The idea of working from home is everyone’s dream, to be able to show up for work in your bunny slippers, avoiding the office politics and of course traffic jams, is a godsend. But that doesn’t mean that life’s going to be a bed of roses.

For starters, working from home can have a whole host of new distractions that you never thought possible. You can absolutely expect your friends and family to take advantage of your newfound ‘freedom’. This could cause your working hours to become a blur, and sometimes if you are not careful, you’ll find yourself working 7 days a week just to catch up with all the time you’ve lost! But if you’ve decided that working from home is right for you, here are a few tips that may help you make the best of it.
1. An Understanding Family
One of the hardest thing about working from home is setting boundaries with the people you share ‘home’ with. It’s definitely easier to understand that you are not to be disturbed when you are “at the office” vs. sitting in the living room.

Start setting boundaries from the first day you start working your Multi-Level Marketing, Network Marketing, or any home business. Granted it will take some getting used to, but your children, roommates, or spouse must learn to give you at least 8 hours a day so you can get things done.

2. Don’t Be Afraid to Get Help
If you have very young children, you’ll need to get help. A 3-year-old would consider having to go poo an emergency and they expect you to treat it like one (drop everything and get me to the bathroom as quickly as you can). In this case, it would be helpful to have another adult in the house, or to drop your children off at daycare, or a babysitter’s house to allow you to get a few uninterrupted hours to yourself.
During busy periods, you can always get a cleaning lady to help straighten up the mess you call home. Give yourself the peace of mind required to get your work done.

3. Get Your Own Private Home Office
It will help to have a room, a workstation or at the very least a desk in a quiet area in your home. Here’s where you keep your laptop or PC, phone, work documents like reports and invoices, your stationery etc.

4. Do Not Disturb!
Within these four invisible walls, you’re working and you are to treat it like how you would treat your old office. Coming to work is merely a hop into your ‘cubicle’ and going home is ‘hopping out’. Everything else should remain as it was – keep problems, issues and matters that have to do with home outside of your no-fly zone. If you can convince yourself to compartmentalize like this, it will be easier to convince everyone else.

5. Have Some Self Restraint
Don’t think that you can prop up your feet and catch a whole season of your sitcoms in one afternoon and try to work it back during the weekends. Have some self-restraint and keep the entertainment to after hours or the weekends.

6. Have a Routine (and Take Breaks)
The MLM / Network Marketing Industry gives us a great reason to work from home, just be sure to have a set routine that will ensure that you can be there for your family and for the company you are a distributor or independent businesss owner with. Having a set routine will help you with keeping up with house chores – and the breaks you schedule in, will help you keep your sanity. It’s also great to help you recharge for the next project or refuel your inspiration. If you get breaks while you’re in the office, there is no reason you can’t take breaks when you are at home.
7. Set Goals For Yourself
One thing that should always be at the back of your head is that your productivity should continue to increase, after all that is why you’re working from home in the first place. Set quotas for yourself and discuss roadblocks or problems that you have with your upline, see if they can help you reach your goals. Consider joining in brainstorming sessions via conference calls, which most MLM companies have.

8. Get Out Of The House
Moderation is key. Working in solitude has its disadvantages but only because humans are social creatures. Hence, getting out of the house is very important. The idea is to break the monotony of working with your shadow and your reflection.

9. Stay Healthy With Daily Exercise
Get plenty of fluids, eat healthy, and if you aren’t a fan of exercise, just try to move around whenever you can. This gets oxygen into your blood circulation which can be the cure to that dullness you’ve been feeling after looking at the same project day in, day out for months! I like to relax with music, some light reading or making a lunch for myself and enjoying it at the park across the street.

10. Pamper Yourself For A Job Well Done
If you’ve made it through another week, then it’s time to pamper yourself for being able to keep away from online distractions and for getting the job done. Not everyone can do it, so when you do, reward yourself for it!

If you follow these simple tips, then you’ll be on your way to enjoying a better, more fulfilled life with MLM / Network Marketing. Please join us on our daily calls, learn more by logging into your LMS, and clicking on the Training Tab.