Many businesses start out from the founder’s spare room.  To many people, it may seem like a dream to have less than 10 steps between your bedroom and your work space, but it can throw up some challenges and blur the line between personal life work. Here are my tips for working from home.

1 – Create a Work Space

Whether it’s a desk in the corner of your living room or turning your spare room in to an office, dedicating an area to your work makes it easier to differentiate between work and home. It can help you ‘go to work’ and to step away at the end of the day. If you are able to hide the area, either by closing a door or pulling a curtain, that will help you resist the temptation to pick things up out of hours.

2 – Establish a routine

It is very easy to roll out of bed and head straight in to your office. Before you know it, it’s lunchtime and you’ve not had breakfast or even got dressed.  It’s really important to keep some boundaries around your work. I used to head straight to the office, but now I take time to have breakfast, go for a walk and I try to take a break for lunch. It breaks up my day and I’ve actually found I get more done and am much more productive.

3 – Get dressed!

If your client or customer knocked on the door right now, would you be happy to answer it? You don’t have to be in a suit but, like setting a good routine, getting dressed for work gets you in to the right mind set to start your day.

4 – Socialise and Network

Even if you speak regularly with your clients and customers, working from home can be lonely. You don’t get to break up the day with a bit of office banter or a chat across the desk about the latest news.  Get out networking – not only will it promote your business, but you can have some face to face contact with people and build relationships.

These are my tips for working from home, what are yours?