By Melissa Brister

I have been a telecommuter for 3 years and what a great 3 years it’s been!  When I first was offered this job, I was hesitant. But now, I wouldn’t trade it for the world!  I am home to get my kids on and off the bus, I don’t have to mess with traffic and I save money on gas. I go to work even when I’m not feeling the greatest because I am in the comfort of my own home.  I don’t have to worry about giving my co-workers flu bug or sharing mine.  I can have my music blaring (until the phone rings) and not disrupt anyone.  I don’t spend money on going out to lunch and am making healthier choices. 

While it is great, working from home has not come without challenges.  Here are 4 tips I wanted to share with you to becoming a successful telecommuter.  

1.       Get up, get dressed. 

Every. Single. Day.  When I tell people that I work from home, a lot of them will say, “Oh, that’s so great!  You get to wear pajamas all day!”   But the truth is, I don’t.  I get up, shower, put makeup and real clothes on every day.  It makes me feel like I have a real job and gives me a lot more energy than staying in pajamas all day. 

2.       Have a designated work space that is welcoming and functional. 

I recently got a new desk from Bush Business Furniture.  I am amazed how a new workspace that accommodates all of my needs has changed the way I work.  I sit at my desk and do not find myself frustrated with the papers piling or lack of space.  I put a fresh coat of paint on the walls and bought a fun accent chair and some bright artwork to make the space feel welcoming.  It is a space I WANT to be in and love to look at. 

3.       Keep on task!

 I make a to-do list every day around 4:30 for the next day.  It keeps me on track and I know what I have to do tomorrow.  It’s easy to get side-tracked. 

4.       Stay Connected! 

Attend company meetings, luncheons, after-work parties.  Participate in social media and contests.  Develop relationships with co-workers.  Working from home can be very isolating, so it is important to stay involved.  I try to attend every meeting, luncheon, and after work event that I can.  I ask co-workers how their weekends were and about their families.  I am a social person, so sitting at home by myself every day can be tough.  Stay involved!

Good luck, and just remember, you might be working from home, but you still need to be working!

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, by the year 2020, approximately 40% of the workforce will perform at least some of their work from home. As more companies opt for policies that allow telecommuting, the need for employee self-management has become crucial to the success of remote workers. Below are eleven habits teleworkers need to break if they want to succeed.




1) Working in pajamas

Sleep experts say that if you have trouble sleeping it helps to establish a bedtime routine, such as getting into your pajamas. It stands to reason, then, that part of getting ready for a productive day is getting OUT of your pajamas.  “Getting dressed symbolizes the beginning of the day and helps get you into work mode,” says WorkteQ owner David Heilbronner.

2) Rejecting structure

Working from home can make a person feel like they’re the boss. No one to immediately answer to, no rigid schedules. But we need structure, and creating daily rituals is a good way build that.

Writing about morning rituals Seth Simonds explains, “Starting your day with a few simple tasks is an easy way to begin a cycle of results that’ll power you through your day.” What’s great is, unlike structure imposed upon you, rituals are centered around your personality and your life choices. (After this article was written, I came across a superb blog post by Sara Rosso, where she documented what made remote work at Automattic a success. You should read it too!)

3) Watching television

Our culture raves about multi-tasking. In actuality, multi-tasking causes attention split. While a little distraction might make projects we’re working on seem a little easier, it diminishes the quality of the work we’re doing.

Here’s an excellent read on what multi-tasking really does to our productivity. In a nutshell, multi-tasking makes us feel more productive because our busy-ness let’s us we think we’re doing more. The reality is that our attention is minimized in several activities, adding up to not much of anything.

4) Working around clutter

While there’s some debate over how neat a person’s desk should be, there’s little doubt that being in a room cluttered with kids’ toys or piles of paper on the floor can kill creativity and productivity. To refer to one UCLA study: “Similar to what multi-tasking does to your brain, physical clutter overloads your senses, making you feel stressed, and impairs your ability to think creatively.”

