13 Work From Home Tips Learned Over 30 Years! #WFHTips

Work From Home? Over the past 30 years, I have worked from home in three states – panic, fear, and excitement! I mean, Maryland, Iowa, and Park City, Utah. Over those years, I refined my practices.

You will benefit from these practices and not have to wait 30 years to learn them. These were originally posted daily on my LinkedIn profile. Feel free to connect – www.LinkedIn.com/in/recruiterguy

Tip #1 – Find a space in your home that is ONLY dedicated to work. Don’t spread papers, computers, business mail through your living space. I made this mistake when I began working from home. Pretty soon there were candidate resumes, client notes, and other office equipment spread through the 900 square foot mobile home. The result is I never felt that I left work. It was everywhere! Focus your work in one space whether you create an office or utilize a corner table.

Tip #2 – We lived in a mobile home in 1990. I used the 3rd bedroom for my office. Why? I could close the door. At the end of the day, I shut the door and stated, “the international offices of RecruiterGuy are closed for the day.” When my door was closed, my family learned that I was “away” at work. My dog, for some reason, thought I was still in the house – and scratched the door until I let her in my office. Then she laid down and fell asleep – no problem.

Tip #3 – When you get up in the morning, go through your normal ritual to prepare for work, including dressing for work – tells your mind it’s time to work! Over the years of work, your mind becomes conditioned that work was to dress professionally and weekends/holidays/vacations were to play. Work from Home professionals dress for work. Helps maintain the proper focus.

Tip #4 – Set your hours – and work your hours. Don’t allow squirrels to distract you! Well in Park City, I will let a Moose distract me for a few minutes. Seriously, work from home requires focus. It is far too easy to decide to let housework/games/children intrude. Prime work time is for work. After or before work is for chores/play. After Covid-19, if you or your company like your contributions working from home, hire a babysitter to watch your children. You are saving on fuel, car upkeep, and time.

Tip #5 – Ensure you know your manager’s expectations for work to be completed this week, and coming weeks. Schedule Friday meetings to review this week and discuss next week. This tip is very important! Often, Work From Home professionals are out of sight, out of mind. Video conferencing in today’s world is so easy you should utilize it to continue to build your business relationship with your manager.

Tip #6 – Mirror your Manager’s communication preferences with your own – text, email, phone, video and how often. This helps build confidence in your manager’s mind that you are working to assist them meet their goals.

Tip #7 – Be mindful that electronic communication (texts and email) strips tone and emotion from messages. Video conference with your manager at least once every 2 weeks. Ever wonder why email wars begin from a seemingly innocent email? It was sent with one intention from the sender and received with a totally different intention by the receiver.

Tip #8 – This disruption is an Opportunity for you to demonstrate your resilience. Establish your potential for #Leadership. Build consensus – and then act confidently. Many people resist change. This change is important because it can be used to create new ways to work. In today’s world, many professionals seek work-life balance. What’s better than to walk out of your bedroom after cleaning and dressing into the next room for work? No commute nor commute expense. More time for yourself and your family.

Tip #9 – Take a break from work every couple of hours. Let your mind focus on a positive thought about family, recreation, dreams, aka #DayDreaming. You stop for coffee, tea, diet Coke during the day I the office. Do so when working from home. Watch out for that Dangerous Refrigerator! It is beckoning you to remove some of its yummy deliciousness!

Tip #10 – Prioritize your tasks. Identify what needs to be accomplished during Prime Time and what can wait until later. Prime Time is defined as the time to make calls, schedule videoconferences, communicate with co-workers, clients, and potential new clients. Everything else can fill in open time.

Tip #11 – Honor Thy Spouse’s/Roommates’ Workspace and Work Time. Plan your recreational activities around them. Remember they may be working a different time zone than you or a different shift. Honor their space and privacy, if needed. Relationships last longer when filled with respect.

Tip #12 – Properly set goals to assist your successful completion of work. Use my Acronym SCAMPS – Specific with Strategy, Challenging, Attainable, Measurable, Public, Specific End Date. Proper Goal Setting is very important for a Work From Home professional. Properly set goals help you determine if you are on target or need to apply more focus and time on a goal. Without properly set goals, you are like a car without a steering wheel. You know that will not go well.

EMERGENCY TIP – Never take your laptop into a bathroom with you while participating on a videoconference – never thought I would Ever have to warn about that. A recorded videoconference when a participant took her laptop into the bathroom – and belatedly became aware what she broadcast made me aware of the need to warn.

Working from your home has been rewarding for me over the past 30 years. I like the fact that my office is steps away from our living space rather than an hour or more drive away from home. My longest commute was from the eastern edge of Frederick County Maryland to Pentagon City Virginia – 76 miles one way through some of the best rush hour traffic that Washington, DC could serve up – 90 minutes on a good day. There are other people who would spend 3 hours per day on their commute. It is so nice to be a minute away.

This means that I may be offering Talent Attraction consulting, preparing for speeches, and writing books and blogs instead of looking at the backs of automobiles, trucks, and buses. Join me if you have the self-discipline!

#WorkFromHome #WorkFromHomeTips #Business #Executives #Leadership

Bill Humbert is available for Speaking, Talent Attraction Consulting, and Training contracts.
RecruiterGuy@msn.com 435-714-4425
https://www.espeakers.com/marketplace/speaker/profile/23767/Bill-Humbert
©1999-2020 Bill Humbert – Provocative Thinking Consulting, Inc. –
USA 01-435-714-4425 RecruiterGuy@msn.com

Content is licensed CC BY-ND (Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0) The right to reprint is hereby granted, if the copyright notice and contact information remain with the article.