Read & write

Working from home is a dream for many people. Women especially, dream to be able to make a living from the comfort of their home, while taking care of the kids and of household chores. While this is absolutely possible and many persons are successfully doing it, you need to be aware of potential dangers that may keep you away from success.

Losing one's focus is one of these dangers.

What your home is your office, it's very easy to get distracted from your work by those dishes that need washing or by those kids who need pampering. You need to make a clear separation between the two facets and stick to your business tasks until you get them done before moving into domestic issues. A clear work schedule would probably help, so try to make one and follow it closely.

When you work from home, the fridge is probably in your sight most part of the day. Do not take snacks every 30 minutes or so, no matter how tempting this may be. It's so easy to put on a lot of extra weight when you don't realize how much you are actually eating. Have your meals at the same time each day and don't munch on any snacks while you are at your computer. Work should be work, meals should be meals. Keep the two separate, if you want to work from home and still fit inside your clothes.

Running a home-based business may lead to a lack of exercise. When you need to commute to a job every day, you do things you don't even notice: you walk, you climb stairs, or you may even run sometimes, if you're late. When your office is two steps away from your bedroom, you eliminate all that exercise. If you don't replace it with some other form of exercise, you'll soon be out of shape. It's very important to stay fit, so stop every two hours and do some sort of effort. Yoga is excellent for home workers, because it doesn't require a lot of space and a lot of time. You can choose a few poses that work best for you and practice them in chunks of 15-20 minutes, several times a day.

Perhaps the biggest danger of working from home is mixing work and leisure time in such a way that you end up with the sensation that you worked straight for 15 hours every day, when in fact you only worked less than half that time. It's best if you can put a time limit where you stop office tasks and call it a day. Otherwise, you may start neglecting your spouse, your family duties and your friends. You'll feel tired, because your body will believe you worked late, when actually you played 100 computer games in-between those office tasks you achieved. 

Running a successful home business while staying sane required discipline, focus and control. If you don't lose yourself to procrastination, you'll be much happier than a 9 to 5 worker. It's entirely up to you.