Disadvantages of Working at Home - part 3
One of the disadvantages we’ve talked about so far is that working from home can involve quite a lot of loneliness. This is usually for folks who don’t have yet a family or those who isolate themselves to get the job done.
What about those who have just recently started a family and have a few toddlers? If you’re a work at home parent you can’t really isolate yourself from them. They need constant supervision. They need constant attention. Needless to say they can become a huge distraction for you. Together with television, endless, useless phone conversations, and even the internet.
If you don’t pay really close attentiont to all these factors that can distract you from getting the job done, well… you do the math.
So what can you do to eliminate distractions and keep focus on your work?
Let’s approach them one at a time.
Kids: I understand that one of the main factors driving parents to start a home based business is them wanting to see their kids grow and be there when they need them. However, when your kids are still young and don’t go to school yet, you need to find solutions to keep them away from you while you work. Whether it’s only for a couple of hours to even a normal eight hours day of work. You could hire a babysitter or have one of the grand parents take care of them for the time you allocate to working. You have no idea how much trouble they can save you. Have them come in and watch the kids while you lock yourself in your home office. And act as if you would actually have to leave the house. Explain them the rules: what the kids are allowed to do and what not; what time they’re supposed to eat; what time they are supposed to take a nap; let them take the kids out for a walk in the park or go places. You would still be at home and every time you miss them you could take a short 5 minutes break and check on them.
Doing so, not only keeps this huge distraction away, but also, instinctively, teaches the kids that when mommy or daddy is working there’s no interruptions allowed except in extreme situations.
Television: Just hit that “Power OFF” button and throw your remote control out the window 
Seriously now, every single time I turn on the TV I find myself not doing any substantial work. I pay attention to the TV more than I do to my computer. The only way I can keep myself focused is to just keep it off until there’s a show or movie I absolutely want to watch or when the news come on. It not only allows me to concentrate on my work but also to fully enjoy whatever it is that I want to watch.
If you’re a TV junkie it will be quite tough at the beginning. I know how it is. I’ve been there myself. You just can’t get yourself to turn the damn thing off. Just one more minute. Just five more minutes. Just this one more show. And before you know it the day is gone and you’ve done nothing. You say to yourself: “That’s it. Tomorrow I just won’t turn it on.” Yet, the first thing you do in the morning you turn on your TV. “Let me just see what’s on the news.” The next thing you realize is that it’s past noon and you’re still in your pajamas and done nothing so far (again). Once again, I know what you’re going through. But keep in mind that you’re running a business. You can’t afford to not work at it. You need to pull yourself together, find that seed of ambition we all have inside us and just don’t turn on the TV until you’re done. With a bit of determination you can do it and get to the point where I am now when I don’t watch TV for days and I don’t miss it.
Two tips that might help you. On a philosophical level don’t think of your “tens of inches” plasma TV as of your best friend but rather as of your worst enemy (wich actually I believe it is). The one that will make you fail. The one that will squash your dream and deprive you from the freedom of working from home and being your own boss. And treat it accordingly.
On a more practical level, what worked for me, was that I would get out of the house first thing in the morning (even if sometimes that means noon for me). Anyway, wake up, take a shower, freshen yourself and get out of the house. Go have breakfast (or brunch or even lunch) at a local restaurant. Go out for your morning coffee instead of having it at home. Go out for a run or even just a walk. Get yourself energized. Make a plan of action for the day (or revise it if you already have one). And once you get back home go straight at it. Keep yourself busy with anything that comes to mind but the remote control. You should even put it somewhere out of reach. It is proven that when it comes to addictions (and TV is an addiciton) it’s a lot easier to give in to them when they are handy.
I know it’s hard, but with a little self discipline and ambition you can do it. If I did it so can you.
Telephone: In this case I can only talk about it from what would seem common sense because I’m not much of a talking guy. I do enjoy a good challenging conversation. But when it comes to chit-chat I’ve always got better things to do. I even have issues with friends about this.
So what would common sense should tell you when thinking of how to fight the phone addicition? Well, the first thing you would need to understand is that you are the only one responsible to say no to useless time wasting phone conversations. You are the one who needs to decide that it’s not the right time to answer a certain phone call or that it’s not the right time to keep a conversation going when you’re working.
Now, as for real practical things you need to do to help yourself, here are just a few. The first thing and probably the easiest that comes to mind is to just unplug, turn off or put your phone on silent. That way you won’t even know when someone is calling.
You could also put it in a different room. There is indeed the chance that you might be inclined to check it every time someone calls to see if it’s someone you need to talk to (such as your children, wife/husband, girlfriend/boyfriend etc). This is an easy to solve problem with cell phones since you can asign different ring tones for each of your closest friends/family members. That way you, if you decide to leave your phone in another room, chances are you will still hear it when it rings, but you’ll know who’s calling without having to get up from your desk.
For the stronger ones, who can resist answering the phone regardless of who’s calling, just don’t answer it. If you do and end up having a long, useless conversation, sooner or later you’ll become aware of it. When you do, just make the person on the other end understand you have to go. If it’s someone you know won’t judge you just tell them you have to get back to work. For those a little on the touchy side you cold use a harmless lie. You could pretend that you have a really important call on the other line and suggest you call them back when you have the time or to see them in the afternoon. Just make sure you keep your promisses.
These are the tips that come to mind. As I said I’m not the most suited person to give advice about this issue since I don’t have such a problem. If any of you guys have any other suggestions, please don’t hesitate to post a comment.
Internet: Well, well, well… This is a tough one. I’ve had problems with it and I still do. The internet is the new generation’s TV beast. Just think about it: how many kids do you really know that waste a lot of time in front of a TV? Now the fashionable way to waste time is the internet. They chat all day long, play games, visit all kind of time-wasting web sites.
Kids are not the only ones. I find myself plenty of times just browsing the net looking at “interesting” things for hours in a row. It’s hard to say no to it. It’s just like the TV: just this one. And then just this one more. And then just this one more. And so on and so forth for countless hours.
If in the case of TV there are some things you can actually do to keep the distraction away, in the case of the internet the situation is a lot worse. Chances are your home business involves a lot of internet presence. Presence that can turn from productive work to time wasted in a matter of minutes.
So what’s one to do? Well, not much. A lot of ambition and self discipline. When you become aware of the fact that you’re wasting your time just SAY NO. Get back to your WORK. Saty focused. Keep in mind why you went online in the first place. One small thing you could do is, whenever you find a site you think would intefere with your work and yet you would love to check it out, bookmark it for when you’re done working.
A part of the internet time wasting issue is that of emails. How many times have you found yourself browsing through your inbox checking every single little message (business or not)? The first thing you could (and actually should do) is have an email address dedicated to business issues and one for communicating with friends and family. Maybe even one for signing up for all kind of offers. A second thing is to dedicate a certain portion of your daily schedule to emails and use that time only. For most folks the best time proves to be at the end of the day. By that time you’re probably tired and don’t feel like doing anythig anymore anyway. Take a short five minute break just to recharge your bateries and get to your emails. Being the end of your work day you won’t have the tendency of giving as much importance to all emails. You will have the power to say “O.K. This is not really something that requires my immediate attention. It can wait until some other time.” (Just make sure when that time has come you do take care of it.) This way you’ll be able to focus on those emails that require your immediate full attention, thus cutting down on the time you waste on emails.
Well, these are pretty much the most important distractions I can think of that can keep you from doing the work you need to do to make a success out of your home based business.
Next: scams
