Balancing Your Online Home Business Life

Aug 20
18:03

2007

Cynthia Minnaar

Cynthia Minnaar

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Owning a successful online home business gives you the freedom to work when and where you like, take time off when it suits you, spend more time with your family and not having to work for a boss puts a whole new perspective on how you run your life.

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Running your own online home business,Balancing Your Online Home Business Life Articles however, does require discipline, not only due to the many distractions in your home environment but because you have no set rules or working hours that you have to adhere to, so herewith some tips to help you balance your work at home life.

It is highly advisable and really important to get into a routine as soon as possible and decide how many hours a day you are going to dedicate to your online home business then decide when those hours will be.  Then it is a matter of ensuring that you do put in the hours required daily to ensure the success of your online home business.

Make use of To-Do Lists.  Urgent tasks can be added to your daily list, tasks that need to be done in a week or two can go on your short-term list and major projects added to your long-term lists.  Listing your plans and tasks will prevent you from becoming distracted and help keep you focused and motivated to ensure you accomplish all that you set out to do.

To save you being interrupted throughout the day it is a good idea to advise your friends and neighbours that although you are at home, you do have an online home business that you work hard at and let them know when it is convenient to visit, otherwise you will have people popping in throughout the day and you will find it hard to settle down to get any work done at all.

Try and get your chores done first thing before you switch on that computer and get involved with your online home business, because as you know the hours can fly by so fast when working on the internet.

Be sure to set yourself break times for meals otherwise you may also find the day goes by and you have not yet had lunch.

Don’t allow yourself to become house bound and totally absorbed in your online home business.  You need to balance your life.  Beware of falling prey to cabin fever! Spend quality time with the children, make time to get out and meet your friends, enjoy your shopping sprees or partake in your favourite sport.

Don’t forget to keep invoices, receipts and slips and claim for everything that is tax deductible for your home based online business, including your office space.

Be sure not to forget to attend to the maintenance of your computer.  Back-up regularly and defrag your hard drive to ensure maximum performance of your pc.

You don’t ever have to miss another child’s school play or sports day.  That is the great advantage of the internet and with an online home business you can make up the time working at night.

If you have a dog, working at home will change your dog’s life too.  They will thrive and just love having someone at home all the time, instead of having to wait a whole day for human company.

Your dog will provide you with the very necessary daily walk that you also need having sat for long periods in front of your computer.

Having an online home business can sometimes get lonely, so at least you can never be accused of talking to yourself when you have a dog to share things with!

You dog will quickly slot into the new routine.  The walk and play times not only give you the exercise you need but the very important break for your eyes.  Looking at a computer screen all day is not good for them.

You may find it quite a juggle at first to settle down to working at home online but once you get into a routine you will relish the freedom of running an online home business and being able to come and go as you please without having to ask for permission.