5 Reasons Why you need a Work-at-Home Schedule

One of the attractions of working at home is the vision of freedom it invokes -- no time clock, no time sheets, and no one to account for how you spend your time. Yes, it is an attractive proposition, but like so many attractive propositions there is a heavy downside -- you are likely wasting a lot of time.

My friend's husband spends time every day filling out these large spreadsheets to account for his day. He works for a large engineering company and his day often encompasses work on a variety of projects for different clients. He loathes the activity and I have always dismissed it as a waste of time -- that is until my home business recently took off and I realised there simply weren't enough hours in the day to accomplish all my goals.

I now have my own spreadsheet and agenda for the day, I "Time block" my day and I have improved my productivity and reduced my stress immeasurably. I have been working my 9-5 job and building my own business. If you don't think you need a schedule for your home business then think again -- and read on.

After a spate of relatively unproductive days when my "To Do" list seemed to grow exponentially every time I looked at it I knew something had to change.

Granted, I was going through a rough patch. My home business was experiencing growing pains and taking up more than the usual time, my children are grown up so I don't need to run around after them much, but my two fur-babies expect daily exercise and to be fed regularly, my husband wasn't pulling his weight on the home front, and my extended family was experiencing a number of crises. But I'm also old enough to know there is never a perfect time in life -- you just live the one you've got. These are simply the problems I'm dealing with this year. Next year these problems will be traded in for new fresh ones.

After studying my time and chatting with some other work-at-home peeps, I discovered five reasons to embrace the schedule.

5 Reasons:

It's too easy to waste time doing non priority tasks
It's too easy to get side tracked or distracted from your current task
Unscheduled work time can often overlap into your free time until you don't have any free time left at all
Your free time can overloap into your work time until you fall behind with important projects
Concentrating your time and effor on highest priority projects means that you get more done

I'm not the only work at home business person encompassing the schedule. I recently took part in an online forum where men and women had moved to embrace it -- and found it more freeing than restrictive. After all, you are still the one setting the schedule so you are free to schedule yourself off for a 3-hour lunch, an afternoon, or a whole day whenever you choose.

If you find it difficult setting up your schedule and priorities for the day and week then perhaps your significant other or a friend can help you set your schedule.

Alternatively, come and join the Savvy Social Sisterhood you will have to fill in the questions, say that Melanie Rivett referred you. You'll join a group of like minded individuals and you'll find some resources to help you there.

Remember, you are never too old to follow your Dreams!