Working From Home And Being Productive

Working from home is great but it doesn't suit everyone.  You need to be reasonably disciplined when working from home to avoid the temptation of other things around you.  Morning TV suddenly seems enthralling, that DIY project needs finishing, just another cup of coffee before I get started ...

It's less of a problem when you're focused and know where you're going, as you're motivated to get on with it.  Organise your day to enjoy the flexibility of working from home and running your own business while still being productive.

If you thrive on having other people around you, you might find it more difficult and more isolating.  You may be better finding a shared workspace where you can feel as if you're in the office. Hot desking and co-working offer shared working environments with flexibility. Technology can give you the tools to be able to work from anywhere.

For home workers - I often recommend going somewhere else to work.  A change of environment can help to stimulate ideas and productivity.  I recently mentioned I'd travelled up to London for a meeting - I got soooo much work done on the train journey.  I also regularly go to a local hotel, where I can combine a meeting with spending a couple of hours working - away from the phone and email.  Again - it's a great way of getting things done and catching up.

For office based business, I also recommend finding somewhere else to work, so you can get away from the office distractions, find a quiet place to work. This could be a meeting room, an office on another floor, a local coffee shop (although Starbucks tends to be noisy - headphones helps) or even working from home for the day.

A change of environment can be good whether your usual working environment is at home or in an office.

For anyone running their own business you need to take 'time out'.  Setting aside time to catch-up or think more strategically about where you're going and reviewing progress and results.  I'd suggesting booking out at least a half-day a month for that important "me" business time.  Also regularly scheduling times in the week for catch-up, so that you keep on top of things and avoid a backlog - often easier said than done if you're busy, even worse when you're disorganised.

Avoid information overload by dealing with it at source.  Stop it arriving in the first place, manage it when it does and understand that not every single piece of information that passes across your desk or through your  computer needs to be read or actioned.

Plan on working five days, four days or even three days a week and then organise your work accordingly.

Starting A Business In Your Spare Time - Working 5 to 9

Amanda Vlahakis from Truly Ace pointed out this useful document from Enterprise Nation in her blog on the Home Worker Parents network.

Starting your own 5 to 9 business is a great way of achieving a level of independence away from a regular, full-time job but there are things to watch.

You need to be pretty motivated and a self-starter to not only have a full-time job but also run your own part-time business.

Here are a few additional tips:

• Chose something you're passionate about but be wary of turning a hobby into a business, it can take some of the enjoyment out of it.

• Be aware of what you're able to achieve in the time available. Have a clear plan of what you want your business to look like and who your clients and customers are. Is this something that fits within the 5 to 9 timeframe?

• List out all the tasks you need to do and allocate them into the available time. Only pick the things that are going to make a real difference to the business.

• While you'll take longer to get where you want to be than if you were working full-time on your business, you can still make great progress if you work steadily and consistently towards your goal. Little and often.

• Get others involved in your business to spread the load. Depending on the nature of your business you might be able to delegate some of the workload so that your 5 to 9 business is still being worked on while you're working on your 9 - 5 job.

• Don't end up burning the candle at both ends - you'll just end up stressed and exhausted. Planning is key.

• Have a good support network around you - family and friends may not always be the most supportive but get them on your side. You don't necessarily need their approval, just their support.

• Network with like-minded people to create your own support network with business knowledge and skills.

Take a look at Mums In Biz and get help slotting a business into the time you have available - particularly for Mums who want to run a business and work round their family.

Start with a simple One Page Plan - email me for a free copy.

November Newsletter - Don't Be A Lone Ranger

My latest newsletter is just out. This month's main article is about setting up your own support team.

As a nation we’re probably not good at asking for help when we need it. This becomes even more of a problem when you’re very busy or when you work for yourself. There’s a tendency to take on more and more. To a certain extent you don’t have a huge amount of budget to spend on extra staff when you first get started but this doesn’t mean you have to do everything yourself.

Just because you work for yourself, doesn’t mean that you’re working on your own. Create your own support team. You’ll already have a few people that are an important part of your ‘team’.

If you want to read the rest of the newsletter, just sign up on my website and you'll receive the latest issue and free Power Time Tips.

How Much Is Your Time Worth? - August Newsletter

My latest newsletter is just out. This month's main article is about looking at how much your time is worth and why this is important. Also news on my book publication.

Whether you work for someone else or work for yourself the amount of time you spend working is worth something. Either your employer pays you for the hours you work or charges your time out at a particular rate or you charge your clients for the work you do. Would you be inclined to fritter it away on things that add no value if you knew what it was costing you? ...

If you want to find out about the importance of your hourly rate, then read the rest of the newsletter, just sign up on my website and you'll receive the latest issue and free Power Time Tips.

Superb Time Management

... or that's what I thought to myself as I cycled into town earlier today in the lovely Spring sunshine while everyone was back at work.

Although I spent all of the Bank Holiday working on my book, I don't tend to do much on Bank Holiday weekends anyway. There's nothing worse than being stuck in a traffic jam - especially on a hot, sunny day and we had a few of those over the weekend ... sunny days AND traffic jams and hoards of people. Everyone else is out and about as they don't have an option if they want to make the most of their weekend. They don't have a choice, whereas I did. I did make one abortive attempt to go into town but as soon as I hit the traffic jam at the end of my road, I turned round and came back as I had less than 30 minutes to get into town and I knew it was going to take a lot longer with all that traffic.

So today, I attended a breakfast meeting first thing this morning, spent a couple of hours working when I got back home, then headed into town on my bike to catch up with a friend for lunch and then see another couple of friends and their new baby. A gloriously sunny day. Cycling meant I got a couple of hours of exercise and avoided the traffic and agro of parking, another bonus with the roadworks taking place along the coast road at the moment making things even worse. Also being a weekday, when most people were back at work, there were a lot less people around on the seafront wandering across the cycle lane. I did have a close miss with a car that decided to do a u-turn in front of me without even looking.

Returned home to head out for my second networking meeting of the day and then a relaxing yoga session. How to mix business and pleasure without having to fit into a conventional 9-5.

Finishing On Time

If you work from home do you find that you’re getting tempted to work extended hours just because your office is in the room next-door or that you end up working sporadically throughout the day or late into the evening?

Just because you work from home doesn't mean that you can't create structure in your day. While you might not want to work 9-5, think about hours that work for you. How many hours a day do you need/want to work? Would you like to have some time off during the day/week? Make sure that you spend time planning what needs to be done each day and that it fits with your business plan and goals. What would be a good start time ... 7.30am, 9.30am? What is a good/reasonable time to finish ... 3.30pm, 6.30pm? If you’re in the habit of working most evenings, aim to finish work a little earlier on at least a couple of evenings a week. Take a half-day off during the week and work a little later one evening if you need to.

Make sure that you plan in breaks too. All work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy (or Jill). You won't work as effectively or be as productive if you're working constantly and not taking breaks. Even if you work from home, so the 'office' is never far way, set yourself a cut-off time each evening and make sure you get breaks during the day. Take at least one day off at the weekend. If you're doing what needs to be done then you're working more efficiently, you won't get so tired out or feel guilty when you're not working. After all, why should you?

Think about what you need to get done, plan it in accordingly and don't work for the sake of it. If you want to cut down your hours - look at prioritising what's currently on your list of roles and responsibilities and see what you can change about the way you're currently working.