3 Tips To Keeping Your Home Office Dream From Becoming A Nightmare

By:Brandi Cummings

The dream of working from home is becoming a reality for more and more people everyday. Although once home, some may find it more of a nightmare than a dream. The challenges of working from home are different than working in an office and many people are not prepared. Between the family interruptions, barking dogs and the scintillating daytime television shows it can be difficult to stay focused and be the same efficient and productive working machine at home as you were at the office. Here are a few simple things you can do to maintain your efficiency amid the chaos and distractions.

Create Your Space
Just having a quiet place to work can make a huge difference. If possible, it should be someplace where you go only to work and not play. The ideal situation is an actual home office but if space doesn't allow it, someplace away from the main traffic of the house, and out of ear shot of the television, will do as well. Once you have established your work area, treat it as such. Keep it clean and organized. When you were working in an office you probably didn't keep week old coffee cups and stale bread crusts hanging around your desk. Don't do it at your home office either. Clutter and trash is distracting. A clear workplace makes for clear thinking.

Use The Technology Available
Technology has been one of the major driving forces in the work from home revolution. Make sure to take full advantage of it to help you stay organized and get more accomplished. Virtual communications is probably the biggest factor that has allowed so many people to come home from the office. There is of course the whole world wide web, email, instant messages, virtual phones, cell phones, virtual fax, video conferencing, and the list goes on and on. All of these technologies make working from home a lot easier.

Let's take virtual phones for example. A virtual phone number allows you to have just one phone line in the house. You are able to differentiate the business calls from the personal calls with a simple message announcing the call is from your virtual phone number. You can even have the calls forwarded to your cell phone when you are out and about. Most of these virtual phone systems also offer email delivery of your voice and fax messages so you don't have to waste time calling in to retrieve voicemail. Unifying your voice, fax and email messages all into one place frees up time to focus on more important tasks.

Keep Deadlines
For people that are still working for someone else, only now from home, this is probably easier than for those that are working for themselves. Without a boss to be responsible to, it is sometimes difficult to keep on a task until it is finished. Every action item should have a deadline, especially those parts of your job that you don't necessarily enjoy doing.

There are a lot of time management programs out there and most email programs even have task lists. Take advantage of them. One of the great things about these kinds of programs is that they will remind you when your deadline is approaching and will keep popping up in your face until you finish the task. But even if you don't use an electronic task list and reminder system, a simple pen and paper will do. The important thing is to keep your action items written down and stick to your deadlines.

It can be a difficult transition moving from the office space to the home place. We have been conditioned and trained to work in the office environment for a long time. Some may find it difficult to stay efficient and productive within their new found freedom of the home office. However, with a little organization and technology, you can keep your dream of working at home from becoming a nightmare.

Digg del.icio.us Blink Stumble Spurl Reddit Netscape Furl

Article keywords: home office organization, home business efficiency, virtual phone, telecommuting

Article Source: http://www.articles2k.com

Brandi Cummings, an expert in the field of virtual telecommunications, recommends checking out Freedom800.com (www.freedom800.com), a leading provider of virtual phone systems for home offices.

