Tip#2 - Tell Your Kids

If you have children at home, you will need to orient them to your working from home. It is possible that you are working from one of the rooms on your house or even your bedroom or the living room. Children when they are small will usually find any and every reason to seek your attention if they know that you are around. Every argument, every need, every question will be referred to you just because you are there. And going by the sense of timing that they have, their attention seeking antics will kick off within ten minutes of you starting to work.

What you need to do is make them understand that when you are in a certain room, which is your home based office, you are not to be disturbed. Go as far as to tell them that that area is out of bounds for them. Kids may not understand easily why you are not available to them when you are just a holler away. So making them believe and understand that the office is a serious place is a god idea. Restricting them to go there at will re-enforces this thought. Tell them that they are to refer to you in the office only for a very good reason. They will try and come to you in the beginning, but as you resist that urge to go see what they are about in the beginning, they will gradually stop doing so. Close the door to your room or office. Eliminate extra sounds. Make the kids get into the habit of knocking before entering. This one really works. Nothing gets them to understand that they are disturbing you from doing something important than having to knock before entering.

If you work from the desk in a living room or the bedroom, make the kids play or study in another room.

Basically, imagine that you are operating not in your home but in an office for the sake of productivity. You always know at the bottom of your heart that you are indeed working at home and enjoying the freedom and independence that comes along with it. I hope you find this tip for a better working from home helpful.