Working in your home office, especially as a home-based business owner, requires exceptional focus and commitment. It’s easy to allow your family or distractions in your home to interrupt your productivity. This leads to working late at night, or during the weekend, instead of having a healthy working schedule. Sometimes, people are much better off working outside of their home to be more productive. If you’re wondering whether working at home is right for you, review these 5 things that suggest your home office isn’t working.
You face constant interruptions from family, roommates, or other distractions
Family, friends, and roommates can often make it difficult to work at home. At a regular nine-to-five job, you wouldn’t chat with your friends in the middle of your workday, yet when you’re at home, you’re free to add anything to your schedule. If your attention is taken away from your work because of the needs of family or roommates, there’s a good chance that your home office isn’t working in your favor.
You haven’t developed self-discipline to get work done
There are many distractions around that can reduce your chance of completing work. If you find your day is over, but you feel like all you’ve been doing is checking your iPhone and watching YouTube videos, then chances are you don’t have the self-discipline to work at home. Your best option may be to work around other people who will keep you accountable at a co-working office rental like Common Desk. Being around other productive people who are working will help you focus on earning an income and supporting your family, instead of wasting time.
Your environment isn’t professional enough
Face-to-face meetings are one of the best ways to build your business. But what are your options if you feel like the office space in your home isn’t professional enough? If you’re not comfortable meeting clients at your home, then perhaps you’ll prefer a virtual office instead. This gives you a place to meet people when you need to, a receptionist to transfer calls to you, and much more. Instead of losing business because you’re not comfortable meeting in your home office, why not make use of a virtual setup to appear and feel more professional.
There’s not enough work and home separation
As someone who works out of your home office, you can probably relate to checking your personal email and spending an hour or more responding to your clients or customers instead. It’s easy to get caught up with work when you’re supposed to spend more time with the family. Alternatively, it’s also easy to get caught up with home issues when you should work instead. To become more productive at your home office, you might benefit from using a daily planner like Plan.
You’re working longer hours because you work from home
It’s easy to get carried away while working at home and end up working 12-hour days or longer. Unfortunately, productivity falls considerably after 47 hours of work each week. If you find yourself working 60 or 70 hours a week because you work from home, chances are you’re wasting a lot of productive time because of this fall off. You might be happier, and get more done, by deciding to work outside of the home instead.
