Working from Home- 3 Major Tips to Keep In Mind

It is very difficult to work from home but not impossible. Here are three things to always stick by:

1. Make a designated area. 
It doesn't matter if you have a small corner desk as your working area or an entire room. Make yourself an area that is off limits to everyone else. If you only have a little corner to work in, put a curtain that will hide your desk for after hours. This leads us to #2.

2. Close the door/curtain after hours and DO NOT GO BACK. If you had an office outside of home would you get dressed and commute at 8 pm to check emails or finish that project you were working on? Probably not. Be respectful of YOUR time and your family's time. Shut the door, turn the phone on silent and let it charge. If it's an emergency they can call your personal number.  (Unless of course you are on-call or advertise yourself as 24-7)

3. Laundry, errands, and your friends'/mother-in-law's/ sister's favors can wait until after hours or your time off. Let your family know that between such hours you are busy working and you do not have time to- Take Fluffy to the vet, pick up your sister's clothes from the dry-cleaners, or baby sit your friend's triplets. This would be the flip-side of rule #2.

And as a bonus, something that helps me tremendously is 'DRESS FOR THE JOB'. Are you a Yoga Instructor? Marvelous, keep rocking those yoga pants. Are you an Executive Assistant? Let's swap those tennis shoes for something more business casual. You will not only look the part but when you put on the 'hat' you actually feel like you are doing something specific and can focus better.

I really hope this helps you whether you already work from home, or are thinking about it, or even if you are starting your own business. Most businesses including Dell started from home, now the attitude that drives the business comes from within. 

Feel free to add any tips you may have from experience 

-Nancy Valdez
Austin's Virtual Assistant