Work At Home Survival Tips

It’s been One and a half months since I shifted into my new home with my wife.

I’m not ashamed to admit that I’ve been living with my parents for the past 28 years but I made a promise to myself that one day, I would pay for my own house and do what I can to turn my house into my working headquarters.

Well, now is my chance.

For some people, they prefer to adjust their lifestyle to suit their work. In essence, they treat their work as the fulcrum of their lives and they let everything else orbit around it - commuting, traveling, uprooting the family, long hours, camaraderie with their colleagues and even bringing their pets to work.

I, on the other hand, have decided long ago that my work SHOULD complement my lifestyle!

I don’t want someone else to decide for me:

• What time I should wake up
• When I should go for lunch or dinner
• When I can go on a holiday
• Which department should I be working in
• What time I must reach the office
• And how much I should be getting paid (my income should reflect how hard I work and I should have the freedom to decide)

Over a year ago, I’ve fired my boss and began my quest to construct this ‘ideal’ lifestyle.

It was not long before I realized that in spite of the advantages provided by running a home business, there are several drawbacks as well.

My first ‘office table’ wasn’t a conducive environment as you can see in this picture…

It was located right next to the staircase leading to all the doors of my rooms. The table was too small and it looked more like a coffee table - those that you’ll find in Malay Chicken Rice stalls.

Being surrounded by three walls and no windows affected my productivity a lot. As a writer (and a creative copywriter), I needed lots of inspiration and based on what my clients expect from me on a daily basis, I have to avoid writer’s block at ALL costs!

So I started shifting around…

Eventually I moved my ‘office’ to my living room. (Including my 22-inch monitor)

This brown looking thing is my couch where I watch TV. Although I seldom switch on my TV, positioning myself in front of it (albeit a blank, black screen) gave me the psychological advantage of feeling relaxed. The couch really comes in handy when I need to take a break and lie down so I don’t have to move my butt - all I need to do is rotate my body and I can work, nap and play games all in one spot.

Now of course, that brings about a whole new problem. Don’t even get me talking about my weight issues! Because all I needed to do is rotate my body using the location I sit as the fulcrum, I’ve created a small hole (or crater) there.

But with that aside, at least now I have sunlight, air condition and a nice table to work at. Plus, the kitchen is just a few steps away.

Work at home individuals must have designated rest days as well. I still rest on weekends especially Sundays.

These are some of my other experiences when you try and battle the work at home insanity:

• Make sure you go out and have fun! Watch movies (at 3pm in the afternoon while people are still at work) or go shopping
• Buy lunch or dinner for your friends. It can be quite difficult for some people if they move their office home all of a sudden and look up to see no colleagues around. You have to suit their timing, though.
• Play your music as loud as you want to.
• Invite your friends over and play games
• If you are an Internet marketer like me, do your product launches at their house. Work on things together side by side.
• If your parents live around the area, offer to go home once in a while and eat home cooked food.
• Work for ‘fun’! My wife is a classic example. She refuses to go to work choosing to rely solely on one income (yes… mine, unfortunately) but works one day a week at a music school nearby. She does it not because it pays her very well but because we can go over there and chill out with the people there and annoy the principal.

I’d like to hear about your work experiences. Do share it in the comments - and rant about your daily routine.

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