Paraphrasing a study by the Princeton University Neuroscience Institute, in an article on Unclutterer.com , Erin Dodland wrote, “When your environment is cluttered, the chaos restricts your ability to focus. The clutter also limits your brain’s ability to process information. Clutter makes you distracted and unable to process information as well as you do in an uncluttered, organized, and serene environment.”

5) Cleaning

A cluttered house is not conducive to productivity, but cleaning when you’re supposed to be working isn’t any better. If necessary, set a time to clean before you start working, or set a cut off time for work to clean. Don’t mix the two.

6) Ranking tasks in order of difficulty

Many productivity experts have said that the best way to get things done is to tackle difficult tasks first. This makes sense, especially for people who procrastinate. And it sure feels good when the tougher items get crossed off our lists.

However, this isn’t always the best approach, particularly for people who work from home. Karen Southall Watts, speaking to the New York Times, says it’s best to  “schedule your most demanding tasks during your natural periods of high energy, and do your planning and reflection when you are feeling less perky. When your energy is low, that’s not the moment to make 10 sales calls.” Since you have control over your schedule, this approach might be best since you are able to work on any activity you want at your own pace.

7) Responding to every call or email that comes in

I know, I know: you work alone and crave contact with the outside world. However, nothing eats up precious time more than email or unscheduled phone calls. Set up a voice message that not only informs callers you are not available, but tells gives them an idea of when you will return their calls. This is akin to an autoresponder for e-mail. It might seem a little annoying to the recipient, but it sets clear boundaries and saves you from answering each call and then repeatedly needing to cut each call short.

According to Juliette Garside, writing for The Guardian, “The average person is interrupted every three minutes during their working day...and our plethora of gadgets have made for more disruptions.” Furthermore, says Garside, “Interrupted tasks have been found to take twice as long to finish and contain twice as many errors as uninterrupted efforts: it can take between 12 and 20 minutes to resume a complex task after being interrupted.” Enough cannot be said about doing whatever it takes to eliminate unnecessary distractions.

8) Eating at your desk

Aside from dripping juice and dropping crumbs all over your keyboard being unsanitary, dining at your desk creates mindless eating which is bad for digestion. Mindless eating means food is gulped down in an effort to ward off anxiety, or to satisfy hunger as quickly as possible. Instead, take dedicated meal breaks. Pack your lunch the night before, if possible, to put some extra thought into what you plan to eat.

Perhaps more important than sanitary and digestive issues is that eating at your desk robs you of a much-needed mental break. According to Jon Yaneff, “When you don’t get proper nutrition – from missing meals or digesting them on the run – your work will suffer. When you always eat at your desk, you can feel tense and tired without an uninterrupted break.” Laura Vanderkam, writing in Fast Company, warns that “failing to take a real break is a recipe for needing a lot of unofficial and inefficient breaks--like random web surfing--later.”

9) Keeping Twitter and Facebook open

The mother of all distractions these days: Social media. If you’re like me, I act like a fiend when I have Twitter loaded: refreshing every other second, checking to see who wrote what, who’s following me, who just dumped me, etc. I use Facebook for more familiar socializing, and end up getting nothing done--except writing posts about how much I have to do.

Here’s a frightening claim: “Every time someone at work gets an IM, a Facebook message or a tweet, it takes them a whopping 23 minutes to get back on task. Taken all together, that costs the American economy $650 billion per year in lost productivity.” (LearnStuff.com)

10) Feeling parenting guilt

There’s no question that working from home has challenges. But nothing compares to working from home with children. However, as demanding as children are you have to let them know that when you’re working they wait for you, not the other way around. There’s no perfect solution for keeping kids at bay and avoiding the “bad mommy/daddy” feeling, but creating rituals with kids is helpful. The trick is consistency. Once you’ve established your own schedule and created your kids’ activities around them, allow for no interruptions unless there’s blood.

