7 Tips from people who succeeded with their home-based jobs

Working from home comes with several benefits like having a flexible work schedule, having time to pay
attention to other important things in your life, giving you time to stick to your healthy diet plans, providing
you ample opportunity to spend more time with your kids, giving you the power to choose how much you
earn, allowing you to do your healthy daily workouts to stay fit amongst several other such priceless
benefits.

However, working from home can come with a number of challenges and distractions if you are the
type that gets easily lured by distractions and pastimes that will end up making you procrastinate on
important things. If you want to succeed with your home-based job, you have to take some important steps
to minimize distractions and maximize your productivity. In this post, we will be looking at 7 seasoned tips
from people who succeeded from home.

1. You need an office at home

Make no mistake about this. If you want to succeed working from home, you must make sure you create
yourself a comfortable office at home or at least some kind of work area. It doesn’t have to be as spacious
and well-furnished as the office you had when you worked on your 9-5 job, but it should have some
important office tools and equipment to give it that look and feel of a real office. If you have a room you can
turn into an office in your home, by all means, do so. But if you cannot afford such luxury, find a cool spot
in your home and turn it into an office space. Your office space can be in your living room, bedroom, attic,
garage, etc. It doesn’t really matter what part of your home your office space is located, the important thing
is to have a space that contains everything you work with to enable you to concentrate once it is time to get
down to work. To make your office space work for you at home, you need to get a comfy office table, a
chair, a computer, printer, filing shelves, pen holders, and whatever else you think you need depending on
your line of business. It is helpful to situate your home office space away from distractions like a TV set to
minimize distractions and temptations.

2. Always act like you are heading to the office

One mistake you must never make is to stop acting like you are heading to the office. This is one thing that
accounts for the huge percentage of failed home-based businesses. The moment you start behaving like your
home-based job isn’t a real job, you start taking everything for granted. This all boils down to maintain an
employee mindset even when you own your home-based business.
Make it a habit to wake early every morning and pretend you are going to work. Set a specific time to wake
up, clean up, dress up and get to work. This is called self-discipline, and you can’t succeed with your home
job without it. The moment you start seeing your home-based job like something you can do whenever you
like, you have started failing. The idea of “I’m in charge of my time and life now” has left many home-based
workers with no job, no clients, no business and no finance. A negative attitude to work when working from
home begins with not attending to tasks with urgency like you would in a 9-5 office. Leave no room for
laziness and procrastination to take hold of you if you want your home business to become a success story.

3. Set daily goals and manage your time well

If you wake in the morning and get to work without knowing what you want to achieve for the day in view,
you will end up not achieving anything. Before you shut down your work computer each day, take some
time to draw a To-Do list for the next day. Your To-Do list should begin with the most important tasks that
have a hint of urgency about them. As you set the goal for the next day, allocate a timeframe to each of those
tasks you wish to accomplish when you resume working the next day. If for any reason you fail to finish the
last task(s) on your list for any day, the task(s) should top the list of things to do when you return to your
workplace the next day. This is how to beat the procrastination syndrome while working from home.

4. Start on difficult tasks early

It is easy to procrastinate on difficult tasks when you are working from home with no one to supervise you.
The way to get around difficult tasks and ensure you achieve them within the time allocated to them is to get
started early. Early starters end up achieving all they set out to achieve during the day. Starting on difficult
tasks early makes such tasks seem easier because early hours are usually peak periods when your energy is
at its best. When you start early, any difficulties or setbacks you encounter while working on difficult tasks
or projects won’t discourage you from pursuing the project to a successful end and achieving other goals you
have set for the day.

5. Set aside blocks of time for work

Working from home is not as easy as some people believe, especially when you have other pressing tasks to
attend to. It even becomes more challenging when you are a mom and needs to feed the baby, pick your kids
from school, get their meal ready, clean up the house and all other such chores. However, you can get around
this if you have a good work schedule. Making blocks to accommodate the other tasks you need to attend to
within or outside the home will help you meet your daily goals. For instance, you can set out 6 hours for
work during the day and divide the 6 hours into 3, 2 hours blocks, you can use the time in-between the
blocks to attend to other issues you want to deal with before getting back to work.

6. Get outside to clear your head in-between tasks

Trying to stay at home all through the day is one way to drive yourself crazy much sooner than later. Find
time to take a few minutes’ walks around the house to help you clear your head. This is most vital if your
work involves mental calculations and brainstorming. For instance, if you do coding, writing, translation,
web design, etc, you would need to clear your head to get your bearings once in a while before you continue
with whatever project you are working on. Staying indoors all day is one way you can get your head feeling
fuzzy, get yourself weighed down with exhaustion, and end up too disoriented to complete daily tasks.

7. Interact with others on the project

The fact that you work at home does not mean you can’t reach out to someone or some people to talk about
the project you are working on. You can assign yourself a supervisor if you do not have one, get a colleague
who knows about your work to give you ideas and tips as your work to help you maintain a healthy mind as
you work. There are several communication channels you can employ as you work to help you stay
connected and updated. You can utilize social media platforms, exchange emails, send instant messages on
Skype, put a telephone call through to make sure you are not cut off from the rest of the world.
It takes a whole lot of discipline to work from home and stay focused and productive. The initial stage
comes with lots of challenges, but with the right mindset, adequate preparation and good time management,
you can become more productive working from home without neglecting other important aspects of your life.