Archive for the ‘Work Life Balance’ Category

I have been wanting to re-decorate my bathroom at home for a long time now and as I work from home I am going to control my diary this week to enable me to do this job in between my everyday work from home jobs.

Decorating tasks are best attempted in daylight. Artificial light is quite acceptable for winding down in, watching television et cetera, however isn’t really good enough for detailed operations such as painting doorframe edges or carefully trimming wall coverings. Therefore postponing the decorating task to late in the day, after the work is finished, isn’t a great option.

I need to be sure though that I get all my important work from home jobs out of the way first. I will get up significantly earlier than I am in the habit of doing and be certain I am at my desk as early as possible. I do generally online jobs, mainly writing, so I can carry these out whenever I like. When these important tasks are completed I plan to switch my activity for the remainder of the day between my work jobs and my decorating. That way I am bringing variety into my work from home routine, it might provide a nice change and help the day to pass more pleasantly.

The idea is to get all jobs finished by tea time, so none of this will eat into my wind down time during the evening.

One snag might be answering phone calls. I can use my wireless headset and accept calls whilst working as I can easily break off most decorating jobs. But for some jobs, for example painting, I will need to use my voice mail and pretend I am otherwise engaged.

Work from home permits great flexibility to work in this way and provided you organize things to make sure all your important jobs are carried out first, it provides a brilliant way of getting even quite sizeable domestic tasks done without encroaching too much on leisure time.

If you work from home, implementing a few home office telephone tips and strategies will help you to maintain a professional image for your home based business and keep your business and personal time separate.

Most people who work from home will tell you that professional telephone issues fall into two main categories. The first issue is in making sure home business calls always sound professional. Somehow it seems that when you are working from home, the important call you’ve been waiting on from a crucial client always happens when your kids are crying or your dog is barking. That kind of background chaos doesn’t do much for your professional image.

Separate Your Personal Time from Your Work From Home Time

Then second home office telephone issue revolves around keeping business and personal time separate. Anyone who works from home will tell you that putting work completely aside and taking some personal time can be a big challenge.

If you work from home, you know what I mean. You are trying to relax and enjoy some personal time when a business call comes in. Even if you manage to gather the self control needed to let the call go to voice mail, sooner or later your curiosity will force you to yield to the little blinking light on your phone and you will take the message. Suddenly, before you’ve even realized it, you find yourself buried in your work again.

Maintain a Professional Image When You Work from Home

There are plenty of telephone tips and strategies that people who work from home can use to manage telephone professionalism.

1. Teach other members of the household to completely avoid answering the phone during typical business hours to maintain a professional image from your home office.

2. Use call display, and instruct family members to answer only when they recognize the phone number.

3. Use a pre-established hand signal, or as my former team leader called it, a “look of death” which communicates to others that you are on a business call and need others to be quiet.

4. Establish a dedicated business telephone number. You will always know when the call is business related, so you can answer in a professional way. Also you can ensure that no one else in the household answers when a call comes in on your business phone number.

More on establishing a business phone number…
Based on my experience, when you work from home and are expected to maintain a certain level of professionalism on business calls, establishing a dedicated business phone number is crucial. Depending on the options you choose, your dedicated business phone number doesn’t have to be very expensive.

You can establish a separate phone number for your home business in a couple of ways.

Establish a Second Phone Number on an Existing Phone Line
If you work from home but don’t get a lot of business calls, you may choose to simply set up a second phone number on your existing telephone line. This approach is a simple and inexpensive way to immediately establish professionalism for your business when you work from home.

When a customer calls this number, it will ring on your personal phone(s), but the ring will sound different than it does when your personal phone number is called. You can train family members to avoid answering the phone when they hear the “business ring.” Also, you will know instantly when an incoming call is business related, and you can avoid answering if there is some kind of loud chaos happening at your house.

Establish a Second Phone Line for Business Calls
Another option for establishing a dedicated business phone number for your home business is installing a completely separate phone line in your home. You will then use that separate line use for business purposes only.

Having a separate phone line is typically the more expensive of the two options. You will likely pay an installation charge and higher monthly fees than you would pay for a separate phone number on an existing line. However, a separate phone line has the advantage of ringing only on your business telephone and not on your personal telephones. This approach allows you to dedicate a specific telephone for business use only.

Asking others in your household to avoid answering your business phone is a fairly simple, uncomplicated request. The other advantage of this option is that it can really help you to address the second issue around taking business phone calls when you work at home: separating work and personal time.

