Home Office - Harder than you think

[Bennybear 3]

I've recently entered into a new career that sees me working exclusively from a home office

 

Does anyone else work from a home office and what do you do to stay focused? I am a professional and diligent worker but have genuinely struggled to extract what I would consider a solid work day over the last few weeks...

 

It seems to be getting better i.e. I am working in as many client visits as possible to break up the days but I tell you, having so many toys/gadgets floating around my house makes it near impossible to stay on track. It's almost as if I need to strip my office down to bare essentials at least until I get into the groove.

 

Worth mentioning that I am in sales/consulting so wasting time is far from beneficial...

[Kez180 62]

Get a separate work PC without games, put it in a different room on a desk with only work items.... like you said bare essentials... Structure will also be your friend. ie I need to make 10 calls to prospects by 10am...

[The Panda 1]

I've recently entered into a new career that sees me working exclusively from a home office

 

Does anyone else work from a home office and what do you do to stay focused? I am a professional and diligent worker but have genuinely struggled to extract what I would consider a solid work day over the last few weeks...

 

It seems to be getting better i.e. I am working in as many client visits as possible to break up the days but I tell you, having so many toys/gadgets floating around my house makes it near impossible to stay on track. It's almost as if I need to strip my office down to bare essentials at least until I get into the groove.

 

Worth mentioning that I am in sales/consulting so wasting time is far from beneficial...

 

I actually quite like working from home and if anything, find it more productive. I run dual screen and have a big tv on my desk so Ill generally be running 1 screen for my work access, one screen for news/stock tickers/journal articles, have a soccer match replay from the weekend on the TV and some Sander Van Doorn lightly playing in the background.

 

Because my computer/workspace is tailored for how I work and is comfortable, its far more effective. My advice would be to own the space in which you work. Having control over the space which you spend a lot of time is going to make a massive difference on how comfortable you are working there.

 

As Kez says, structure is really important at home. Its far easier to procrastinate away large chunks of the day at home where there is so much to do - I once did nothing for 6 hours. Felt so bad that I called it in =(

[Bloke 92]

Have someone set the password on your browser security for you.

 

Sometimes the temptation to look at porn is too strong when you've got the internat at your fingertips!

[Bennybear 3]

Ha thanks for the tips

 

Have settled in now, closing a few deals has proved motivation enough - now have a couple of active tenders and a pet project so there doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day.

 

Panda - agree re owning the space, have re-structured the environment and will continue to refine it until I am content.

 

I suppose I would find it mighty difficult going back to cubicles now!

 

Best,

Ben

[phat_s14 0]

I struggled with the Home Office situation for a while, i think it takes a lot of discipline to be able to do it succesfully. Having a 2 year old kid at home also makes it quite hard!

 

I've managed to get ontop of it now and just do what needs to be done. Sometimes I miss going to work though, more for the social side of it.

[darkone 2]

Make sure that if you trip going down the stairs that you sue the company you work for, as they didn't provide a safe workplace.

 

Some woman sued Telstra last year for the above and she won...

 

 

Regarding work structure, no matter how busy you are in any workplace, always take 5-10 minutes in the morning to write up a rough plan of what you need to get through that day, in order of importance/urgency. I found that this improved my productivity a fair bit, as it minimised that gap in between completion of various tasks where I would just kinda float and procrastinate from starting the next task because I had too much work to choose from and it was daunting choosing what to start first..

[tinto 0]

I read this today:

http://www.fastcompany.com/1806307/how-to-work-from-home-like-you-mean-it

[TougeR34 9]

wish i could work from home...

[DISH-oh 205]

Darkone, your last point is EXACTLY like eating a steak!

 

You can eat it much quicker if you spend that bit of extra time cutting it into bite sized pieces and then just smashing it, bite after bite.

Edited February 1, 2012 by DISH-oh

[Bennybear 3]

Sincerely lacking motivation today; I try to structure Mondays as an admin day in the 'office' but today it is turning to shit.

 

Sometimes I do wish I was back in an office environment, if for no other reason than the formality of being around colleagues!

 

I never would have expected this to be the most confronting aspect of my role!

[hazard121 1]

Find out when you work best and try do your work then.

 

If you have some autonomous work, and some which requires clients maybe try work your day around that.

 

ie. Get up early and work solidly from 6-12 or so. Then when your concentration starts to wane in the afternoon after lunch, bring in the appointments, where you're forced to work.

[Bennybear 3]

A few promotions later and I can't believe I even had time in the day to procrastinate!

 

Meetings all day now, email and admin work starts when I get home ~6pm!

 

Problem solved.

[pyro 36]

You know it doesn't count if you're promoting yourself in your own business, yeah?