The Home Office Dilemma: Making the Transition from Your Office to Your Home

When I got married a few years ago, I had to move to a different country. Along with that, I had to decide how exactly I planned to continue working. I decided that it was possible to retain my career and work remotely with the exception of important meetings that I needed to attend in person. I learned that in order to have a good home office, you need to create a sanctuary of a sort, set boundaries, and be organized.

Having a quiet place to work is important, but not necessary. As long as you have the tools that you need to work from home, you should be able to tackle any situation that arises from the comfort of your home itself. Even if you are working from the couch, that should not adversely affect your work.

Creating a sanctuary sort of work environment is key. This could mean different things to others, but the main idea is that no matter what is going on around you, you can still focus on your work. That is a sanctuary. For me, I like to put my phone on silent mode, so that I will only receive calls while I am busy working. It helps to do this so that you do not get distracted (trust me, it is very easy to get caught up with the messages on your phone and the latest news on social media. Therefore, you need to be mindful of this).

What most people also tend to forget when they are working at home is to set boundaries. What I mean by setting boundaries does not mean stopping your family from talking to you when you are working or to shut yourself off completely from the world itself. It means that you need to tell people at home if you have an important meeting that day and what time, so that no one will interrupt your meeting or whatever it may be. Whenever I have a phone meeting, I always make sure to tell those at home that I will be busy at so and so time, and to only come talk to me if it is super important.

Setting boundaries also helps you see what is more important in your life as well. It also helps with time management in the sense that you learn to see what work needs to be finished right away.

Having a home office space can also create other issues, like being surrounded by a constant mess. If you do not keep yourself organized at home as you do in a normal office setting, you are eventually going to end up being left far behind in your work, and most likely, become overly stressed out. You need to be disciplined and keep your home office space organized.

I have a special desk where I do all my work. It is set up in the same way as my actual office space. I do feel that this has immensely helped me in my work productivity that at times I actually get work done quicker than I have in an actual office space. So, find a space that can be kept neat and tidy.

The home office space should be a sanctuary for you. You should learn to set boundaries at home and keep your office space organized. Keeping these in mind, you will find that it is not so hard to transition from a corporate space to a home office space. If I did this, so can you!