Copyright 2005 Kathy Paauw
"It pays to plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the
ark." --Anonymous
If you are among the increasing number of individuals who work
from home, you know that it has some wonderful benefits – no
traffic and parking hassles, no office politics to drag you
down, nobody looking over your shoulder, you can wear your house
slippers to work, and you can set flexible work hours. But these
same great benefits come with drawbacks – a sense of isolation,
no external pressure to keep you motivated and on task, and no
limit to your work hours. In essence, if you are not careful you
can easily find yourself “at work” all the time.
With some good planning, it is possible to reap the benefits and
reduce the drawbacks of working from a home office. Here are 10
tips to help:
1. Begin with the big picture in mind. Clarify what needs to
happen in the next three years in order for you to feel like
your life has progressed in the way that you want it to.
2. Plan and organize your week so you are focused on your
priorities – both professional AND personal ones. Do you find
yourself putting things off that are important to you because
you have so many urgent tasks that need your attention? Do you
look back at the end of the day with regret and wish that you
had spent your time focusing on more important things ... such
as time with your family, time for self-care, or time to work on
an important project that has no deadline? Being technically
proficient in your business or profession will only get you so
far … especially if your life gets out of balance in the process.
We are all accustomed to making appointments with other people,
but not necessarily with ourselves. Because most of us tend to
focus on that which is urgent, we tend to put off activities
that are important but have no deadline. Schedule “protected
time” -- time during the day when you let calls go into voice
mail and you don’t check email -- so you can concentrate on
activities that are important but not urgent.
W. Clement Stone once said, "No matter how carefully you plan
your goals, they will never be more than pipe dreams unless you
pursue them with gusto." If interruptions in your home office
make it difficult to concentrate, consider going somewhere else
to work on important projects requiring concentration.
Be clear about how you choose to structure your week.
* How much free time do you choose to spend away from work? *
How much time do you choose to spend delivering the primary
product or service you provide? Are you available evenings and
weekends? * How much time do you choose to spend doing the
support activities important to your work?
All of these activities affect each other. If you neglect
support activities (returning phone calls, responding to email,
follow-up, filing, etc.), things will start slipping through the
cracks. Then it becomes difficult to take free time to relax and
rejuvenate. Without free time, the quality of what you deliver
will suffer. It becomes a viscious cycle!
3. Limit the number of places you post reminders of activities
requiring your attention. I recommend that you check these three
places daily:
* Your tickler file -- visit
http://www.orgcoach.net/products/ticklerpic.html for more
information about how to set this up. * Your contact management
program (such as ACT or Outlook) – This can contain your
scheduled appointments with others, as well as your scheduled
appointments with yourself and reminders for follow-up with
others. * E-mail – Flag the items you need to come back to and
do something with.
4. Create a Perhaps List . Most people have stashes of lists in
multiple places – several legal pads containing to-do lists,
sticky notes plastered on the computer monitor, the wall, the
desktop, etc. Instead of writing these ideas down in multiple
places, collect all of them in one place. Visit:
http://www.orgcoach.net/perhaps.html to see a sample Perhaps
List.
5. Schedule 10-15 minutes at the end of each workday to organize
your work space and review your plans for tomorrow.
Psychologists have found that we enjoy our non-work hours much
more when we leave the office with an organized desk and a plan
for the following day. This is also a good time to check your
tickler file for the next day so you can begin mentally
preparing for what needs your attention tomorrow.
6. Schedule time with other people. Working from a home office
can be isolating. If you need more human contact, build in
opportunities that will help you feel more connected to others.
Join a service club or networking group, or treat yourself to
having lunch or playing a sport once a week with a friend,
colleague, or client…whatever it takes to feel more connected.
7. Schedule weekly “admin” time to tend to routine activities
that you know need to be done regularly – filing, checking
email, returning phone calls, invoicing, paying bills, etc.
Although these activities are important, they are generally not
urgent…but if they get neglected long enough they will become
urgent when you cannot find something you need or a bill does
not get paid by the due date.
NOTE: Not all hours are created equal. Pay attention to your own
body rhythms. Schedule your “high brain” activities (things
requiring creativity, for example) during your best time of day,
and schedule the “low brain” activities (the auto pilot stuff)
during your low energy time of the day.
8. Say NO to activities that are not important to you. If you
need a reminder of what to say YES to, consider using a daily
checklist and a PageUp Copy Holder that can hold your checklist
upright (see photo at
http://www.orgcoach.net/products/tickle.html#pageup) so it does
not get buried on your desk.
9. Trim the F.A.T. – File, Act, Toss. When you open the mail,
immediately make a decision to either FILE away for future
reference, ACT on it, or TOSS it. Visit:
http://www.orgcoach.net/trimthefat.html to learn more about this
process, or participate in our fr*ee Buried in Paper teleclasses
held monthly.
10. Create a filing system which will enable you to find things
quickly, no matter where you filed it. The number one reason
people pile instead of file is a fear of never finding it again.
You're invited to participate in a fr*ee monthly Find Anything
in 5 Seconds teleclass where we'll show you how you can file
your papers so you’ll find them in 5 seconds or less.
For more information on our Teleclasses visit:
http://www.orgcoach.net/teleclasses.html
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