How to Get the Work at Home Work Done

By Rich Albright

job, jobs, career

Working at home is a two-sided proposition involving two separate entities. You can work at home for a company, a.k.a., work for the man; or, you can work at home for yourself. Both endeavors, however, pose the same problems with different twists.

Let's suppose you are working for an organization that realized the pluses of not having you come to the office daily. They've given you the option to work at home, thus saving the cost of a company cubicle or office space, heating and air conditioning expenses, office supplies, and so forth. They also forgo the usual office chatter time that deducts from productivity. However, they also realize you have down time at home, too, but it doesn't usually involve another peer or co-worker. It's a win-win situation.

Conversely, if you are working at home for yourself you get the tax breaks, and freedom from the corporate life, but you may be more prone to work longer hours and have to foot the office expenses and sacrifice those much sought after corporate perks.

Both work at home situations, however, undergo distractions that result in a loss of productive time.

Distractions, distractions, distractions

Both situations face unwanted distractions. The dog or sick child at home can take time away from productive work. The phone rings and your neighbor wants to know if he or she can borrow something. You hear the faucet dripping and take the next fifteen minutes to run to the hardware store, get the parts, and then fumble with that stubborn, gunky connection for the next two hours. The result-lost time.

You may be the best planner. Your work load may have been mapped out the previous day, but how can you ignore "Caroline's" tears caused by an aching tummy, one that kept her home from school and get your work done, too? You take a few minute to console her, and end up losing an hour and a half of creative work.

Other things that may interrupt you include, but are not limited to: cutting the grass, taking a short, hour break to read an interesting, non-work related article you found on the internet, playing with the dog, doing laundry now instead of later when the entire family is home, cleaning the mess everyone else left behind for the day, that insistent, fifty-two inch, flat screen television set that beckons you with last night's taped premier movie, and the tons of other domestic chores that beg for attention, simply because you are there.

Make a Plan and Stick to It

Yes, working at home has its perks, but only if you accomplish the task at hand. The task is getting your work done.

You can win the war on distractions and stay on track. First, plan your days the previous night. Don't multi-task. Multi-tasking is all the rage these days. Forget it. Hone in on one chore, do it to completion, and then handle the next. You can't be proficient doing three things at once.

Spend fifteen minutes sorting emails. Delete the junk. Rate the rest in order of importance. You've scheduled fifteen minutes to read them and thirty minutes to handle them. At the end of thirty minutes cut it off.

Next, you delegated an hour to making phone calls and rated their importance the day before. Stick to the schedule. If the phone rings don't answer it. You paid for voice mail for a reason. Use it. The person on the other end will leave a message. Plan fifteen minutes a day to listen to these messages and return them in your hour for phone calls the following day.

Plan to work on project "Y" for two hours straight, uninterrupted. Plan a half hour for lunch. Don't work during lunch. The break will help keep you focused for the rest of the day.

Work two more hours on project "Y". Next, plan a half hour to rate the urgency of e-mails received in the afternoon. Plan them for tomorrow's morning email session. Keep replies short and to the point. Stick to your schedule.

Take an hour for research by reading, the internet, or wherever you need it from. Use that time wisely. Take an hour to clean up today's loose ends and a half hour work on tomorrow's schedule.

It is tempting to devote every waking hour to your job or new business, but keep in mind that doing so will only lead to a quick burnout. Friends and family will hear that you are working from home. For some this is an open invite to drop by and chat. Let them know this isn't acceptable and don't compromise.