The Proactive Pro

Most people think that work-at-home professionals are less-exposed to health hazards because they work in the safest possible place they can be — their home.  But what’s the real score?  Could working at home expose you to some health risks?  Listed below are some health conditions that a work-at-home professional may be prone to.

• OBESITY - This could be one of the most common health problems that a work-at-home professional could have.  Obesity may be due to inactivity.  The work-at-home professional usually tends to sit for long periods.  Also, the snacking is easy to do at home because there are no imposed restrictions with regard to bringing food at the workstation (unlike in offices).  You can have a bag of greasy, salty potato chips or sugary cookies right beside your laptop or desktop computer.  As most of us know, obesity can lead to a lot of serious health conditions like hypertension, diabetes, heart problems, etc.
• BACK PROBLEM - Sitting for many hours can strain your back.  Spinal disc herniation, sometimes called "slipped disk," can result from prolonged sitting.
• DEEP VEIN THROMBOSIS - This is also caused by prolonged inactivity or being on your butt for long periods.  DVTs are usually the culprits behind strokes and heart attacks.
• STRESS - When you work at home, the line between your home life and your professional life becomes blurred.  Mixing your concerns at work and at home could double the stress levels that you usually experience in an office outside your home.
• INSOMNIA/SLEEP DEPRIVATION -  A lot of work-at-home professionals are workaholic (like me).  We think it’s okay to spend more than 10 hours on the job just because we work at home.  Sometimes, we try to get by with just four hours of sleep. But what can lack of sleep do to the body?  Headaches, increased blood pressure, increased risk of diabetes, increased risk of fibromyalgia, memory lapses or loss, and obesity are just a few of the effects of sleep deprivation.
• CARPAL TUNNEL SYNDROME - Carpal tunnel syndrome is caused by the compression of the median nerve traveling through the carpal tunnel.  The symptoms include numbness, tingling, or burning sensations in the thumb and fingers.  Work-at-home professionals who work online do a lot of typing.  Poorly positioned wrists while typing could lead to carpal tunnel syndrome. 

As the time-honored adage goes, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”  Listed below are ways to prevent the above-mentioned health conditions.

1) SET A SCHEDULE FOR EXERCISE - You don’t have to spend a full hour at the gym although that would be great.  A 30-minute walk would suffice. 

2) MOVE AROUND A LITTLE BIT FROM TIME TO TIME - As you may have noticed while reading the preceding paragraphs, prolonged inactivity increases your risks of having three health conditions mentioned above.  You need to get off your butt once in a while.  Take a 5 to 10-minute break in between tasks and try to do some stretching exercises or simple calisthenics.  Or you can walk around your office. 

3) CONTROL YOUR EATING HABITS -  Try not to eat while working.  Have a definite schedule for your snack time.  However, if you must munch on something from time to time, have some fruits and nuts instead of chips or cookies.  Avoid junk food at all costs.

4) DEFINE BOUNDARIES -  Talk to your family members about your job.  Tell them that you can only be disturbed during your working hours if there’s a life-and-death situation.  As much as possible, don’t let the concerns at home seep into the concerns at work and vice versa.  You should draw the line between work and home life.

5) GET ENOUGH SLEEP - Make time for power naps.  Getting enough sleep will help you perform better at work.

6) LEARN OFFICE ERGONOMIC BEST PRACTICES AND APPLY THEM AT WORK - Here is a short video from YouTube that will teach you some of the basics of office ergonomics.







Remember, health is wealth. You don't want to spend your hard-earned money on medicines, doctor's fees and hospitalization. Knowing the health hazards of working at home and how to overcome them, you can now adopt health and safety practices while on the job.

The idea of working at home seems to be attractive to most people especially during these times with the rising cost of transportation.  Some think it must be pretty comfortable to work in one’s pajamas without a boss breathing down one’s neck or difficult coworkers to contend with.

However, is working at home really for everyone?  Here is a list of pros and cons to help you see if working at home is really for you:

PROS:

1. You get to spend more time with your family.  You’re closer to your kids, an aging parent or anybody you need to take care of.

2. You don’t have to spend for transportation.  You save a lot of money.

3. You don’t have to go through the hassles of commuting during the rush hour.  No traffic jams.  Your office is just a few steps from your bed.

4. You don’t have to dress up, primp yourself up and wear makeup (if you’re a lady).  This saves you more time and money.  Heck, you can even wear pajamas to work.

5. You usually enjoy flexibility when it comes to schedule.  This means that you can work at the time when you are most creative.  (However, this is not true in some cases.  In my case, my work has to begin at a certain time and I have to beat some tight deadlines.)

