Let’s face it, one of the big pluses to working at a home business is that we can be relaxed, casual and informal—we can work in our sweat pants or pajamas, we can sit with our feet up on the coffee table while we talk on the phone, or we can work on a laptop on the back patio. BUT, too much informality may actually make it tough for some of us to stay motivated and to keep our minds and hearts on the work at hand.
I have previously confessed that in the first few weeks of my home business endeavors (a couple years ago now) I had a hard time getting in the groove. I just let everything go and didn’t have any structure in place for going from a more regimented “traditional” job and work environment to being totally self-regulated and self-motivated. I had to learn the hard way that I needed some formal structure to my work day even if I was working from home. Of course, I was not going to try to mimic a rigid company scene, but I needed to have a work space, some parameters around my work hours and decent supplies with which to get the work done. Too much informality was for me, a bad thing.
Putting a little formal structure around my home business helped my kids and others to start to take my work more seriously too. While my kids are never happy when I am working a lot, they did need to learn that when I am at my desk and I tell them that I am working—that has value and means something. If I’m lying on the couch in my pajamas trying to convince them that I’m working, they just don’t get it. A formal or declared space and expected work hours help take some of the informality out of it so that others can support my home business too.
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