3 Essential Work From Home Tips You Should Know

You finally did it—broke away from the nine to five to follow your passion.

As a writer, someone who needs plenty of time and space to come up with interesting ideas, standard office jobs are difficult to work in. You’re always being watched, and your productivity monitored. You might even be scolded for staring out of the window as you’re gathering your thoughts on your article.

Work From Home Tips

Work From Home Tips

With that said, here are three ways to make the most out of working from home:

1. Use Security Measures To Protect Your Work

Since most of your work as a content creator is online, you need to use security measures. If you’re working independently using an Internet-connected computer, you can install anti-virus software on your local hard-drive. However, if you’re working as a telecommuter and accessing corporate resources to do your work, you need to ask if the network administrator is taking enterprise security measures to protect your information. With this type of system, intelligence can be shared across many secured layers.

2. Choose A Designated Place To Work

Yes, you can work from anywhere. You can set up your office in a coffee shop or on a beach chair. After all, you just need a laptop with Wi-Fi connectivity. However, the thrill of being able to work anywhere eventually wears off.

An office offers certain advantages that the nomadic lifestyle of a free-ranging human does not provide. For instance, it’s nice to be able to have your reference books close at hand; it’s easy to access your paper files to look up archived information; and it’s convenient to use your notebook and pen to sketch out mind maps as you work. In other words, you can populate your space with all the things you need to be creative, productive, and fulfilled.

There is also something magical about having a sacred space, the one place where you can focus on your most important ritual. In your case, it might be coming up with brilliant ideas that shake up the world from its dogmatic complacency.

While a home office is similar to a traditional office, it often has much less space. So when setting up your home office, take a look at catalogs and websites that show examples of contemporary home office furniture. You will get a lot of great ideas on the best type of desk, chair, and shelving that you need for the amount of space you’re working in.

3. Create A Productive Daily Work Schedule

It’s amazing how much more work you can get done in a standard office than you do at home. This is a discomforting truth that many home office workers quickly discover.

Why does this happen? Although you are sitting at a desk with plenty of work in front of you in both scenarios, and you are in a much more comfortable setting in a home office, you find you can get much more writing done in a traditional office.

Here’s the irony of the situation, freedom rarely syncs well with productivity.

In a standard office, you have a little freedom. You are expected to be in the office over a designated period of time. You have limited break times. And your family and friends, knowing you are at work, don’t call you. In addition, people are always passing by and you feel obligated to look busy—after all, you’re being paid for every hour you spend there.

In a home office, you can work when you please. You can take extended breaks. And family and friends can’t distinguish between when you are working and when you are free to talk. In addition, nobody is keeping an eye on you—and if a five-minute break visiting Facebook turns into a one-hour session with your friends, nobody is the wiser for it. Then, of course, there is the refrigerator, the television, and a to-do list of errands and chores you didn’t get done earlier.

It takes a tremendous amount of self-discipline to impose the same rigorous work ethic that you showed in the office. It’s only too easy to dismiss link surfing as research when you are not working under the clock, and it’s difficult to just sit there plodding away on your keyboard when you could be doing something much more interesting.

Alternatively, you could also overdo it, and refuse to get up from your desk, working endless hours. The result is the same. You will eventually need to take an extended break to recover from your exhaustion. Because you did not pace yourself, sliding from overwork to a prolonged rest period to recuperate, you end up not being as productive as you had hoped.

The best way to become a productive home office worker is to impose a working schedule that has many of the elements of your former job. For instance, find ways to work the same number of hours.

Best of All Possible Worlds

As someone who works from home as a writer, you have the best of all possible worlds. You’re free of the tyranny of the rat race, the daily commute, and the lack of creative freedom to express yourself. You can also earn a decent living by telecommuting for a company, working as a freelancer, or developing your own projects. By taking these three steps to protect your work, design the right environment, and create a productive routine, you can take full advantage of your new lifestyle.

10 thoughts on “3 Essential Work From Home Tips You Should Know”

  1. I have been working from home for last 5 months now and I love it. It is challenging when you have distractions, but it is also very rewarding. I love being able to spend time with my family and work at the same time. I don’t have a boss standing over my shoulder and I make my own hours. The tips above are very informative and anyone currently working from home or planning to in the future could use these.

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  2. But there are also some other basic tips we should also know about Work from Home like always keep a notepad and pencil nearby, have a glass or bottle of water by your desk all the time, always takes a small break within working hours and if you really don’t want to get disturbed than just turn off your phone it will help you a lot. I am telling this because I also Work from Home and I do follow all the tips I mentioned above.

    Reply
  3. Sometimes it is very difficult to work at home, in my case i am not much in favor of working at home

    Reply
  4. Hi Pradeep,

    Working from home is really tough. For the past few months I have been trying hard and it is a huge task. I often wonder how you manage to run so many blogs and communities and yet be successful at each one of those.

    Anyways, thanks for sharing these tips.

    Reply
  5. I always try to keep myself easy and calm that’s why my computer table is the best place in my room. Its keeps me motivated to work with full passion. The above tips are very nice and logically true. Thanks for the idea!!

    Reply
  6. I really agree with which you mentioned above in article..Work from home really stress less work compare to standard office, Proper schedule can give many possible results for home worker. Many freelancers don’t scheduled them work properly, after seen this article they can improve them personality for their work from home. Very good topic you had taken!

    Reply
  7. Hey pradeep! Very much loved this article <3
    One doubt, I am a student and as well as a blogger. I find it very problematic to do both the stuff, and the fun fact is, I either end up watching anime or playing stupid games and this has started to effect both, my studies as well as blogs. What do you suggest?
    Should I create a timetable?
    What can I do in order to become more productive? Being a 11th class Science student. I am always suggested to study 6+ hours a day, and I also have to give atleast 2 hours to blog. Please help me out?
    Regards, Haren.

    Reply
  8. That is a dream of every blogger out there to ditch the 9 to 5 and start their own venture but most of the cases that is not possible at all especially when you start a little late. For example I came to know about this after my grad and I think that I would have been in a different position if I would have known about this long before. But yes, the tips are great and useful for the ones who work from home. Thank you for sharing. 🙂

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  9. Hi Pradeep

    though this blog post mentioned about writers ! I think these three steps should be followed and ideal for all freelancers like me around the world .

    Thanks for thinking about freelancers

    Reply

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