Displaying All Posts tagged with work from home

Top 10 Legitimate Work from Home Sites

If you’re looking for a great opportunity, look no further than your computer. The workplace is changing and to meet the demands of consumers and companies are rethinking their staffing approach – they are not limiting themselves to local, in-person employees. Today, you can capitalize on the opportunity to work from home for clients worldwide.

The Internet consists of several legitimate work from home sites. The question really is how badly do you want to work? The ideal scenario for most graduates is to make money without trying too hard. You see your parents working all day in living hell and don’t want to follow in their footsteps. After all, it seems like a bitter pill to swallow if you wake up one day and realize you’ve been sitting in an office for most of your life. Click Here to Read Article …

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Is Your Workplace Ready for Interconnectedness?

The world has changed. Disruptive technology and globalization has created an increasingly interconnectedness and a complex business environment. More than ever, business is a team sport that leverages technology to cross borders and time zones.

At the same time, resources are stretched from downsizing and the struggling economy. Business issues are more complex than they were just a few short years ago. Employees are expected to do more with less and employers are faced with pressure to maintain a fit balance sheet, attract and retain top talent, and foster a strong corporate culture. Click Here to Read Article …

Working from Home? How to Stay Sane

Working from Home? How to Stay Sane

Though many people dream of working designing their own work schedule and getting projects done in their pajamas, working from home isn’t always a picnic. Yet, if you have taken the telecommuter option or have embarked upon a home-based business, here are a few tips to keep you sane, thriving, and productive on the home front.

Set Up Your Working Space

Though the basement level of your home may seem like the ideal place to set up your home office, if there’s no sunlight and it’s cold and musty, chances are you won’t be very productive there. The kitchen table isn’t a great option either—constant traffic and homework mixed in with your work files doesn’t contribute to your productivity. Click Here to Read Article …

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Relocating Your Home Office

Moving into a new house or apartment is stressful enough. But when you work from home, and you’re moving both your household and your home office, things get a whole lot hairier, as I discovered during my own move earlier this summer. It’s been a few weeks, and things are finally (!) starting to settle down and I’m getting settled in my new home.

Here are some of the strategies I picked up during my recent move:

Work (and Plan) Ahead

As much as possible, I tried to anticipate the projects I had coming up around the time of my move and complete them early. Depending on the relationship with the client, I might send it in early to wow them or hold off to give myself more time to proofread and polish the assignment. And for the sake of my sanity, I tried not to schedule any important deadlines close to my moving date. Packing and repainting is stressful enough without worrying about missed deadlines! I also made sure to schedule my wifi installation at the earliest opportunity so I wouldn’t be stuck without internet for long.

Keep Your Clients or Customers Informed

Obviously, if you have people snail mailing checks or other important documents to your home, you’ll want to alert them well in advance of your move and file a change of address form with the post office. This also gives you an excuse to reconnect with clients and see if they might have any projects coming up before or after your move. If you anticipate being unavailable for more than a day or two, then let your clients know and try to find a trusted colleague who can cover for you if necessary. Some people also include effective dates and new addresses in their email signature (for safety reasons, I only give out my address by request). If you’re worried about things getting lost between the old and new address, you can also set up a PO box to ease the transition. Since I had some overlap between my old and new place, I was able to go back to my previous apartment and check the mailbox one last time for peace of mind.

Clean Out

Most of us have extra home office equipment or supplies lying around that we don’t really need. Ditto on miscellaneous paperwork, magazines, and so on. Moving is a great opportunity to purge the excess stuff and set up your new space so it’s organized and tidy (not to mention that if you’re moving yourself, you’ll appreciate fewer boxes to carry). I sold a bunch of items on Craigslist so I could buy newer, nicer versions of the things I really need and say sayonara to the rest. Freecycle is also an option for people who have random home office supplies or old computer equipment they don’t need.

Label Office Essentials Carefully

When it comes to packing, the usual wisdom is to pack each room separately and label each box carefully. But the reality is that most of us pack in stages (or we find ourselves frantically throwing stuff into boxes at 2am the night before the movers arrive). I wanted to cram as much as could safely fit into each box, so if there was a hairdryer-sized space left in a box of books, I’d pack that baby with the books (after all, it’s all going the same place). The one exception was my office. The contents of my desk were packed last and lovingly labeled “Susan’s Office” so I could quickly find them later.

Prioritize Your Unpacking

Sure, it’d be nice to immediately find places for my colander or my cream-colored shift dress. But each time I’ve moved, my goal has been to minimize downtime, so I set up my bed (after all, a girl’s gotta her beauty sleep or she’ll be too groggy to please her clients) and office areas early on. First order of business? My laptop and printer/scanner. I also make sure I know where to find extra printer paper, business cards, pens, and paper clips so I don’t waste money buying extras. Even if your laptop is propped up on big brown boxes and your office supplies are stashed in a Tupperware container because you’re waiting for your brand new desk to be delivered, clients will never know the difference. If you’re one of those people who truly can’t work amidst chaos, then you might want to work in a coffee shop or a coworking space in your new neighborhood. That’ll come in handy as you get settled, too.

What about you? Have you moved recently or are you gearing up to relocate? How did you handle this situation?

16 Tips for Being Productive While Working From Home

I work from home. My friends think I am the luckiest. I have all the time in the world. I don’t need to commute everyday. My work’s easy. I can go out whenever I want. Great life, right?

I wish all of that was true.

Despite the benefits of working from home, it is no less challenging than an office job. In fact, I’d argue that working from home is more difficult because it’s not always easy to alienate your family from your work. Also, since there’s no boss screaming all the time, you could easily fall into the procrastination trap. Haven’t you experienced that? I bet, you have. Being productive while getting things done from home isn’t as easy as it looks. In this article, I explore 16 ways that could help you work smartly if you are one of us. Most of the tips come from my personal experience of working from home for over two years. Hope you find them useful. Click Here to Read Article …

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Where Do You Work Best?

Some people need absolute, morgue-like silence to get real work done. Others are content to type away amidst chaos like chattering coworkers or screaming kids. As a work-at-home freelancer, I love being able to vary my work environment. It was tough when I had roommates who watched TV in my “office” (also a corner of the living room), but I managed to bang out dozens of articles, blog posts, and copywriting assignments.

Now I alternate between rocking out to show tunes in my home office (blissfully devoid of coworkers or kids) or heading to the library or a coffee shop to change things up and be among other people. I’ve even been known to type on the subway with my netbook, but that’s far from ideal for me.

What about you? What’s your ideal work environment? Does silence make you nervous? Do you need a little background noise? Or do you prefer peace and quiet? Click Here to Read Article …

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