Telecommuting full time in my new job. It's a lot more difficult than I first thought it would be. Anyone got any tips based on their own experience?

Work needs to be undertaken in a seperate space to you "living area"
Whilst your home it is challenging to seperate the two and you will find yourself checking emails and writing reports etc etc at night and weekends if you don't.
I get emails to my phone and whilst it seems good it effectively means you are on call 24/7,
If managed well it can be beneficial and works well if you can seperate work/life.
When I worked from home I would benefit heaps as there was no hour and a half in the day of commute time. It is however very easy to find an hour and a half of distractions at home in n a day.
also tax time can work out well pens paper notebook wifi power etc etc

You can earn $15,467 per months from homewith with "one weird trick" that "the professionals don't want you to kno"\
Are u doing that one?

I did it for twelve months
And never wore pants for a whole year

I've done it for over a decade. Can u tell by the Time I spend on Seabreeze? My tips are anchovies on your lunch pizzas. (Not too many lunch pizzas) A good recliner, not too much porn, at lunch step away from laptop and phone for whole hour, have break. I just do it all on the couch with the dog..

Allocate time blocks for work.

Lock the fridge!

If there are others in the house it can be a real challenge. Young kids in particular!

One of the best things is working outside when the weather is nice. Get an outdoor set-up!

Sometimes I go to a cafe.

Sometimes I get up at 5am and smash out a few hours before the rest of the city even gets going.

Sometimes I go for a walk while I make a bunch of calls or listen in on a webinar.

Sometimes I hotspot phone/laptop from a picnic table at the park. Bring the dog.

Mostly I find less distraction at home vs the office. I'm mainly in the office though.

Oh and read the Four Hour Work Week if you haven't already. It's part BS, part fun, part awesome.

I've been 100% working from home for a couple of years now. My tips would be:

1) Get into a routine. Your lunch break is important. Knock off at the same time each day (unless you're making up hours).
2) Ensure that your kids/family know that when you're working, you are off limits.
3) Make your office as comfortable as possible, this includes getting the ergonomics of your seat / desk / monitor absolutely spot on.

My biggest gripe is that when friends drop round, they think that because you're at home, you're fair game. I haven't been able to figure out a good strategy for this. If I'm working, that should mean that friends can't see you. Instead I get the odd friend coming around and boom there goes 2 hours that should have been spent sorting something out.

I'm also looking at getting a standing desk. Has anyone used one long term?

Check Seabreeze heaps.

Work those tax benefits . There's so much you can claim from working from home. Have a chat to your tax agent.You will be surprised.

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Harrow said..
Telecommuting full time in my new job. It's a lot more difficult than I first thought it would be. Anyone got any tips based on their own experience?

Turn up the volume on the PC, or transmit it through the house... then when you're fixing the car/3d printer/doing other sh!t you can hear when an email comes in... then answer it.

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gavnwend said..
Work those tax benefits . There's so much you can claim from working from home. Have a chat to your tax agent.You will be surprised.

Tax agent... LOL it's all one the ATO site.

ive worke from home for 9 years successfully
tips are
1. don't let the kids answer the phone
2. get a dedicated separate office and phone
3. meet clients etc at coffe shop

If you live near the water, close the curtains

Do the work and earn your money .

I believe it depends much on whether you are working as a contractor/consultant, or on wages.

I have done it for 5 years as a contractor/consultant. It has both good and bad like most situations. The good is that you no longer have the distraction of people coming in to ask for things to be done, and of course to answer the phone for someone else.

But it does required disciplines. You must adhere to your work schedules. I am not a sticker for time frames, but I do believe in getting the work done within the time frame. On many occasions, I would work right through to the early morning to push it through. No slacker just because there is no one behind your back. If there is a job to be done, do it, and if necessary, do a double time to get it over and done with.

I also make it a priority to keep in touch with my clients on a regular basis. I would tell them of the progress of the job, and send them update of my work regularly for appraisal. That way they are not sitting and wondering what the f is going on. By keeping in touch, they know I am working on their project and not f-king around windsurfing

Being a software developer, I used the Internet to regularly send my clients a "prototype" of the project. That was my way of informing them of the progress. And when they can see the progress, they are less reluctant to pay the invoices

And one last thing...If you made a promise such as time of delivery, you don't want to break it if you can help it. However, if you are under the pump, tell them the truth.

If you are a contractor, be aware that a huge pay check may be you last because there is no job security there. So please do make sure that you don't blow it believing that good times will never end. Have a good financial discipline as well.

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nebbian said..
I've been 100% working from home for a couple of years now. My tips would be:

1) Get into a routine. Your lunch break is important. Knock off at the same time each day (unless you're making up hours).
2) Ensure that your kids/family know that when you're working, you are off limits.
3) Make your office as comfortable as possible, this includes getting the ergonomics of your seat / desk / monitor absolutely spot on.

My biggest gripe is that when friends drop round, they think that because you're at home, you're fair game. I haven't been able to figure out a good strategy for this. If I'm working, that should mean that friends can't see you. Instead I get the odd friend coming around and boom there goes 2 hours that should have been spent sorting something out.

I'm also looking at getting a standing desk. Has anyone used one long term?

I like it when friends drop around I allocate them jobs to do for me lol

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myusernam said..
I've done it for over a decade. Can u tell by the Time I spend on Seabreeze?

AHA! Look at all the regular forums users that work from home!

So I suppose the distinction is in the title, working from home as opposed to running a business from home.

How easy it is and the approach will vary greatly to what you do for a job. For me, working from home approx 1 day a week, works best after having a dedicated office area to work at and not just the dining table. I am 200% more productive than at the company office where I still have a private office.