Your personal phone line will not ring with business calls. The only phone that will ring will be the one in your office, so you will be limited to answering business calls in your dedicated work space.

This strategy has worked well for me. In my previous line of work, many of my phone calls were stressful. An incoming phone call was rarely good news and almost always meant a problem was brewing. Establishing a separate business phone line in my home office was crucial to preserving my personal time.

I turned the volume of the ring down on my business phone so it could only be heard in my office. That way, I was never tempted to deal with or even check incoming calls outside of office hours. It made a huge difference in my ability to manage the stresses and demands of a highly responsible job.

Working from home can be extremely rewarding, but learning to work from home effectively takes a little thought and planning. Implement a few of these simple strategies and you will be on your way to establishing a professional image for your home based business.

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Lisa McGrimmon publishes inspiri-art-and-craft.com, a guide for selling crafts. You’ll find more tips on building a home based craft business at her site.

Who else wants to make $100,000 per year – when you work from home ?

You know how it is…you feel like this wahm’s website looks better than yours, that wahm’s direct sales business is more successful than yours and then there’s that one wahm who is everywhere spitting out infoproducts, seemingly in her sleep.

Do you torture yourself like this?

This is something I’ve been giving a lot of thought to lately. Maybe it’s because I had to take a long hiatus from my own business to start a baby growing, or maybe it’s because as women we just tend to compare ourselves with other women and focus on our perceived inadequacies. As wahms, we even tend to justify our negative thinking!

Whatever the case, I hope I can help you avoid this problem with some things that help me when my thoughts turn negative. First I’ll talk about why comparing yourself with others is a fruitless exercise, then give you some positive steps to take to help you stop it!

1) Comparing yourself to others is an incredible waste of energy.

Here’s why: We’re all unique individuals with different talents, skills and abilities.

One wahm may excel at technical aspects of web design while you can write great articles. One wahm may be a great networker who is always finding JV opportunities while you can optimize web pages with one hand, nursing a baby at the keyboard. One wahm may be a real people person while you’re great at testing and tracking your marketing efforts.

Use your unique talents and personality to your benefit in your business. Keep honing your skills and beefing up your weak points with learning, but don’t expect your basic personality to change! Celebrate your strong points.

If you need to, treat yourself like a child. When you do something you’re proud of in your business day, say out loud: “Great job! I’m so proud of you!” Or put a cute little sticker in your organizer, paint your toenails, drink something hot and yummy, whatever…just give yourself some positive reinforcement.

Let’s face it…wahms need more energy to do all they must do, don’t suck it up with negative thinking!

2) Comparing yourself with other wahms is unfair.

Everyone also has different challenges. Are you pregnant? Have little babies or toddlers? Several children? Chronic health problems? A special needs child? Are you a single wahm? A husband that works too much? Caring for an elderly relative? Limited budget? See what I’m getting at here?

Stop beating yourself up and acknowledge your challenges. We all deserve a pat on the back for doing something to improve our financial standing whilst caring for house and home!

Now, let’s talk about some of the things you can do to stop comparing yourself with others.

1) Decide whether this negative self talk is just moodiness/fatigue/morning sickness or whatever, or if you really DO need a kick in the pants. Proceed accordingly.

2) Acknowledge the challenges that you work around, mentioned above. Give yourself about one minute to do this.

3) Now get busy. Get your notebook (the one you keep within reach at all times when those great ideas come to your mind) and make sure you’ve completed your “Daily Activity Standard” (those activities that pay you that must be done daily). If so, spend 15 minutes working on that project you’ve put into bite sized pieces.

Finally, remember that appreciation attracts prosperity, and thoughts of lack and “woe is me” only repel it. And don’t waste any more time comparing yourself with other wahms!

Carrie Lauth publishes a free “no fluff” ezine full of helpful information for work at home Moms. Get your free copy plus free subscriber goodies at http://www.CarrieLauth.com

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About the Author: MattheCouc

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com

by Elaine Currie

Home business owners come in every age, nationality and description you can imagine. It is easy to run a home business as a part-time occupation and this makes home business ownership attractive to all sorts of people, both male and female, from students to senior citizens. However, the largest category within this varied group is made up of women, in particular stay at home mothers who are caring for young children. There are stay at home dads in evidence amongst home business owners but they are hugely outnumbered by the ranks of stay at home moms.

