Working from Home

I am writing this post after 6 months of working from home. I waited to write this because I was experimenting different things before I could actually Document it. Most of my work place didn’t change because as I am still a university student so I had a study table etc. yes yes I am a good student ). Working from home really has a charm of its own. You have everything in your mind because you do everything your self. My definition of work is a bit different then most people would have it, I include most of the things that I do in my work and relate them with each other. Things like all my university stuff is my work because I am giving my time to make my future “bright”, this will help me in one way or another. Similarly I made this site to help people and my self, to tell people how creative there life can be if they want to and make my life more and more creative, a journey in that all the community members will embark God willing. Whatever I did while making the site everything was my work. I am from the last 4 months going to gym about 20-25 days a month, I run around 15 days a month and play basketball almost daily and weekend football, all this comes under the essence of work because all these things are keeping my body healthy which is again good for my health. My dairy farming projects and other consultancies are come under the roof of work. The only reading that comes under leisure is Sherlock homes and Sufism.

Things that are must for an Awesome environment.

First, there is no-one watching over your shoulder in your home office. You are your own boss and you are accountable towards yourself. It’s your responsibility that things finally get done.

Second, since you are most likely working by yourself, there are no co-workers to ask help from or delegate your tasks to. It also means that the social aspect in your business is missing. Or at least it’s very different from what it used to be.

Third, you are the person who defines the rules. In fact, this is perhaps the biggest thing to remember: the structure at your home office is different from at your day job.

By structure I mean the “whole setup.”

There are two things that must be kept in mind the Physical and the non-physical elements.

Creating your true home office

When you set your physical office space, you generally have these options at your disposal:

• Working in a dedicated spot in your apartment (if you don’t have a working room)
• In a dedicated room which you have turned into home office space
• Finding space in your and make it your office(Now a days I am doing this)
• Renting a dedicated office space
• Working outside in the nature, in a coffee shop or in a library.

  
  

Setting your optimum working hours.

Have you defined your working hours? If you haven’t, now is the time to do so.

Setting the optimum working hours may require some testing and being aware of your energy levels throughout the day, but it’s definitely worth it.

For instance, I like to work in the morning before going to work(University) and that’s when I’m very productive. When I wake up early (05.00 – 05.30 AM).

This set-up works for me, but you might have to do some testing to see which part of the day you are most productive and what is the optimum amount of hours of work you can do on a daily basis.

  Boundaries with your family.

On the other hand, there are also other kinds of boundaries that you have to set. For instance, you need to communicate clearly what you are working on your computer and why you shouldn’t be interrupted when you work. Tell them that these are your specific working hours if someone calls on you, they should tell them that you are at work. It would be difficult in the start but eventually things will be fine. My friend Enwil recently wrote about the software’s that help while working on computers.

Daily/Weekly planning

I’m planning my coming week on Sundays. I sit down and think a bit what the next week might bring on its way. I then create my weekly goals list which is then extracted to daily tasks lists.

This way I’m working on important things on a daily basis and this helps me to achieve my weekly goals.

To keep track on my daily tasks, I use Wunderlist, Remember the Milk and Google Calendar.

Plan your breaks and Holidays

As the famous line goes “There are no Sunday’s for an Entrepreneur”. When you will be working from home, your holidays and your day breaks are your choice. You have to plan them, no one will tell you that Saturday/Sunday is your holiday. It is scientifically proven that a person can work 90 minutes with full concentration, after that the concentration starts to lack down(I completed edited and delivered this post in 90 minutes ). Give your self breaks, some times just unplug(no cell phones,TV,emails or any other distractions) your self from the world for 15 minutes or so.

• Make specific timings for your projects, divide them into small pieces and complete them.
• Plan some big adventures that would be stated under “holidays”. Like I haven’t been on a holiday since the last 2 months so in January after my semester ends I have planned to go on hiking in Islamabad trail no. 3 and some other places.
• On vacations spend most of your time with your family members do BBQ etc, its like indirectly telling them that when I am working I miss you but have to work.

  
  

  From working from home I feel relaxed, I do much more work then I ever did before but I feel free and happy. I hope you do too, or tell me we’ll find a solution

  Stay blessed.

  AKR.