How to stay motivated

You have opted to work from home. It may be due to family compulsions, may be due to the fact you could not take the pressure of an office any more. Whatever be the reasons for your decision, you have to make a special effort to see that you stay motivated enough to succeed in what you are doing. Believe me, it is not easy.

• The first hurdle you have to overcome, especially if you have been used to a bustling office, is the loneliness that will invariable set in. You start to feel listless and keep telling yourself that there were valid reasons for your working from home.
• Your first solution to this problem would be to see to it that you get out of the house regularly. There may be many work-related things that may require you to go out. Grab those opportunities as you may soon get a feeling of being totally trapped if you stay at home all the time.
• On days that you have no work, plan some outing with your friends. Be proactive. Get someone to watch over your kids and get tickets for the latest movie and enjoy yourself. It will take away the tedium of staying at home 24 hours. If you have too much work to do, the opposite works too. Take some
• time off from the computer and spend some quality time with your family. Romp with your kids. They will love it and you will feel relaxed and recharged for your work. Put your phone on voice mail and don’t let work calls disturb you for that period.
• For some women, giving the house a total spring cleaning helps. If that is your forte, it will give you a high to take charge and rid the house of all clutter. Organize things in the house, file all important papers and get rid of rubbish. You will be surprised at the number of ‘lost’ things you find!
• Clean up the disk space on your computer. Check all your downloads and see if you really need them. Delete outdated documents and organize all your folders. Put in a new desktop wallpaper that will cheer you up.
• Use the net to get all information on the type of business you are doing. Do not however, waste valuable time on Chats and Discussions – there are other more productive work-related things to do on the net.
• Try to schedule your time properly so that you allot enough time for work and relaxation. If you begin with not spending enough time with family, you will find you are full of guilt pangs even if you have just started working from home.
• Avoid all negative comments from friends and relatives who might try to discourage you. Only you will understand your need to work even if it is from home. Try to talk to people who encourage you and tell you that you are doing the right thing. Do not fall prey to discouraging thoughts that it is not very easy to work from home, or that your business isn’t such a successful venture after all.Instead, focus on the progress you have made since you started, think of all the things you have achieved and set your goals afresh. You will certainly achieve what you set out to!