Discovering how working from home will give you freedom

The future of the workplace is certainly changing. There are a lot of new rules that are changing where and when we work.

Social media sites like twitter, facebook and MySpace are changing the way we interact in life with out friends and business. Searching for “the conversation” on twitter, and with tools like google trends, are transforming the old rules of marketing.
There seems to be a new trend in the way people and businesses are work. I see more and more people discovering passive income and how pointless it is to trade time for money. Then again, it makes much more sense to evaluate the difference of value by way of results. For a few years now Best Buy has been transforming the work place with it’s “results-only work environment.”

More companies and managers are discovering it doesn’t make much sense to pay and employee for their presence. The value the employee provides is the real measurement of worth and this employee does not need to be in a cubicle in an office.

Whether it’s through self-employment or being employed there are a many benefits to cutting ties with at work cubicle nation.

1. Work anywhere. This is the most obvious one. If you’re liberated from your “assigned station,” you’re free to work anywhere with WiFi. Some of the managers at Best Buy often work in the middle of a fishing trip or from a secluded cabin the middle of a ski resort. It’s not that their work is cutting into their personal time, it’s giving employees the ability to take these trips and choose where they work.

2. Complete control of the design of your workspace. While I’ve never worked anywhere that rules about the Do’s and Don’ts for cubicle or office decor, I know there are some unspoken and understood rules. If wanted a giant exotic car poster with a sexy blond in a bikini, that probably wouldn’t be acceptable. If you wanted to work in your underwear or listen to Howard Stern, that probably wouldn’t be allowed either. If you work from home, anything goes. It’s not like the absence of beige or fluorescent lighting will make you sad. (If it does, I recommend you seek help form a mental health professional.)

3. Less distractions. This might sound kind of odd, because when you first think about it, you might think there would be more distractions at home, not less. But once you start working form home the opposite is true, at least for me. No more co-worker drivebys, impromptu meetings, and annoying cubicle mates who like to yell to everyone from across the office are constant distractions and interruptions. At home you might have temptations to watch TV, but at least you have control total control over these distractions.

4. Flexible time. You decide when you start and finish work. You decide when its play time. You’re liberated from the clock and you set your schedule. You may have certain projects, meeting or deadlines you must attend to, but you have total flexibility as to when you work on them.

5. More focus on results, not presence. When you’re focused on results, you have a tendency to care more about quality of your work. When you’re focused on presence, you have a tendency to resent the work you’re doing. You’re focused on being there but not on what you’re doing. More energy is spent thinking about when your next break, or lunch is, or when you get to go home.

6. Time with loves ones. This is the number one reason why people start a business. Whatever day it is it’s the only day you’ll ever get to spend with them. So spend this day close to the people you love!

7. Workout at your desk. How many times have you wanted to take a break and go for a quick workout but you are not able because your gym is a 15 minute drive or more form work? I can’t count how many times I’ve wanted to take a break and workout during work. Since I work from home I just do push-ups, sit-ups, or whatever. You can easily solve this problem by Working from home?

8. No Commute. Actually, you might have a commute - from your bedroom to your home office (which may even be in your bedroom!). The average working person wastes just about 10% of their week getting to and from work. What could you do with that extra time? Spend time with your kids, make a life long dream come true, exercise, learn a new language….what would you do?

Choose your own hours. Work at a time that makes sense to you and there is actually work that has to be done, not just because of what a boss says. Imagine a work environment where you can go to work, knock out your day’s workload, and leave once you are done! How many hours do you spend at your job trying to look busy? Deliberately dragging out projects so you won’t get bored in the downtime and your boss thinks you are working hard? What a ridiculous way to live but try telling your boss that you are finished with all your work load so you’d like to take a half day off to go to the beach...What would happen if you did this every day?

My goal is to simply highlight the options that often go unnoticed or untapped. I think the best solution is to find a balance between your work life and your personal life while becoming as efficient and productive as one can.

I recommend you real The Four Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss

Working from home is not for everyone and there are pitfalls to being self employed and telecommuting. Creating barriers between work-time and personal-time, and a lack of social interaction, are a couple that come to mind.

I work from home and I love it. I am only presenting you with options. I would say that where we often think there are no options we later find the existence of tremendous field of possibilities, if we have the courage to challenge our beliefs.

Where we often only see walls, there are no walls at all. They are simply opportunities for us to grow.

As to how to convince your boss to let you work from home, just ask to do a trial of one day a week for four weeks to see how it goes. If your productivity improves on those days, it will be leverage for you and an incentive to your boss to continue your experiment. You may have to show up some days for mandatory meetings or for a need to be in the office, but working from home one or two days a week can make a big difference.

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Dario Lorenzo

Author

Streamline Marketing Systems

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