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By Vishal P. Rao
With the holidays around the
corner, you may find yourself
struggling to keep your
home-based business and your home
life separate and running
smoothly. And you're not alone.
Operating a home-based
business has many benefits as you
already know, but its
main drawback is that it often causes
the line between your
work and your personal life to become
permanently blurred.
Unlike those individuals who work
outside the home and who
know their day at the office ends
when they get in their
car and start the commute home, home
business operators do
not usually have a definite end to
their day.
The
reverse situation is also possible: they may not have a
definite start to their day either. If you have a hard
time
breaking free of your work responsibilities or if you
sometimes have trouble settling in to tackle them, these
tips will help you bring both aspects of your life
into
equilibrium.
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Separate
Your Office From Your
Home
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If your work computer
is in the living room where everyone
in the family
congregates, chances are you are being
bombarded by
distractions. Plus, when it is time for you to
relax, you
may find it difficult with the computer right
there as a
constant reminder of all the work you still need
to finish
and all of the communications you still need to
respond
to.
The answer is to set aside an area of your home
just for
work. If you have an office or an extra bedroom
where you
can set up your space, then you can block out
the
distractions simply by shutting the door. Also avoid
putting
anything in your home office that might prevent you
from
getting your work done, such as a television.
If you don't have an entire room to dedicate to your
office,
move your computer and materials into a room that
is rarely
used or that is normally unoccupied when you need
to be
working, such as a bedroom. Once you have separated
your
home from your office, you will find it easier to
stay
focused on your work but also to leave your work in
its
space so you can relax and enjoy the remainder of your
home.
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Create Specific
Working Hours
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One of the
best things about running a home-based business
is
undoubtedly the flexible schedule, but it can also
have
negative consequences. On the one hand, your schedule
may
be so flexible that you only work 30 minutes a day or
so
hectic that you find yourself working at all hours of
the
day without taking a break.
The answer is to
set your own office hours. Creating your
own schedule
still has benefits. For one, you can decide
what time of
the day you start, so if you're not a morning
person, you
don't have to get up at the break of dawn. Also,
if you
prefer to stop working when your children come home
from
school, you can consider that when you decide when to
stop
for the day.
Another benefit is that you provide
clients and customers
with a specific times when you are
available to work with
them. The most important thing to
remember, however, is to
set hours for yourself that you
can live with. Once you
decide on a schedule, you need to
stick with it long-term,
so be realistic about how long
you can work without taking a
break and how much time
you'll need to accomplish everything
that needs to get
done.
And, no matter how much you may be tempted to
keep working,
you need to stop when you say you are going
to stop. Taking
a break allows you to come back refreshed
and more alert, so
you can be more productive. An
overworked, overly stressed
person simply is not an
effective worker at home or in an
office.
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Draw the Line
Between Home and Work
Communications
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Has this ever
happened to you? You and your family have
just sat down for
a dinner around the table when a client
calls to talk
about your current project or a customer
phones with
questions about a recent purchase.
The easiest way to
prevent work from interfering with your
family is to keep
communications separate. Start by having a
second phone
line dedicated to your work and attaching an
answering
machine or voice mail to the line.
When your work day
ends, you can turn on the machine and let
it handle any
after-hour calls. An extra phone line also
allows you to
maintain professionalism. Imagine the
embarrassment of
having your young child answer the phone
when an important
customer calls.
You may also want to set up a post
office box for all of
your business-related mail. Not only
will this prevent your
important mail from accidentally
getting thrown away with
the junk, but it will also offer
you and your family a level
of privacy.
After all,
you do not want to make your home address
available to
everyone; it's just not safe. If you use email
or instant
messaging as part of your business
communications, you'll
also want to establish separate
accounts for those as
well.
The key to running a home-based business is
balance. While
it may be difficult to stop working on that
important
project or to concentrate on work while your
preparing for
the holidays, striking that balance is
essential for your
well-being, your family's security, and
your business's
success.
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| About the
Author |
Vishal P. Rao is the editor of
Home Based Business
Opportunities - A website dedicated to
opportunities,
ideas and resources to make money from home.
Visit him
at:
http://www.home-based-business-opportunities.com
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