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Conquering Home-Office Challenges

James A. DeSena, CSP

 

Working at home has its benefits and its challenges. For those of us besieged at the office, it may provide relief from the constant stream of interruptions we are likely to encounter there. But working at home can have its challenges as well.

One of those challenges may be that when you work at home, people who are at home may also interrupt you. They may think that since you are "at home," you are available to run errands, handle chores or help out. We may give into these distractions ourselves. One of the benefits of being at home is that you have some flexibility to handle emergencies and to build your schedule to accommodate personal needs. But without limitations on those demands, you can fall victim to home distractions and your productivity can suffer.

When you work at home,

1) Let people know that they should not think of you as being in your home office but being at the company's office. How often would they call you or come to see you there? Not too frequently. Ask them to respect your work environment at home just as they would if you were at your company office.

3) Set up a form of communication to people to let them know when you are not available. A closed door might be one way to do this. Get a roll of caution tape or a traffic cone at a hardware store and let people know that when the door is closed and the caution tape is up or the traffic cone is out it is not a good time to interrupt you. Otherwise it is permissible. Keep the tape or cone up for only a portion of the day.

2) Provide limited, structured time when you can be available for giving attention to your family, others or to personal tasks, but place limits. Let them know what these limits are and why it is important for your family to help you. Do work that requires concentration at times when you are not as likely to be interrupted, such as early morning, school time or later in the evening. Make phone calls when you know you will have privacy, but don't be overly concerned about the person on the other end of the phone knowing that you work at home. It is becoming commonplace and acceptable to work at home.

Keep track of your productivity with these measures in place and watch it climb.

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