Time Management Skills for Telecommuters Articles | Entrepreneur

By: Matthew Hick

Whether your company allows you to work from a home office, you are an independent consultant, or you run your own business, working from home can be wonderfully flexible for families. It can also be a strain when schedules collide, children want and need extra attention, and deadlines loom. Getting – and staying – on track at home and work is a juggling act that some stay-at-home workers find difficult. Yet others seem to have little difficulty getting all their work done amidst home and family, while a select few find that telecommuting makes them even more productive than working in a traditional office.

What’s their secret? Most will agree it’s their commitment to keeping home and work separate; their ability to schedule projects and time efficiently; and their ability to keep a sense of professionalism within the home office. If you’re finding working from home to be more stressful, and less productive, than you’d hoped, try some of these tips offered by those who do it successfully:

Be At Your Desk The Same Time Every Day.
It can be difficult to get into a good work rhythm if you’re always working at different times of the day and night. Set a schedule of standard work hours, and stick to it. For example, plan on working every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9 am to 2 pm, with 30 minutes for lunch. Condition your mind and your body, (not to mention your family), to be ready for business at certain times or days. It’ll make the sudden transition from homemaker to employee much easier.

Make a Daily and Weekly Schedule.
Take phone calls from 10 to 11 am; pay business bills every Friday; contact new customers after lunch. Figure out what time is best for certain work-related activities, and then set (and keep) a daily schedule. Maybe your house tends to be bit noisier in the late afternoon when the kids get off the bus. Don’t try to solicit new business over the phone during that time. Open the mail, pay bills, send faxes instead. The important thing is to schedule your activities so that nothing gets lost in the shuffle of daily life.

Set Priorities and Goals.
Keep a white board of assignments, projects, deadlines, etc. Periodically set goals for projects and evaluate how well you’re staying on schedule. Watch for specific distractions that may consistently pull you off course, and work to fix them.

Dress and Act Professionally At All Times.
Just because your desk is off your bedroom, doesn’t mean that you have to work in your pajamas all day. The way we look and act can have a distinct effect on the quality of our work and productivity. Take your home-based job as seriously as you would a traditional office one. Stay in that work mindset at all times, and always remain an utmost professional.

Separate Your Work From Living Space.
Keeping home and work as separate as possible can help limit unwanted distractions, as well as keep you in a more work-oriented and structured mindset. Remember, you still have a REAL job, it’s just in a more convenient location. Many telecommuters fall into the trap of thinking that their new home-based business is less professional than the work they did in an office. It is not! Your boss and your clients still expect the high caliber of work that they did before – don’t disappoint them with shoddy work.

Working from home can be a real blessing to many. But it does have its own unique drawbacks. Keep those in mind before setting up shop, and you’ll be more able to handle these new struggles when they arise.