CONS:

1. Distraction is one of the worst enemies of a work-at-home professional.  There are always chores that beg to be done at home.  There are always “emergencies” that need to be attended to (Sometimes, it’s just a neighbor who needs to borrow your measuring cup).  Also, there is the temptation to engage in non-work related activities like surfing for fun, reading personal e-mails, playing games, etc.

2. There is a lack of human interaction.  Boredom and loneliness could be a problem to most work-at-home professionals.  As I’ve said in my previous post, working at home can be very isolating. Also, there is very little opportunity to engage in healthy professional competition which could contribute significantly to professional growth.

3. No work, no pay.  You don’t enjoy a regular paycheck.  If you get sick and can’t work, you don’t earn.  Most work-at-home professionals work on a per-project basis.  Sometimes, the job ends when the project ends, so looking for a new client could be a problem.

4. You own the equipment that you use.  Sometimes, you have to rely on yourself for the troubleshooting.  You don’t have technical support unless you pay for it (unless you know somebody who would be willing to render technical services for free).  You are solely responsible for the repair and maintenance of your equipment.

5. Your image is less professional.  This can be a problem for work-at-home call center representatives and virtual assistants who need to interact with the clients’ customers.  Oftentimes, when the dogs bark or the kids cry, the person at the other end of the line gets turned off, which could mean lost business for your client and, potentially, lost business for you.

Some of the CONS May be Overcome.  Here’s how:

1. Develop self-discipline.  Self discipline is the number one trait that work-at-home professionals should develop.   When you have self-discipline, you are better able to overcome distractions.  There are also some techniques to maintain focus while on the job.  For more on this, read my previous post “Focus on Focus.”

2. Have a workplace that is free from distractions and noise.  As much as possible, don’t make your bedroom your office.  Talk to your kids and tell them that your home office is off limits.  Tell your family that you should not be disturbed unless there’s a life-and-death situation.  Perhaps, the dog can stay outside while you work.  If you can sound-proof your office, that would be great.

3. Look for long-term clients and keep them satisfied.  That way, you won’t have to worry about being out of work.  If you have an account with oDesk, Scriptlance and other similar sites, you should gather positive feedback from clients.  That way, other potential clients would not hesitate to hire you or they may even look for you.

4. The key to overcoming loneliness on the job is balance.  Working at home can blur the line between your professional life and your personal life.  We should not make our lives all about work.  For more on this, read my previous post, “Loneliness: A Challenge to Overcome.”

5. Invest in durable equipments so you won’t always have to go to the computer shop to have your computer repaired.  Perform regular PC maintenance.  It would be also be good to invest in good anti-virus and anti-spyware programs. However, there are free alternatives that work well.  For a list of good Internet security and anti-virus, software click here.  I also have a blog post on PC maintenance tasks, which is right below this post.

Still not sure if working at home is for you?  Here’s an article from ABC News that lists some questions that you need to ask yourself.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/AmericanFamily/story?id=1059972

The person that can best teach us about time management is someone who is dying, because he or she has very little time left and thus really knows how precious time is.  Randy Pausch was a computer science professor at the University of Virginia who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2006.  He was told in 2007 that he had only six months to live, but he managed to outlive the doctor's prognosis.  Before his death in 2008, he spent his remaining days delivering inspiring lectures.  To this day, he remains an inspiration to me and to millions of others all over the world.

Below is a summarized version of his hour-long lecture:






I find his style of delivery so engaging that I did not mind listening to the whole lecture.  In this lecture, he not only taught some life lessons but shared some practical time management tips as well. If you're interested, you can listen to the lecture in its entirety by clicking HERE.

If you'd like to get a copy of the slides he used in the lecture, you can go to the site where you can download them by clicking HERE.

Dr. Pausch also delivered his famous lecture, "The Last Lecture" on Oprah.  You can watch the video by clicking HERE.

Now, it's one thing to listen to the lecture and another to put the lessons into practice.  I hope that you will enjoy the lectures and find them inspiring as much as I do.

Time is an irreplaceable resource, and like all other resources, it has to be managed. We often hear about time management but what is time management really? Essentially, time management is self management. There is a lot of self-discipline involved in the tips that I am about to share, but no worries, the tips are not super-hard to follow.

Time Management Tips:

1. BEGIN WITH AN END IN MIND - This is one of the seven habits of highly effective people according to Stephen Covey. To be able to manage time effectively, we need to identify our goals. Why? Because we need to know the things we have to prioritize. We need to know what needs to be done first so that we could move closer to the goals that we would like to accomplish.

2. PLAN AHEAD - Imagine going through the day without knowing what to do.  Without planning, a lot of time will be wasted on thinking of what to do next. Prepare a to do list before going to bed so when you wake up in the morning, you can immediately do the tasks that you need to accomplish.

