Thursday, November 28, 2013


How to Decide Whether Working at Home Is for You

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit
Working from home is an attractive option for many people. However, not all of those people would be successful at it. If you are interested in transitioning into a home-based work situation, take some time to evaluate the decision. And when doing so, reflect on the steps that will help you better decide whether working at home is for you.

Steps

  1. Rate how important working from home is to you. Transitioning from a job onsite to one in your own home is a big transition that assumes a lot of responsibility. Ask yourself if you are prepared to make that big of a change in your life. You should be really sure that this is something you want to do before making such a big move.
  2. Sit down with your spouse and discuss your interest in working from home. You will need the support of your family if you do decide to go ahead with this endeavor. So make sure that everyone is in agreement with you before going ahead with it.
  3. Understand that when you work from your house, you are managing yourself, and in doing so, you need to be disciplined if you want to be successful. If you slack off, the affect will be more substantial than if you were part of a team, and your income comes directly from you.
  4. Realize that working at home means you are on your own all day, unless you have your children with you. Either way, you are the only adult in the home. Consequently, you need to decide whether you can handle being alone all day. If you are an extrovert or you enjoy being social, then the isolation that comes with working from home may not be something you can tolerate. If, on the other hand, you enjoy the quiet and are more productive when you are alone, working from home may be the ideal work situation for you.
  5. Determine whether you can take yourself and your work situation seriously. If you don't, then no one else will either. Taking yourself seriously means establishing work hours and treating them as such. You may have to filter your calls, tell family and friends not to disturb you when you are working, and decline invitations to be social during your established work hours. If you are finding that people are just not taking your work hours seriously, then you may have to be blunt and then live with the possibility of them becoming offended. That might be the price you have to pay in order to be taken seriously.
  6. Be honest about whether a home-based career is really something you can do successfully. The idea of working from home is very attractive, but if you make the transition but don't put in the effort, then you will fail. You have to be passionate about working from home, but you also have to be disciplined, organized and determined.
  7. Decide whether you really want to work at home and live at work. Some people need a change of scene. When you work at home, you don't get that diversity. So ask yourself if you are prepared to give that up. Additionally, you need to be able to separate your work from your home life. You need to know when your work day ends and when your home life begins, especially if you have a family. Don't allow your work to consume you because the office is always there. Doing so may cause resentment in your personal life.
  8. Figure out whether you can afford to work from home, especially if you are freelancing and just starting out. You may have to sit down with your spouse and go over your finances to determine whether you have enough saved up to keep you afloat until your regular income kicks in or whether a single income will be enough in the interim.

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