Nobody Takes Your Work-At-Home Productivity Seriously

You  know that your work-at-home productivity is just as important as anything done in a corporate office. If anything, it's harder because you don't have the support of colleagues, a clerical and accounting staff that can take care of administrative and financial details, or fancy office equipment like a dedicated copier with sorting capabilities.

So why does everybody think working from home is a breeze? Your friends call you at all hours to chat and are offended when you can't take long lunches with them. Your kids play their online games on your computer. And your sister wants to drop off her babies so you can take care of them during the day while she works in an office.

Never mind what they think. It's time to put your foot down and have everybody treat your home-based work as seriously as you do. Try some of these tips to improve your productivity:

Dress for work. It doesn't matter how hard you try but you can't look professional wearing a house robe. You'll even sound like you're in your robe on the phone. You don't have to wear a suit or super professional outfit (unless that's your thing), just distinguish work from play (or bedtime).  Even if you step out for lunch or an errand during the day, you'll still be in a business frame of mind if you're dressed for the occasion.

Lock the door to your home office room, both when you're in it and when you're done with it for the day. Nothing says “Don't bug me” like a locked door, both at work and at home. Even if your neighbors, spouse or older kids come knocking, tell them to come back after work because you're busy. If you can't dispatch the younger children to a daycare center, set up a cheap speaker and video camera in their room so you can keep an eye on them while working. Then instruct them not to interrupt you unless it's an emergency. (You'll obviously have to check on them from time to time but do it at scheduled intervals.)

If you're spending too much time on paperwork and not enough time on your business tasks, offload the dreary stuff to virtual assistants. You can do everything with them online at an hourly or monthly rate. Try looking at oDesk, eLance, or VAnetworking for potential hires. Getting referrals is a great option too.

If you want more information on improving your home office productivity, contact me.