Top Home Business Articles
1). Who Is Making Money Online By : Michael Hehn Can You Make Money Online It seems that these days everybody claims they are making money online. In reality, what works for some does not work for everybody. Some of the so-called easy ways to make money online don't work at all, and many ideas are not for everyone. Who is making money online? Some people are making money with websites. Quite a bit of money can be made through selling products or information.
2). Are those Money Making Opportunities Real? By : Vipul Gupta Hi Friend, These days you can find a lot of sites popping up here and there saying you to try their Data Entry or Typing Job that will make you rich. Now the question is “Do these dream opportunities really work?” Well the answer is simple: Yes and No!! I have known people who purchased one of these programs a bit hesitantly but after some initial labor are now making a good living of up to $10 - $25k per month.
3). Honest Review of Home Business Opportunities By : Joseph Vincent Tired of business opportunities that don't deliver what they promise? We have reviewed the top selling programs on the Internet today. At our site you will find reviews of the top 3 opportunities that actually work. The key to making money online is knowing how and where to start. Without the right starting point you will waste precious time and a ton of money.
4). Online Survey - Paid or Free? By : Vincent Adams Let me begin this article by saying it is possible to complete an online survey and get paid for your opinion. It is a fact that thousands of work from home entrepreneurs are getting paid big time for completing surveys, participating in focus groups, and even to preview movie trailers! Why would companies pay you for giving your opinion? Because they need your opinion as part of their market research to determine which products to sell and to what markets.
5). Work At Home – How To Increase Your Productivity & Success While Working At Home By : Jeff Casmer It is very easy to be distracted while working at home, therefore it is important for you to have some guideline to follow while you work at home.
6). Home based business: is it right for you? By : Adrienne Davis It is many people’s dream to work from home, by starting a business from scratch or joining a legitimate work at home business opportunity, affiliate program or franchise. Working at home means you can work at something you enjoy, "sack" difficult clients, put difficult bosses behind you, and avoid a lot of the daily stress faced by employees. The home based business industry is expanding rapidly and research suggests that revenue from home-based businesses will increase by up to 17% a year for the next five years.
7). Home Based Internet Businesses – What Choices Do You Have? By : Peter Alderton Home based internet businesses are extremely attractive businesses to have. They are low cost to set up and are therefore low risk for the entrepreneur. Low capital invested means less money to risk. And whereas most home entrepreneurs set up one business, entrepreneurs who work on the net generally have many home based internet businesses. That’s because home based internet businesses are simple to begin as well as cheap to set up.
8). The Internet Home Business Movement What You Should Know! By : Michael Ditch The on-line Internet home business couldn't be any more popular these days, where more, and more people are signing up for these so called Internet home business opportunities. It is estimated that over 100 thousand times a day Google the top search engine pulls up millions of results for the "work at home business" search. What's even more interesting 740,000,000 results pop up when you type in those exact words.
9). So You Wanna Work At Home, But Are You Ready To Become Self-Employed? By : Funcareers.com So, you're interested in starting a business and you face a daunting task that carries a level of risk and excitement not possible in the world of the 'employee'. If the financial and spiritual independence of self-employment appeals to you - no income limits, no boss and the ability to let your personal drive determine your earnings, then you will be eagerly going over the many options to free yourself from your current job.
10). De-Mystifying Mystery Shopping By : Alex Ruban De-Mystifying Mystery Shopping

New Home Business Articles
1). Starting a Home Business or Work at Home Venture Has Great Benefits By : Chris Simpson Talks about some of the great benefits to working at home or owning a home based business versus working the 9 to 5 at the office.
2). The Perks and Downfalls of Mystery Shopping By : Judy Wilson Mystery shopping can be done by any adult looking for work at home or part time work. Thinking about being a mystery shopper?
3). How Can You Make Money Being Online By : Jeff Schuman If you do a Google search for the words make money being online it brings up 116 million results. Do you think you could find a way to make money yourself out of that many choices?
4). Promoting Your Affiliate Products By : Mal Keenan How Would You Like to Promote Your Affiliate Links With an Effective Easy to Impliment Strategy? Find the Tips You Need in Our Article...
5). Attain Financial Success With Your Own Profit-Pulling Newsletter By : Don Resh It seems everybody has a newsletter these days. Some are good, but the vast majority are not. They reflect the amount of effort put into them. Give your newsletter design and planning the attention it needs to be successful. Make your newsletter special and, more importantly, a key to your financial success with your Internet Marketing venture.
6). Are You Looking For Inexpensive Home Based Business Ideas? By : Chris Simpson Tells about some great inexpensive home based business ideas for those on a limited budget.
7). Amazing Tips On How To Search For The Best Home Business Online By : Krystine Lewis Providing you the best tips and strategies to locate your best home business online.
8). What Determines a Great Home Based Business? By : Daniel Millions Looking for a home based business, not sure what to look for? Learn what 7 key factors constiture a great home based business.
9). Make Your Internet Home Business An eUniversity For Your Customers By : Don Resh Offering educational course content in your particular niche is a great way to enhance the overall image of your Internet business. Sometimes a good e-course is all that is needed to push a prospect into the buyer category.
10). Working From Home - Six Mistakes to Avoid By : Sachin Asher Are you thinking of working from home? Home based work has its own set of challenges. Here is a list of mistakes that you should avoid.