OK, I confess. I work from a home office. You are probably asking yourself why I call it a home office. Well, there are a lot of reasons. When I first started doing online work and other freelance projects, I did not really have a lot of discipline. I would just shuffle from my bedroom to my couch with my laptop and start doing that online work. Why should I change my clothes when no one was going to see me? Then after a while, I realized that I had not changed my clothes in days, much less taken a shower. My jammies were becoming very fragrant.
Another thing I noticed was that I was not able to separate my actual online work from my house chores. I would often make excuses to put off that online work on the latest blog so I could clean the kitchen or do some laundry. That is when I decided I needed to treat this online work as a “real job.”
Now, I wake up in the morning at a regular work time. I shower, change my clothes, make coffee, and breakfast. Then I go to my home office, which is now no longer on the couch in front of the television. It is very similar to any other work space you would find at a regular company. I take regular breaks for lunch and snacks. I only allow myself to do chores other than my online work during those breaks. Having a regular work routine for my on line work lets me get more done than I did when I was being distracted by things that needed to be done around the house.
You may think that working online or creating online blogs from home is a luxury, that I can come and go as I please, and that no one is looking over my shoulder. Sure, my schedule is flexible, but it comes with deadlines that must be met. If my online work assignments are not completed during my daytime routine, I could be staying up late into the night, which is not something I like to do.
So if you are thinking that you want to do online work such as being a blogger or other type of writer, you may want to consider how disciplined you are. It may look easy, but to be successful at online work it takes both talent and discipline.
More on this.