Let's have a look, then, at some rules for organizing your home office so you have a better chance of working at home productively.
1) Set Up a Separate Home Office
If you're going to work at home, you need a home office; sharing the kitchen table just doesn't cut it. Set up a room as a home office if possible, but if you can't, make sure you have at least a desk where you can keep your home based business materials organized and they'll stay undisturbed when you're not working. (Nothing says chaos like having a small child with sticky fingers sort through your papers!)
A separate work space helps you separate your work life from your home life. Entering your home office mentally prepares you to go to work, and establishes a distance (no matter how small) between ‘work’ and ‘home’. A demarcated home office can also serve as a signal to other family members that “you’re working”, and not to be disturbed lightly.
2) Make Your Home Office a Work Space
A cluttered desk may not be the sign of a cluttered mind, but piles of disorganized faxes, bills, and memos are definitely off-putting when you're trying to work at home. You need to be able to sit down in your your home office and go to work, without having to clear a space or hunt for a particular piece of paper. Getting your home office organized and keeping it that way prevents distractions and time-wasting. Buy an in and out basket and use it, invest in a filing cabinet, and have a wastepaper can handy so you can clean up when you close up for the day. Keep all your relevant working materials in your work space. Having to walk into another room to retrieve a file can be a serious waste of time.
Need more help? In "The Easiest Filing System" Ronda Claire explains how to set up a filinf system that's truly easy to use. Or learn how to "Master Your Filing System" with advice from Jill Chongva.
3) Minimize Distractions
No matter what type of home based business you operate, you need to be able to concentrate to work at home. This will be impossible if other family members are wandering in and out of your home office asking you questions or if the phone is ringing constantly.
Tell your family members what your work schedule is and ask them to respect it by not interrupting you unless absolutely necessary. If you have small children, the best thing to do is have someone else watch them while you work at home; if your spouse can't do this, it can be expensive, but it's necessary. You can't do the job you need to do if you're doing something else.
Trying to work at home when you're also caring for pre-school age children is particularly difficult. JoAn Maurer offers some advice for people torn between parenting and developing their home based business. If you're in this position, you can also find information and advice at Home-Based Working Moms.
Get an answering machine or voice mail service if the telephone is an intrusion rather than a sales tool. Ideally, you should put the phone and answering machine in another room so hearing it take the messages is not distracting for you when you're working at home. If you choose this method, be sure that you do check for messages regularly during the day.
Now that your home office is organized, it's time to organize your work schedule so you can actually work at home. Continue on to the next page...
