How to Work from Home and Be Effective

Working from home can be incredibly empowering, especially if you’re a mother or you have other commitments that require work flexibility. The 9 ‘til 5 routine can certainly take its toll. And there are plenty of us out there who would jump at the chance to be able to work remotely in the comfort of our pajamas every day!

While many of you reading this article are likely job seekers, what’s even more important than landing a work from home job, is knowing how to work from and be effective.

To achieve your goal of being a work from home superhero, there are some things that you need to remember. After all, you need to be self-motivated, focused, and an organizational whizz if you’re going to get this right. You don’t want to end up returning to the office because home-based working just isn’t allowing you to produce the goods.

Here are a few tips to help rock the work from home life.

You Need to Nail Organization

As a work from home employee, the only person making sure that you’re getting stuff done is you. Sure, you can have a day off whenever you want to, but you’re going to be behind on work. Not to mention, you’re not going to be earning the money that you want and need.

Being self-motivated is incredibly difficult, especially if you’re used to having a boss watching over you and ensuring that you’re getting stuff done. But it is possible with practice.

The best way to say organized and have a good work-life balance is by making a to-do list every day. Personally, I find nothing more satisfying than checking things off my list as I go. The items you don’t get completed today can be added to tomorrow’s list. And if you still can’t get to it, add it to your weekend list.

I’m not suggesting you be a workaholic, stick to your full time or part-time hours, but be mindful that you get everything completed that needs to done. And don’t forget to allow yourself some time on the weekend to chill.

Keeping notes will help you to remain organized, and you can do this in any form that works for you.

**Working 9 ‘til 5 Hours Does Help**

One of the benefits of working from home is the flexibility that it gives you. But you can have too much of a good thing. If you’re too flexible with your working hours, you could find that you’re sitting up on your laptop at 11 pm. Obviously, this isn’t ideal if you want to have some downtime. It’s important to distinguish between work and relaxation as you would have done when you were working at the office. This is bad news for your body clock and your work schedule.

Getting up at the time that you would have for your regular office job is key. Make sure that you’re dressed and in your home office (or on your sofa) by 9 am each day. It can seem unnecessary when you could just sleep in and do your work a little later, but this will mean that you foster some bad habits that are hard to break later on.

Keep work to work, and allow yourself the freedom to shut your office door at 5 pm and forget about it.

You Need to Present Yourself with Professionalism

Working from home may mean that you’re a pajama ninja. However, it doesn’t mean that you should let your professionalism fall by the wayside. In fact, you need to do more work to present yourself as a legit. And that’s especially important if you’re starting up your own business from home.

Luckily, there are many ways to uphold professionalism from the comfort of your home.

One of the things that you can do here is employing virtual office services to make your business appear a little bigger (and thus more professional) or to give you an address that isn’t the same as your home. You can also invest in your website and social media accounts. And ensure that you’re always there to answer the phone on a 9 ‘til 5 basis. Think about office professionalism, be excellent at communication, and apply it to your working from home life.

You Got This

Finally, you need to remember that working from home is a challenge when you first start out. You can feel like you have no control whatsoever. Maybe, you’ve watched every episode of Friends instead of doing what you were supposed to do. Perhaps you can’t remember the last time that you wore anything apart from your joggers. Maybe you’ve been sporting that messy bun for a few weeks. But it’s okay. It’s stressful, we know.

However, you will soon figure out how to work from home and make it suit you. And once you’re in the swing of things, you’ll be shocked that you could ever spend 40 hours a week in the office!

There are plenty of opportunities to work from home with companies that offer remote jobs such as being a virtual assistant, travel agent, or customer service representative. You can even find work at home jobs in health care if you have good communication skills. So get out there and start looking, and good luck being the home-based lady boss that we know you are!