Working From Home

Working at home is a doable thing. It may seem like it’s something that only certain people do, but that’s just not true. You’ve just got to poke around and see what’s out there. There really are quite a few opportunities, many of which don’t require credentials or extraordinary skill sets.

–Start with some Google searches: online jobs, telecommuting jobs, work at home, etc… Look the sites over carefully.

–There are some scams out there, but I think the number of them is small. You just have to be wary of sites that spend too much time telling you what a great job it is and not enough time talking about the job itself.

–If possible link directly with the sites for the companies that are offering the jobs and skip the middle men. There are many sites that list other sites’ job listings. It can get confusing.

–Don’t forget to look for telecommuting jobs at big companies, places like Google, for instance. Often they’ll have work at home positions. I have a friend who’s a stay-at-home dad. He works 10-20 hours per week for them and gets paid pretty well.

–Don’t be intimidated. Be curious. Send emails and ask questions. Since it’s all online, the worst you’ll get is an email with the word “no” in it.

Setting Your Own Hours

Setting your own hours can be a sticky thing for some people. It really requires of you that you be your own boss. If you’re not able to do that, be disciplined with yourself, it’s an important thing to know about yourself before you get yourself stuck. The plain and simple truth about it is that you either need to go back to working for someone else who’ll tell you when to work, or you need to learn how to do it yourself.

On the bright side, learning self-discipline is not that hard. The heart of it is making conscious commitments and keeping them, setting other things aside as necessary. Self-discipline does not mean self-denial or masochism. It means prioritizing one thing over another. Keep your priorities in order is half the battle of self-discipline.

Pick a time during the day when it will be easiest for you to work and work during that time. Work by yourself and if you need to, inform other people that you’re not to be interrupted. Give yourself a couple short breaks, if you’ve got a long day to get through, but be firm with yourself about how long they are.

Don’t let yourself get dragged away from your workstation. Don’t let yourself get caught up in things that don’t have to do with your work. If your mind wanders too far away from your work, it’ll be much harder to bring it back to the work and keep going.

Keep your priorities straight in your head and settle into a doable routine and you’ll be home free.