Make Work From Home Dream A Reality

Whether you’re years into a career that’s beginning to fall heavy on you. Or you’re at the beginning of your working life. Just trying to find your place in the world of work. The dream of escaping from the pressure of the commute is a persuasive one. Make the work from home dream a reality and start living your life!

If you run a business from home, you don’t have to deal with the daily grind. Squeezing into a crowded bus or train. Or sitting in a traffic jam to wait half an hour for a drive you could do in ten minutes outside of peak time. If your employer is sufficiently flexible, you can even enjoy the work from home lifestyle.

The key to making the dream a reality, whether it’s as a self-employed entrepreneur or as a distance worker, is to manage your time effectively. It’s easy to go too far in either direction when you don’t have direct oversight. Either squandering your time in your comfortable surroundings or doubling down. Working too hard on your work and losing sight of when to stop and relax.

Dedicated Workspace

One of the most important things to do is make sure you have a dedicated workspace. Clear an area of your house and use it exclusively for work. You shouldn’t feel ‘at home’ in this space. It needs to be your office, even if the commute is simply walking across the hall. If your home is too cluttered to create this space for yourself easily, you can make use of a storage company. Somewhere to keep your precious possessions safe until you have space to re-home them.

Computer Screens

Another really important thing to have for your at home workspace is a decent computer screen. Laptops are great for on the go or the occasional bit of work. However, they shouldn’t be used on a day to day basis. For one they will give you bad posture. Plus, you’re more likely to ‘work’ with the tv on in the background. Over the years I have tried out various screens to see what works best. Different brands, putting the screen in different positions and even trying it with two screens.

One screen I tried recently was the BenQ EW3270U monitor. A 32inch computer screen with 4k resolution which is amazing by the way! I like the 32inch screen size because anything bigger makes you feel like you have to move your head around to see different areas of the screen. Anything smaller makes everything on the screen look too small. The clarity is so much better than a normal screen, a screen I thought was great anyway, trumped by this one from BenQ. One great feature is it’s Eye-care function – Brightness Intelligence Plus Technology & Low Blue Light Mode. If like me, you have sensitive eyes, a screen like this is great because of the low blue light mode it has available. It docent make the screen look much different so it won’t make a difference to you on a daily basis but it will help your eyes feel less tired at the end of the day. 

Employ Others

Obviously, until you get to a point where you can employ other people, you’ll be working alone much of the time with possibly the odd meeting and telephone call for interaction. On days where I don’t have much face to face or at least telephone interaction, I will make sure I get out and about – maybe to the gym or to see my parents (they are both retired), just so I can feel a little more sociable and less alone. Much of the time, my days fly by so fast that I don’t even have time to think about seeing people but on the days when I do manage to get out, I feel so much better.  

However, if you are in a position where you can employ there people, possibly where they don’t work in the same office as you, maybe they work from their home and you work like that, employee experience is so important to not only make sure you know what each other is working on, but also, to make sure they are happy in the work place… even if that is in a different location. Being able to keep in touch with your employees is so important to the successful running of your company. One way to do this is by using Blink, a powerful and user-friendly app to use in the workplace that empowers your workforce to be their best, so they feel like they’re making a real difference.

Designate Hours

Make sure you designate working hours for yourself, as you would in a ‘proper’ office. Time inside these hours is to be spent concentrating on professional work, not doing the housework, watching tv or relaxing. Conversely, outside of these hours, try not to get sucked back into your work. While you might stay late at work if you’re particularly busy, but try to be firm about not allowing this to happen any more than if you were commuting to work. Try to leave the office ‘on time’ most days, to preserve a good work-life balance. If you can, close your office door behind you and don’t go back in until the next day. 

How would you make the work from home dream a reality?