Geoff Williams, writing for USNews, suggests taking scheduled “kid breaks”. If you were working onsite you would take periodic breaks to chat with co-workers, so use those breaks for time with your kids. This helps alleviate feelings of guilt that you’re neglecting the kids, and gives your kids a chance to have you focused on them for short periods, preventing unexpected interruptions later on.

11) Staying on the clock

The truth is, telecommuters work longer hours than onsite employees. That five-second-commute that seems so attractive in the mornings also keeps work constantly nearby in the evenings, and sometimes late into the night. This causes life to become unbalanced. It is important to set limits on yourself and to stick with them when it comes to stopping work at a certain time each day. According to a study done by Captivate, leaving work at a reasonable hour was one of the top three ways people were able to find work-life balance.

Flexibility and balance are the primary reasons people opt to work from home. If, however, you never detach from your work you and your family will inevitably suffer. Says Adrienne Breaux, “[T]rying to fit checking in at work plus getting things accomplished around the house is a recipe for burnout.”
It’s time to adopt new habits

Burnout, strained relationships, physical ailments, and a plethora of other maladies can be the results of working from home if you are not mindful and prepared. Along with ensuring your technological needs are met, you also need to become a good manager of yourself. This means you have to take care of your needs, be willing to be the “bad guy” if necessary, and do what it takes to provide yourself a working environment that allows you to be productive and thrive.

About the Author:

Pamela La Gioia is Founder/CEO of Telework Recruiting, Inc., a leading career service helping professionals find telecommuting employment. Since 1999, La Gioia has been researching and writing about teleworking issues; and recently Telework Recruiting, Inc. has begun helping companies to train their staff to effectively telecommute. La Gioia can be reached at pam@teleworkrecruiting.com. Or, connect with her on Twitter @TeleworkRec.

Republished form BBF_Fits, TheOfficeEvolution.com

In order to get the most out of a home office, here are our 10 suggestions for set up.

1. Location, Location, Location!- Don’t “make do” with a spot at the kitchen table or living room couch. Designate a room or area of the house where you can truly concentrate, communicate and efficiently manage your tasks. We strongly urge you to separate yourself from the everyday distractions of home life and plan for a quiet, remote area where you can maintain an professional setting and state of mind.
2. Furniture- Choose furniture and a layout that will suit your needs. Allow for enough work surface to hold all desktop equipment, paperwork, supplies materials, etc… Think about storage, in order to maintain organization. You will want sufficient storage and perhaps even lockable features or the opportunity to add pieces later on. Select furniture that is long lasting and safe. Also, take a few moments to read about ergonomics in the office space and investigate chair and accessory options.
3. Electrical Outlets- We are operating in a wireless world, but you will require some access to power for computer, phone, fax, etc… Make sure you think through placement of your equipment in relation to outlets in the space. Be careful not to overpower any electrical outlet, spread it around and make sure it’s not all on the same circuit breaker. Your home office area may require additional outlets which is a safer bet than too many extension cords.
4. Organize those cords and wires- Just because you have a lot of office equipment doesn’t mean your work space has to look like a rattlesnake den. Plan your office design to put as much of your wires and cables as out of sight as possible. If you have long lengths of cable running from room to room (or down a hallway), consider drilling holes and lifting baseboards as necessary to get them out of sight. If you can’t put cables and/or wires out of harm’s way, make sure you tape or staple them down as necessary and close to walls so people aren’t in danger of tripping over them. Consider furniture with wire management features.
5. Security -Minimize the risk of equipment theft with doors, windows, drawers and cabinets that are lockable and in good working order. Secure  your computer after work. Ensure computers and other devices are passcode protected. Keep all software, especially anti-virus and anti-spyware up to date and make sure there is have a firewall installed. Create and maintain a back-up schedule.
6. Lighting- Proper lighting is very important and should not be overlooked.  Create layers and angles of light ideally with a combination of natural light and desk top, ambient or lamp lighting around the work area. Glare, dim light or too-bright light, can put strain on your eyes and leave you feeling exhausted. You may want to consider your schedule too, are you a night owl who stays up until 2am working on a project or an early bird that sits down with coffee in hand ready to begin the day at 5am?
7. Ventilation- Many people overlook the importance of ventilation in office design however, both you and your office equipment need it. First, the more office equipment you have operating, the more heat will be generated and excessive heat can damage office equipment such as PCs. Secondly, if your home office space isn’t adequately ventilated, working there can be extremely uncomfortable for you.  In basement offices especially, you may want to have an air quality test done prior to setting up your space. Be sure there are operational smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.
8. Noise – Productivity requires concentration – avoid working in areas that promote distraction. Consider kids, televisions and appliances, household traffic, road noise and pets when setting up a home office. Put the workspace in an isolated area, preferably with a closed door to reduce sound. If necessary, use headphones to help eliminate outside noise.
9. Fire hazards- Keep combustible materials to a minimum. Have a functioning smoke detector and fire extinguisher in the work area. Keep portable heaters (with a tip over switch) away from combustible materials.
10. Clear the paths and the clutter- Because you may be situated in a room that was originally designed for other uses, some home offices resemble obstacle courses. Just because that bed or plant stand has always been there, doesn’t mean it has to stay there. You need to be able to get up from your desk and walk around without banging your shins.And don’t forget to check the floor- for instance, make sure all area rugs are securely tacked down.  Get rid of all unnecessary furniture and clutter in your home office space. To reduce clutter, separate personal from professional paperwork. Employ the “touch it once” rule: once you touch a piece of paper, either act on it, file it, or throw it away.

