Home Workers/Teleworkers

williacg

imataloss wrote: »

Just wondered how many people we have on here that work from home.
I am a full time employee who has been working from home for over 6 years.
I enjoy my job but find it difficult some days to keep motivated. I haven`t been feeling too well recently and that and a lack of sunshine has left me feeling low.
My questions are:
How do you manage to keep motivated?
Do you ever feel lonely?
It`s a struggle to keep my mind on work somedays. Just feel like turning on the TV and having a duvet day.

I love working from home, and I certainly don't miss the travel time to and from work or the awful office politics. Motivation can certainly be a factor, especially on a Monday morning, but once you get into a set routine you become more organised, I just put an extra scoop in the coffee machine to perk myself up.

*LoveBug*

I think it's a good idea as most do to seperate your 'home life' to your 'work life' defining one area to work then you can shut it away when you're not working etc.

I don't have the space to do this at the moment sadly, I work from on my bed!!!! Yeah.....you can see where this is going zzzzzz and movie watching far too much! Sometimes I walk two paces and sit on the chair in the bedroom. Not ideal!

Me and my OH really want to move out this year into our own rented place and I want a 2 bed so that we can have an office, I think this will make me much more organised and more in working frame of mind rather than in my bedroom where I work now. Just takes better jobs and money which at the moment aren't coming my way. :-(

imataloss

williacg wrote: »

I love working from home, and I certainly don't miss the travel time to and from work or the awful office politics. Motivation can certainly be a factor, especially on a Monday morning, but once you get into a set routine you become more organised, I just put an extra scoop in the coffee machine to perk myself up.

I do too - normally. Think it was a bit of Monday blues coupled with trying to get over a virus.

Just trying to readjust my routine to make myself get out of the house/away from my desk for an hour a day.

imataloss

*LoveBug* wrote: »

I think it's a good idea as most do to seperate your 'home life' to your 'work life' defining one area to work then you can shut it away when you're not working etc.

I don't have the space to do this at the moment sadly, I work from on my bed!!!! Yeah.....you can see where this is going zzzzzz and movie watching far too much! Sometimes I walk two paces and sit on the chair in the bedroom. Not ideal!

Me and my OH really want to move out this year into our own rented place and I want a 2 bed so that we can have an office, I think this will make me much more organised and more in working frame of mind rather than in my bedroom where I work now. Just takes better jobs and money which at the moment aren't coming my way. :-(

That`s my problem, I work from my kitchen/dining room. Never had a spare room for my office when I first started working from home.
Now have got used to working in here, can open the doors and walk into the garden in the summer.
I can understand how difficult it must be working from your bedroom.
Good luck with your plans to move. You will get your own office one day.

imataloss

For the people who want to know what I do. I do admin work, working for a small company who are based 140 miles away from me.

duchy

I've just hit the three year mark working from home .
I take broadband and phone tech support calls (not as hard as it sounds). I found the job originally on MSE when someoone posted about having found "a genuine working at home job"- I followed him through his posts about recruitment and training-and then applied myself-I still work with him today

I don't miss the commuting, having to be suited and booted , office politics (they still exist but much easier to ignore when working remotely).

I do keep a seperate work area and try to never use it for non work stuff -(it's just a desk in my dining room) .

I do try and step outside on breaks (in the summer biggest problem is tearing myself away to go back inside again) unless I'm waiting on a delivery I don't answer the door or my non work phone and over time have retrained friends not to just drop by during my working hours.

I'd be happy to never step inside an office ever again

williacg

imataloss wrote: »

I do too - normally. Think it was a bit of Monday blues coupled with trying to get over a virus.

Just trying to readjust my routine to make myself get out of the house/away from my desk for an hour a day.

Yes, that's a good idea. I now make a point of organising a pub lunch regularly, with one of my colleagues, to get the low down on what's happening at the office, and to make sure that I'm getting out on a regular basis.

williacg

duchy wrote: »

I've just hit the three year mark working from home .
I take broadband and phone tech support calls (not as hard as it sounds). I found the job originally on MSE when someoone posted about having found "a genuine working at home job"- I followed him through his posts about recruitment and training-and then applied myself-I still work with him today

I don't miss the commuting, having to be suited and booted , office politics (they still exist but much easier to ignore when working remotely).

I do keep a seperate work area and try to never use it for non work stuff -(it's just a desk in my dining room) .

I do try and step outside on breaks (in the summer biggest problem is tearing myself away to go back inside again) unless I'm waiting on a delivery I don't answer the door or my non work phone and over time have retrained friends not to just drop by during my working hours.

I'd be happy to never step inside an office ever again

I agree, training family and friends was stragely the hardest thing to do, especially if they were on holiday, they would automatically assume that I was up for a good old natter at anytime, or just pop around for a cup of tea, had to be firm with them, they don't do it anymore though.

Ghost_2005

Lordan wrote: »

I am also curious as to what you all do as I would love to work from home as I am a new mum and would happily work from home.

Homeworking was more necessity than choice for me. Local council where I worked was abolished a couple of years ago - job went with it. Down in Cornwall where I live, very few jobs, lots of them only seasonal and even temping work has pretty much dried up.

I have work with Lionbridge - there's threads about them on MSE if you want to check them out - and also do freelance work for a web designer. I got that work initially through People Per Hour, which is a website for freelancers, but I was looking and applying for contracts on there for months without success ... so I'm cautious about recommending that as a source for finding work tbh.

Sammyantha

I worked from home as a freelance sales exec for years before doing one last 9-5 job, then joining Lionbridge as the poster above has.

I kept motivated by changing things up a bit. I used to work for Yellow Pages and BT so kept in mind all the stuff we used to do to get a buzz going like smile while you're on the phone, have a sweetie after every call (not great if you're trying to lose weight lol), break for 1 min after every 10 calls and take a long, calming breath, jump up and down and shout after every few calls (yes the neighbours will think you're mad!), and make sure to take regular breaks. Offering to hot desk at your clients base every now and then is a good one - you can do a whole day for them and break up your own routine/ actually SPEAK to other human beings face to face once in a while

Have a pic on your desk of your next goal i.e. new car, lots of money, debts paid off, take on an office etc etc, and count up how much further forward you are towards it. Keep a calendar and mark off important milestones like "passed the 10k mark today", "won prestigious new client today" etc. So rather than being a slave to your appointments, you have a record of achievements.

Sales does my head in now which is why i would never go back to it full time. It's easy to get burnout in this industry. Try changing it up with other work like Lionbridge/ internet rating, PA work etc.:j