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There is an aspect to working from home that made me think might be worthy of a post on here, if only to clarify it in my own mind and then share it with whoever gets to see this post. Its on the subject of mental attitude and how it can even make the difference between success and failure.

You see, when you have a positive mental attitude toward your own home business, you can actually get a lot more quality work done in the time you have allotted than if you are in a negative mental attitude. Maybe that sounds a little obvious, but it isn’t all that obvious to everybody and often, even when you are aware of this, you don’t get all of the ramifications. Here’s what I mean.

Quite often, I get distracted or interrupted while I’m working away at something, be it a new article I may be writing for one of my websites or blogs, or maybe I’m building a new website and putting things together. Either way, it takes concentration and a fair amount of creativity to get the job done to a good standard of quality. When I’m interrupted, the thought train is broken along with the motivation, or in some cases the eagerness to get down in writing what is bursting out of my brain. An interruption at this time can be lethal to the flow of creativity and once that flow is curtailed, it is often very hard to get it back again, at least with the same level of enthusiasm as was there before the interruption.

Working at home has one great advantage in that if you have a family, you get to spend a whole lot more time with them – time that would have otherwise been used up in traveling to and from an office or place of work. Some people can spend 2 or 3 or even more hours every day commuting to and from their job. This is time that is in addition to the normal working day, so an 8 hour day can run into 10, 11 or more hours when you add on the travelling time and that’s what you get back when you work at home.

Now, here’s the problem.

Working at home also gives your family greater access to you, which is great except for those times that I mentioned above. Try explaining to your wife, son or daughter that what you are doing is a real job and they should not just drop in on you when they feel like it and expect you to drop what you’re doing to spend some time with them!

You have two choices, as I see it.

One, you accept the interruptions and your productivity is lower, but your family life is a ton better.

Two, you close your home office door and shut yourself away and get your work done and make a load more money for your family to benefit from with a better standard of living.

Ooh, tough call, isn’t it! What would you do? What do I do?

Ok, I admit it, I take option number one where productivity can go take a hike while I enjoy living. Its not everyone’s answer, but then not everyone is the same. You do what you have to do.

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Health is a major aspect to working at home and one that far too many of those who do, tend to ignore, often until its too late. Its easy to see why this is such a big issue. When you work at home, many of the things that you used to do when you worked for a boss or at a company office or whatever, you suddenly stop doing.

These things include maybe walking to the bus stop or train station if you didn’t use your car, running up and down several flights of stairs in your building, or the manual work that would accompany a variety of jobs. They would also include interaction with co-workers which would often result in group gym or swimming sessions at lunch times or after work, playing a sport for your company team, or a myriad other things that got you up and doing things.

The downside to working for a company and especially for office workers with respect to health would be the avoidance of healthy lunches in favor of the ubiquitous liquid lunches at the local pub or bar, meaning a daily diet of alcohol, caffeine, cigarettes and little of no exercise.

So there are two sides of the coin when it comes to health and working at home. On the one side, you miss the opportunities for social interaction and exercise, while on the other you certainly don’t miss the excess alcohol and other stimulants that often accompany working in an office.

So what can you do at home to improve your health, or at least prevent it from sliding down a very slippery chute?

In the mornings, before you head for your home office, take a half hour and go for an early morning walk or better still a run or a swim. This will set you up for the day and you’ll not only feel better, but you’ll be able to feel smug that you can do this at 9.00am and no boss is going to yell at you for turning up late!

At lunch time, again get up out of your home office and do something other than grab a sandwich and either sit back at your desk or in front of the TV. When you finish in the evening, again head outdoors and do something energetic before having your evening meal.

Throughout the day, try to avoid drinking cup after cup of coffee or tea and instead vary it by including herbal teas or green tea instead of black. You don’t want to have too much caffeine in your system, although a little is a good thing for helping to keep your concentration keen. It goes without saying that you really should not smoke,so don’t think that just because you are not under the strict anti-smoking-in-the-office rules that its ok to smoke in your own home office. Bad, bad, bad!

Lastly, and this is another easy bad habit to get into when you work at home, avoid drinking cola or other soda drinks to wash down biscuits, cakes or candy bars while you’re at your desk. Cola (you know the main brands without me having to mention them here) also contains caffeine as well as loads of sugar (or worse, artificial sweeteners) so these will be bad for your waistline.

If you stay sensible about what you eat, drink and the amount of daily exercise you get, you’ll be able to work from home in the peak of fitness and health and not succumb to the weight and health problems so many of your compatriots fall victim to.

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