Working from Home | 5 Tips for Success

It's been 10 months since I've officially stopped working from home and had an office. The biggest change for me was that I stopped being a workaholic that worked straight through the night and into the next day. I now (sometimes) keep normal hours for work and when I go home I (sometimes) leave my work at the office.

It's definitely been a healthy change.

But along the way, I found several important things to help me making working at home effective.

So today, as I blog from my super comfy bed I thought I'd share some tips.

1) Never work in bed

Now, if your bed is as comfy as mine you may have a hard time with that. But there are several important reasons for sticking to this. One of them being the pavlovian effect. Conditioning.

If we condition ourselves to being alert and productive in bed it'll make it harder to be able to sleep in bed when the time comes for that. Or possibly the reverse will be true for you, and you'll just doze off during work hours.

2) Set defined work hours

Somehow I did this better when I worked from home than I do with my office, but again, this is more 'do what I say and not what I do' lesson.

Not only will defined hours help you focus on your work and clients without feeling guilty about the kitchen ten feet away being messy, but it'll also help family and friends respect that even though you are home these hours are work hours.

One of the hardest things with working from home is others thinking you can just stop and go to lunch, or chat, or what-not at a whim (which I suppose you can... until of course your clients all leave, at which point you'll have all day to do fun stuff but no money to do it with). So set real work hours. And tell family and friends (and the kitchen) you can hang out AFTER those work hours.

3) "Pack your lunch"

You don't need to literally pack your lunch, but at least have easy go to options (can of soup, frozen burritos, veggies and hummus, pre-made salads). If you're working from home and don't have quick easy options for lunches it's easy to waste an hour preparing a meal much more elaborate than you need (and if you're like me then you'll also have to wash all the dishes before you actually get back to work).

4) Give yourself allotted breaks

I turn my phone on silent and turn it upside-down, and stay off facebook (until of course I'm posting photos or blogs). Every hour and a half I give myself five minutes to browse facebook or respond to texts. Without a boss looking over your shoulder it's easy to spend all your time tinkering, and wasting time. Instead of completely banning phone and internet (and there's great apps to help do that if you really have a problem) I just give myself mini breaks throughout the day.

5) Use a rewards system

Since I personally am very rewards based I use my allotted breaks as a reward to work more efficiently. IE: I can respond to that text in an hour and a half OR as soon as I finish culling the images from this wedding.

Knowing that I get to play around when I finish a job helps me stay focused instead of drifting off into a day dream.

Typically my rewards are phone, coffee, facebook, playing a level in a game, a snack, or more coffee, or reading a few pages in a book, but use whatever works best for you!

As more and more of us begin working from home I hope these tips help you to find a little balance in your day between work and home!

#workfromhome #tipsforsuccess #photography