Working from home takes some getting used to. Been doing it for 5 years now. It takes discipline to start work, and then also to stop work. It's easy to find yourself working stupid hours. My tips?
- setup a good office to work in, where you can close the door and family noise, and take calls without annoying everyone else
- find what works for you - a routine 9 to 5 if that's your thing, or like me - work the hours you need to get the job done, and when you are most effective (often late at night for me)
- speak to people during the day. make some calls, don't do everything with email
- get out of the home office. Go see people in the flesh. I start going crazy if I've been working from home without a customer visit or trip for 2-3 weeks. I'll make up a reason to go see a customer if that happens.

Working from home can be quite isolating. I actually miss the general office banter, the ability to duck out for a coffee with a colleague and talk **** for 15 minutes, and the general company information you pick up from being in the office (overhearing stuff, talking to people in different divisions, seeing when all the execs go into the room together which might mean something's up). Remote workers are often pretty disconnected from what's going on in the company. I'm totally used to it now, and I love the flexibility. I work my arse off at times, but then I have zero guilt whatsoever when I bugger off for 3 hours for a surf or kitesurf in the middle of the day if work is a little quieter and the conditions are good.

I used to work from home and ended up gaining 13kgs over a few years. So much so, that I started buying LiteNEasy, and dropped 23kgs. The fridge is too easy to raid when you work from home. Having the local shops a short walk away also made it easy to eat unhealthy food often.

I started driving to an office an hour and a half away once a week, just for that social interaction. I find that working from home is too isolating for me. I prefer having other people around.

One thing that I think would be good these days is that there are offices around where they host small companies or start-ups. Just changing the location can make you change into work mode, well at least it did for me. So, maybe you can find one of these if you don't like working by yourself at home.

My heating and cooling costs would have been heaps more when I was working from home too. In winter the heater would be running constantly as was the air con in summer.

One thing I also found was that it was too easy to switch from work mode to 'at home' mode, so instead of getting out and doing things after work, I tended to stay home more often. Whereas when I work in an office I tend to get home and then go somewhere else. So in my opinion, I think it would be wise to try and schedule regular reasons to get out of the house. If you are working there during the day, it can become a bit too claustrophobic. I think even personal training sessions would be a good idea to force you to go somewhere, plus making you exercise.

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nebbian said..
I've been 100% working from home for a couple of years now. My tips would be:

1) Get into a routine. Your lunch break is important. Knock off at the same time each day (unless you're making up hours).
2) Ensure that your kids/family know that when you're working, you are off limits.
3) Make your office as comfortable as possible, this includes getting the ergonomics of your seat / desk / monitor absolutely spot on.

My biggest gripe is that when friends drop round, they think that because you're at home, you're fair game. I haven't been able to figure out a good strategy for this. If I'm working, that should mean that friends can't see you. Instead I get the odd friend coming around and boom there goes 2 hours that should have been spent sorting something out.

I'm also looking at getting a standing desk. Has anyone used one long term?

I've been using one for 6 months now. absolutely awesome. back pain disappeared after 2 weeks. I gotta set myself a timer to remind me to sit down as the knees and feet get a bit sore after 6-8h of standing.

You'll never work as hard as working from work, home isn't for working

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cauncy said..
You'll never work as hard as working from work, home isn't for working

All I used to do at work was get interrupted all day, I'm definitely a lot more efficient at home. Besides, the 14 hour commute to my new job would be a real killer.

I just needed to learn to separate personal and work life...thanks for all the tips guys. I've now got my 'workstation' set up at the far end of the house. The kids know that when the door is shut, I am at work. I'm going to trial an official lunch break and walk as well.

Actually, one of the best pieces of advice I got was from my mum. She said "get your first load of washing on by 7am, and the rest of the day will fall into place". Ha, it's turned out to be so true!!

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Harrow said..

Actually, one of the best pieces of advice I got was from my mum. She said "get your first load of washing on by 7am, and the rest of the day will fall into place". Ha, it's turned out to be so true!!

Definitely, i have been working from home for the last 4 years. Everything i used to have to do on a weekend is now done during weekdays. i.e. washing, lawn mowing, shopping.
This leaves the weekend for me to have long baths. Braid my beard. Unbraid it. Lie around, fondling moonbeams, being a lord of leisure....
It has also allowed us to move out of Sydney and live up the coast, which is by far the best part.

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jonnulla said..
...This leaves the weekend for me to have long baths.....

Replaced my lunch time walk with a long hot bath today! (Totally undisturbed by kids yelling, 'Hey Dad....')

This is my office.
Solar powered & no internet required. Any tips on self employed Sickies ??

I was gonna say less wanking, but that video posted by ThePhil beat me to it.

Legit advice though!

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Harrow said..

Replaced my lunch time walk with a long hot bath today! (Totally undisturbed by kids yelling, 'Hey Dad....')

Were you alone ?

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Harrow said..

jonnulla said..
...This leaves the weekend for me to have long baths.....

Replaced my lunch time walk with a long hot bath today! (Totally undisturbed by kids yelling, 'Hey Dad....')

Nothing like going out and weeding a garden bed while you think through a problem (or just daydream ).
Golf handicap is coming down. Play 9 holes twice a week starting at first light followed by brekky with mates (networking - or in reality just talking **).
Plan your work around the weather (gybing will improve, see you at Botany)

Don't let better your better half take long service or even think of retirement - they get in your space very effectively.

Remember as Roy & HG said "when too much sport is not enough"

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Wineman said..
Plan your work around the weather (gybing will improve, see you at Botany)

One advantage of working for silicon valley...the 5am video conferencing might be a pain, but the rest of the company is tucking into bed just as the Sydney seabreeze is kicking in.