10 Tips to Work Happy and Productive from Home

While browsing the Etsy newsletter this week, I found these tips from jewelry designer, Patricia Wood of VerreDesign.

Here are the first 5 tips of 10. Most of it I'm familiar about, the only problem is in the execution. I know there's no excuse, one needs to adhere by these guidelines to be able to succeed working from home. Keeping your goals in mind, while maintaining the right business attitude at home is necessary for that sense of accomplishment.

1) Very first thing, always say you work “from” home and not work “at” home. See, hear and feel the difference? Working at home may lead people to think you are available to pick the neighbors kids from school at the end of the afternoon or that friends are welcome any time to chat and have coffee with you.

2) Define your spaces and separate work from home. Have a room or defined space dedicated to working. Don’t do it wherever you happen to be. Set aside some space, preferably a room (it doesn’t have to be big, see here ) to be your workspace. That way, when you enter it, you know consciously what you’re there to do: go to work. It changes the state of mind from “I’m at home” to “I’m at work”.

3) Set up a functional workspace. This is critical to the success of your business. Make sure it contains all the necessary equipment that you need, and why not a wall calendar to write your goals and things to achieve (ex: Erasable wall calendar or Printable organizers). Decorate your workspace so that it is aesthetically appealing and try to keep distractions to a minimum!

4) Set regular hours and stick to the schedule (don’t stay in your pj - get dressed!)

5) Set online times. You don’t always need to be accessible for chit chat, check if you made a new sale in the last 3 minutes, peak in the forums to see what’s new, watch if you’ve been retweeted or if someone new wants to be your friend on Facebook. These are the worst time eaters. So plan you online time and no turning on the computer for a quick email check!

There are links to help you with defining your workspace and setting up your workplace (from fellow Etsians!) If you'd like to see them or read the full post, here's the link: http://verredesign.blogspot.com/2013/03/10-tips-to-work-happy-and-productive.html