The Top 6 Work From Home Mistakes To Avoid
For most people, the thought of a work from home job sounds like a dream. Especially when you see blog posts about working in your pajamas and earning hundreds, if not thousands per week.
They paint a pretty picture and make it sound easy peasy but working from home takes more discipline than people realize.
Don’t get me wrong. I love being able to work from my home and as a mom, it’s the perfect set up. But if you’re not careful, you can find yourself becoming complacent and lacking motivation to work. And if you’re hustling to make extra money, that can be a bad thing.
You’re about the learn the top 6 work from home mistakes you want to be sure to avoid.
6 Work From Home Mistakes
If you’ve never worked from home before and are about to start, there are things you need to know to ensure you make the best of it.
And making any of these work from home mistakes can hurt your chances of making money with your side hustle or home-based business or put your work-from-home job at risk.
Mistake #1: Not Getting Dressed Even Though You Work From Home
You know how they say people can tell when you answer the phone with a smile? It puts you in a certain mood. If you are constantly working from home in your pajamas, you may not be putting your best effort forward.
Nobody says you need to put on a suit and do your most formal makeup, but you should at least put on real pants. Just getting into this mindset will make you truly understand you’re “at work” even though you’re “at home”, and it can help ensure you your best work.
Mistake #2: You Don’t Have A Private Work Space When You Work From Home
Working from home can make it possible for you to care for your kids and your pets while working, but you also need to understand there are certain situations that require more professionalism. For instance, if you need to make phone calls with clients, do so in a room that offers you some peace and quiet.
Having kids screaming or dogs barking in the background can undermine your credibility and this can have a negative effect on your job or future business. Instead, be sure to make phone calls during a quiet time or in a room that allows you to separate work from home.
Mistake #3: Trying to Do it All
For many people, working from home allows you to avoid extra costs, such as commutes, daycare, pet sitting, and the like. However, just because your home doesn’t mean your schedule will allow you to do everything you thought you could. For this reason, you need to determine what tasks you need to outsource in order to make your job or home business more successful.
For instance, do you need someone to take your kids to and from school? Do you need to hire a maid service to take care of your household chores while you’re working? If so, that’s fine. According to a green maid service out of Atlanta, “Choosing the right cleaning service can be extremely affordable and help relieve the stresses you face every day.”
So don’t let people make you feel as if you should be able to do it all just because you don’t have to commute to work.
Mistake #4: Not Setting a Schedule
While working from home may provide you with more freedom, you’ll still want to set a schedule to keep you on track. If you don’t, you’ll find yourself making more personal choices than business choices, and this could put a huge damper on your home-based business.
Instead of allowing this to happen, be sure you know when you are working, and be sure to let other members of your family know this as well. If you do need to make adjustments at times, that’s fine, but for the most part, stick with the schedule to keep you disciplined and on track.
Mistake #5: Not Having a Backup Plan
When you work from home, you need to rely on a lot of technology to keep you moving forward. However, while technology can make things easy, it’s not always reliable. What will you do if your Wi-Fi connection goes down just before you’re set to have a huge video conference call with a big client?
In order to effectively work from home, you want to be sure you have backup plans for all the tech you need, whether it’s having a hotspot capability on your phone to run your computer or being close to a Starbucks or other location with free Wi-Fi.
Mistake #6: Working on the Couch
No matter what kind of work-from-home job you have, it makes more sense for you to have a designated workspace while you’re at home that isn’t the couch. Not only will having a desk and a chair provide you with better posture, but it will also help you increase focus while you’re working.
If you constantly sit on the couch, you’ll be more likely to fall asleep, and you won’t look as professional if you’re ever on a video conference. Plus, having your own space allows you to get away from pets or children when important work issues arise.
Final Words
If you are able to work remotely, be sure to not make any of these mistakes so you can reap the work-from-home benefits bloggers write about.
Now let’s chat. What are some of the mistakes you made when you started working from home? Tell us about it in the comments below.
And I would really appreciate it if you shared this post on social media so that other people who want to work from home can avoid these mistakes as well. Thanks!