Bringing Productivity from Work to Your Home Office

Whether you’re working from home as a self-employed entrepreneur or are bringing home some work from your full time job, it’s important that you set up a home office and create a productive set of home work habits. While some of these habits and tactics may seem obvious, many others are frequently disregarded. So ask yourself this simple question: Are you making the most out of your work in the following four areas?

Organizing Your Time

Overwhelming yourself with work, whether it’s a freelance setup or the office work that you want to take care of at home, won’t do you any good. Instead, try creating a small list of tasks, either by using viable GTD (getting things done) software or choosing more simple approaches like emailing yourself a to do list. Whichever method you choose, don’t send yourself the next year’s worth of work. Just focus on the day’s work. In addition, set aside specific hours where you will be working. This will allow you to devote your time appropriately and schedule other needed tasks around the required project work.

Productive Work Space

If you work at home frequently, you should set up a workspace that is only used for working from home. That means that any other computer use, such as browsing Facebook or playing games, shouldn’t be done here. You can create this workspace by setting up a desk, a unique profile on your computer, and work oriented decorations. Some of the best decorations include family pictures, motivational quotes or posters, plants, and other relaxing items. Similarly, your computer’s desktop background should be something that evades distraction.

Synchronize with Everything

If you use any other devices for your work, you will want to access all the information you can from home. Some employers use web-based applications that you can access from anywhere such as Google Apps. If you don’t fall into this category, any pop3 server can be made into a web-based platform through exchange hosting. Exchange hosting is one of the best ways to make sure you have access to your Outlook account, calendar, contacts, and other relevant information. Hosted exchange services will also allow you to sync up with mobile devices and other work utilities.

Remain Professional

The fantasy of working at home often involves sitting at your desk in your pajamas, working whenever you feel like working, having ice cream at your desk with you, and having your favorite sports game on in the background. While this may work for you every other blue moon, they are generally terrible ideas. There’s a reason you can’t do these things in the office.

Dressing and behaving professionally will increase your confidence, put you in the working mindset, and in the end, magnify your productivity. Working from home doesn’t mean working poorly or working in a less than professional manner. In fact, if anything, maintaining a professional environment is far more important at home. After all, distractions are far more likely to be present there, and while someone breathing down your neck at work may not always be appreciated, you may miss it when you run into trouble with motivating yourself at home.