Secrets to the preperation of working at home

How do you prepare to work from home or telecommuting jobs? We've put together a list that can help in preparing to work from home.

Basic Needs to work from home:

Strong work ethic is the most important tool to working at home, if you can't push yourself to work, who will?

Your own computer with standard office and fax software in addition to a respectable quality scanner and printer.

High speed Internet connection. The technological advances in software and hardware are rendered useless in most cases if you have a slow Internet connection.

Phone service in your home for the reliability and voice clarity, most companies offering telecommuting positions will require that you have a land line phone installed in your home. This is the case definitely if you are seeking a position that will require you to communicate by telephone as a part of your job, which then might want a dedicated business line.

Quiet and separate working environments in the home dedicated for work. Keeping work separate in a dedicated office or other room of your house will also be a requirement in most positions. It will give you the motivation to treat your work-at-home job like the real job that it is.

So you have the basics, no how do you start to prepare to work from home?

First and foremost, unless you are just moving your office job into your home, there will be some "down time" in the finances. So the first thing that needs to be done is sit down and set up a budget and how to cut costs until you are up and earning a regular income. Even if you are keeping your full-time job and working part-time there will be expenses and costs somewhere on your road to your working at home, you need to budget for these purchases/costs.

Second is time budgeting. It can become time consuming and addicting to work from home, you can't leave it at the office, you have access to it anytime, just one more minute, I'm just gonna check/do one more thing. You will need to set up a budget for your time budget time for work, family, chores. You life still needs to include those things you did when you got home from the office. You need to set aside improvement time, you need to read books and study the online world to grow and improve.

Quick time budget:

1. Evaluate your daily routine schedule. Think about everything you do during your day and the length of time it takes you to do those tasks. Are there any tasks that can be shared or adjusted to use time more effectively.

2. Create a weekly schedule of all activities and going on that week, including work. Schedule work time during times that young children are taking naps or are in school.
Make sure to include periodic breaks for quality time and activities with the children. This will help lessen behavior problems that may pop up because the children are seeking out attention. Then post schedule where the whole family can view.

3. Go over the weekly schedule with the family. It gives the family time to voice any changes or upcoming events that may need to be penciled in and allows everyone the chance to work out problems that may come up with the schedule.

Third is to keep your work and home organized. A organized work space will be a productive work place. This would take a whole other article to cover.