It doesn’t take a genius to work out that this predominance of stay at home moms running their own home businesses is due to the fact that most women want to bring up their children themselves but also need to work at least part-time in order to supplement the family budget. Instead of reluctantly handing the care of their precious children over to strangers, these home based working mothers have found ways to combine childcare and working for a living and are doing it under their very own roofs.

Working from home while bringing up their children is the perfect dream scene to many working mothers and that dream can be turned into reality, but it doesn’t just happen, it takes careful planning and organisation. If unrealistic goals are set or organisation is lax, the perfect dream can rapidly deteriorate into a nightmare scenario. Then the mother/home business owner, instead of having the best of both worlds, ends up harassed and frustrated and regretting her decision to start a home business.

The key to making a success of a home business and, at the same time, giving your children the attention they need, lies in planning which takes into account three elements. These elements are the needs of the child, the requirements of the business, and the needs of the mother. Many work at home mothers make provisions for the first two elements but don’t factor in their own needs. In order to achieve a perfect balance it is essential that the mother, when planning her daily routine, recognises her own limitations as a human being and does not try to work to a schedule that would stress even Superwoman.

Looking after young children is stressful in itself, it is the biggest responsibility any of us can ever take on. Running a business can be stressful, particularly when you first start the venture. Add on the fact that most mothers put themselves last in any consideration and the danger will be obvious. To succeed, indeed in order to survive, any mother of young children who is thinking of starting a home based business must make a realistic assessment of her personality and abilities right at the start. This will enable her to choose the right business, set achievable goals and to formulate a sensible daily schedule.

If the work at home mom feels confident and able to cope with her dual roles as a home business owner and mother, she will be relaxed and happy. The children will pick up on their mother’s mood and, in turn, they will feel secure and happy. A happy frame of mind and a relaxed atmosphere will make children (even from early toddler stage) more inclined to be co-operative and to play independently while their mother gets on with her work. If children don’t feel they have to compete with mom’s business to get her attention, they won’t feel the need to behave in a nagging, demanding way: just knowing mom is there will be enough for them.

If the mother feels she is doing her best for her children as well as her business, she won’t be burdened with the negativity caused by feelings of guilt. Get the three way balance right and being a work at home mom will be just as you dreamed it should be.

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Article Source: Article Crop

About the Author

Have you achieved your work/life balance? If you are a home based working mother looking for ways to make money working at home, visit Elaine Currie’s Work At Home Directory and take your pick of the best home jobs and home based business ideas online.

By Chris Simpson

Your WAHM career probably hits a major bump in early June, when the kids are home during the day from school, and they might just be too much for you to handle. It is easy to get the same amount of work done, however, so if you follow some easy tips you’ll be able to have smooth sailing, during the summer and all year round!

First of all, get everyone on schedule as much as you can. Remember that you want to spend time with your kids, after all, that’s what being a mom is all about – but you also need to get your work done. A good suggestion is to look at your kids’ sleeping schedules. Do they like to stay up later than usual and then sleep in during those summer mornings? If so, you know that early mornings will be the best time for you to get that quiet-time work done on your computer or anywhere else. Schedule your toughest work when they’ll still be sleeping.

If your kids are still on a go-to-bed-early and get-up-with-the-sun type schedule, use those few hours between when they are going to bed and when you are to get that work done that needs to be completed without any interruption. If you can work while they are still sleeping, you’ll be better off.

Next, be sure that you also schedule a quiet time early in the afternoon. This can be right after your late sleepers get up and eat, or after lunch for your early-risers. Explain to the kids that it is important to do quiet activities at least once a day – and have them read books, or do educational games. The little ones can even take a nap if they were up early. Use this hour or so to get more work done.

Another great option is to enroll your kids in a couple of summer activities that you don’t need to be present for. You’ll have to go to the games if you put them in a sport, but you’ll have the times when they are practicing. There are great education things like discovery programs and music lessons that kids like to do during the summer. If you can get an afternoon or two a week out of a program, you will be able to concentrate on your work even more.

Lastly, remember that being organized is one of the best ways to deal with your kids and your work all at once. If you have a nicely organized home as well as office, then your kids can find their toys, know where the scissors are for art projects, and not need to bother you every five minutes to help them find something. You’d be surprised at how quickly interruptions can add up, so keep organized to keep on top of it. Also, try to schedule yourself enough time to simply be with your kids during the summer.

These years will go fast, and soon they won’t even want to be around when the weather is nice!

Author Resource:- Chris Simpson is dedicated to helping people find honest and legitimate work from home and home based business opportunities. Find legitimate work at home opportunities today at: http://www.HomeNetPro.com
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