For more information on Telework programs or working from home: http://www.twistop.com/work--home.html

Republished from BBf-Fits The Office Evolution.

The office is evolving.  Work today is being done in new ways and in new places. No longer is the corporate facility the only place where successful, thriving companies are getting things done.  In fact, many of them have found and embraced this office evolution and have deposited their results squarely on the bottom line.  Perhaps you’ve heard a lot about telework. You may strongly believe that sending people home or to “hotelling” locations to do work normally performed in the office may be the right thing to save money, create a better work-life balance or help reduce your corporate carbon footprint. These are all valid reasons. But is your company ready for telework? Here are some things to consider before you begin the process:

• How much does your core business model revolve around internal collaboration or face-to-face interactions with customers, vendors, and visitors?
• Does your company have the ability continue to function during inclement weather, declared emergencies or natural disasters?
• Does your state have legislation or a statute for implementing telework options or a traffic reduction plan?
• Can your corporate culture support and foster alternative off-site work arrangements?
• Will management support the development of an external workforce?
• Are a number of company jobs technology- based or computer driven?
• Do you have the proper IT resources to devise and support a remote working program?
• Can your HR group develop the policies, processes and procedures necessary to sustain the unique aspects teleworking?
• Is broadband technology available to all employee residential locations?
• Are you losing the competitive edge in attracting and recruiting new employees?
• Are current employees seemingly unhappy, unproductive and unlikely to stay?
• Are commuting times and distances as well as increasing traffic and pollution of concern to your company?

The way in which you are able to respond to these questions will help you more adequately determine if telework is right for your business.

On the upside, studies have shown that there are enormous positives for the thoughtful implementation of a structured telework program. Consider this. Telework will:

• Dramatically reduce real estate costs and usage are while optimizing facilities and furnishings
• Increase employee productivity by up to 40%
• Improve talent attraction as well as increase the geographic diversification of the talent pool
• Noticeably  reduce turnover and absenteeism rates
• Improve access to employment  for disabled people, retired persons and single parents
• Allow implementation  a business continuity plan
• Further your corporate image and environmental consciousness

For more information on starting a Telework program, call Twist today - we can help.


Read more about the financial benefits of Telework from Logicalis in this white paper “Telework – the Windfall Hidden in Plain Sight” Telework-Feature-Oct2013

http://www.theofficeevolution.com/