Stereotypes of people who work from home
- We work in our underwear…
- … or our pajamas. Or yoga pants.
- We don’t shower often enough.
- We work in our basement. Maybe our mom’s.
- We’re social hermits.
Now, anyone who knows me knows that this is [mostly] not true. The yoga pants part is absolutely true, because if I can work in my yoga pants – why wouldn’t I?
I’ve been [mostly] working from home for just over a year and a half now, and there are many, many things I have learned about doing so that I think are crucial for having a happy work-home environment. For the record, “Keep coffee in the house,” and “Don’t forget to eat lunch,” are givens.
Nick Barber, owner of UMoveFree (a service that helps renters find Lewisville Apartments) employs licensed real estate agents that specialize in locating rentals for prospective renters. He offers the choice to his employees to either work from their corporate office or from home – with a caveat. His work-from-home agents are only paid on commission since they don’t have the same kind oversight that the in-office employees do that Nick says guarantees productivity. (I think this is an interesting approach for allowing employees to work from home, but that’s another post for another day.)
Nick says,
“We’ve found that some of our top producing agents are more productive when we allow them to work from home and incentivize them with a commission only income.”
For some people this is true, and I’m definitely one of those people. I’m much more productive working from home, and here are a few things I’ve learned about making that work as best it can.
5 Tips for Working (Happily) From Home
- Have a designated work space, and keep it clean. Yes, it’s cozy to work in bed. Yes, I enjoy working on my couch just fine. But, when I need to really crack down and get something done, or I’m in the middle of a big project, having an organized space (like a desk, with drawers, and pen-holders) is so, so crucial.
- Different playlists for different tasks. If I’m working creatively (say, design-type things, editing photos, etc.), then my playlist needs to be something upbeat, familiar. For me, this is often Girl Talk’s All Day, because that whole album gets me pumped up and has a rhythm I can really jam to. If I’m working analytically – copywriting, doing any kind of report analysis, dealing with numbers – then I have got to have music that’s either instrumental, in another language, or is something I just don’t know the words to. My favorite pick? French Cafe Radio on Pandora.
- Stay organized. I use a variety of tools to make sure I don’t forget about tasks, and my favorite (at least right now) is TeuxDeux. It’s a week-view of a to-do list and is the most basic and easy to use I’ve seen yet. I also have a dry-erase board for brainstorming big ideas, and keep a notebook in my laptop bag, at my desk, and on my nightstand – for ideas that hit wherever they may.
- Don’t always work at home. Sometimes, I just have to get out. Lucky for me, my town is rich with coffee-shops. Grab fellow work-from-home friends and meet up for some co-working. Or just grab your headphones – get dressed! – and get out of the house already.
- Work when you’re productive. I forget this one sometimes, but always come back to reminding myself that this is one of the reasons I chose to work from home in the first place. I’m uber-productive in the mornings. I’m really creative later at night. Therefore, I work on deadline-specific client work in the mornings, and spend evenings working on my own blogs and creative ventures. The time in between? If I’m on a roll, I keep working. If my kitchen needs to be cleaned or errands need to be run, I use that middle of the day time to take care of those things.
If you work from home (or coffee shops, or libraries, or your mom’s basement…), what kind of tips do you have to share?
