Working From Home: Is Telecommuting For You?

Working from home sounds like a great option doesnt it? Certainly, you can read many articles on the Internet extolling the virtues of working from home and probably wish you could park your car in your garage and start telecommuting right away!

Ive worked from home for close to two years now and absolutely love it.

This article will not list the benefits of working from home. Anyone can quickly figure out on their own that having no commute, no office politics, flexible work hours and closer proximity to your family are just four possible benefits that are achievable when you work at home.

You can figure out the benefits of working from home that are important to you without me telling you.

What I believe is more beneficial is a brief discussion of what you need to consider before thinking about setting up a home office and working from home. These are all things Ive experienced and noticed since I started telecommuting:

1. Can you balance your work and your personal life?

In other words, can you easily take off your work hat and put your family hat on, and vice versa? Its easy to say but sometimes hard to do. I have found it difficult at times to leave work behind for the day because when you work from home, you dont leave the office to go home as before because youre already there! Dont underestimate the importance of being able to switch from your work persona to your personal life persona. It can be hard to do sometimes and can cause grief in your personal life.

2. Are you self-motivated?

Since you wont have your boss or co-workers to motivate you, youll have to do it yourself. Working from home requires someone who can work on their own without a lot of direct supervision. Can you maintain a high level of work output on your own?

3. Do you have a dedicated work space that you can use for your home office?

You will probably find that your best bet to help separate your work and personal life is to have a dedicated work area (ie. a room solely used as your home office) to really set out your work space. If you simply work at the kitchen or dining room table, not only can things get messy quickly it can make it harder to separate work from home. If you have a room in your house that you can use strictly for work, youll probably find it easier to walk away from work every night and concentrate on your personal life for a few hours!

4. Do you have a job that lends well to working from home?

If you have a job that requires frequent meetings or that requires you to work closely with other staff face to face, you might find it difficult to work from home without having to pop into work frequently which might end up defeating the purpose of telecommuting in the first place. Having said that, your employer will probably help make this distinction with you and working from home several days per week to start might be an option you could look at, if possible.

5. Do you need social interaction with other people?

If you need a great deal of face to face contact with other people, working from home may not be in the cards for you. Some people simply need the social interaction that working in an office provides and if you do, you might find yourself calling people on the phone for no reason other than to hear someone elses voice, which can really harm your productivity.

6. Are you easily distracted?

If working from home means that there is a chance you will spend a great deal of time watching tv, running personal errands and otherwise wasting time during work hours?then telecommuting might not be for you. Depending on your job, you will most likely find your powers of concentration tested every single day.