible and try to separate your work life form your home life.  Once you are able to do that I promise you that is one huge positive win about working from home.

Carpe Diem My Friends

SOURCE: Families and Work Institute