3. EAT YOUR FROG FIRST - This concept was popularized by Brian Tracy through his book, "Eat That Frog!" It is based on a saying that, "If the very first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog (actually, a toad is much worse), you'll have the satisfaction of knowing that it's probably the worst thing you'll do all day." In other words, when you've done the most difficult thing that you need to do for the day, you'd be more willing to do the less difficult tasks. You'll also have the momentum to do other tasks because you've taken the burden of anticipation of difficulty off your back. Do the most difficult task first and you'll be less inclined to procrastinate on doing the other tasks.

4. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF FREE TIME - If a task cannot be done at the appointed time as planned, quickly move on to the next task or find something to accomplish within that time frame.  Don't use it as an excuse to loaf around or to waste time.  Remember, eat your frog first.  The sooner you finish your tasks, the more time you will have for the things that you really love to do.

5. BE ORGANIZED WITH YOUR TIME - There must a time for everything. We only have 24 precious hours in one day, so every minute must be apportioned wisely. Have a time table or a daily schedule displayed prominently in your room, even if you cannot always stick to it. Why? It will remind you what you need to do and help you assess if you are indeed moving toward to your goals, and make you want to go back on the right track.

6. BE ORGANIZED WITH YOUR THINGS - Trying to find something can waste a lot of time and could really be infuriating especially when you're running late. There must be a place for everything -- your pen, car keys, wallet, etc. It will make your day go by more smoothly.

7. FOCUS - The mind can only do one thing at a time. To improve focus, you can race against the clock. Get a timer and give yourself a mini-deadline (in minutes) for each task. But don't pressure yourself; treat it like a game. You can get an download a timer for free by clicking HERE.

Because the mind can only do one thing at a time, multitasking isn't always a good idea. But what if your job calls for multitasking? One thing you can do is incorporate all your activities into a system. That way, your mind can treat all those activities as one unit. And this brings us to our next tip which is,

8. BE SYSTEMATIC - Develop procedures for doing things. Study how you can do things efficiently. Make those procedures as simple as it can possibly be. In no time, those procedures will become automatic to you and you'll be able to finish your tasks in no time.

9. DELEGATE - You cannot do everything, so look for someone or something (we can delegate tasks to things, too, like an answering machine, for instance) that can do the less important things for you. When it's perfectly sensible, hire someone. The less you have to worry about the little things, the sooner you can finish the more important things.

10. TAKE TIME TO REST AND RELAX - Stress and too much work can slow you down and can actually make you less efficient and less productive. Give yourself mini-breaks in between tasks. It will also take your mind off the previous task making it ready to focus on the next one. And let your rest day refresh you and prepare you for the week ahead.

I often hear a lot of people say, "So many things to do and so little time," and "I want to do this and that, but I just don't have enough time!" But if you really think about it, there is almost always time for everything that we want to do, we just have to find it.

If you'd like to learn how to accomplish your goals in the least possible time, I recommend that you sign up for the Simpleology course by Mark Joyner. The first module is free. You will have to pay for the other modules, but trust me, the free module alone is priceless! It certainly is worth your time. To go to the Simpleology website, click HERE.

I have been a full-time work-at-home professional for more than three years now and I am speaking from experience when I say that working alone can be very isolating. I had my first work-at-home job as a home-based call center agent. I rented a small room in Pasig, Manila. Since I needed a conducive workplace, I had to stay in a relatively quiet neighborhood. I was prone to depression at that time as I was still recovering from a major heartbreak. I spent most of my waking hours cooped up in that room. I didn't have a normal life because I was asleep during the day and awake at night -- a predicament that most call center agents find themselves in -- so there was very little opportunity to interact with people outside my room. The isolation made my depression worse, and so I had a major depressive episode. I was so depressed that the idea of committing suicide was dancing around my brain. Fortunately, I had the good sense to call my precious friends who then came to my rescue. I had to see a psychiatrist and take anti-depressants and it took quite a while before I recovered completely.

Here are the lessons I have learned from my experience:

Lesson #1: Don't telecommute if you live alone or don't live alone if you telecommute.

I have since moved out from that dismal, four-walled inferno that I once called my room and have returned to Kalibo, my hometown, where I live with my family. I thought living alone would be good idea because I wouldn't be distracted at work. I was wrong. For me, it's easier to deal with distractions than with loneliness and depression. We need people to help us pick ourselves up when we feel down. Social networking sites such as Facebook, Friendster, MySpace and instant messengers are good tools that help you get in touch with people, but trust me, there's no substitute for having face-to-face conversations with people in the flesh.

Lesson #2: Make sure that you're living a well-balanced life.

Telecommuting gives us the freedom to work long hours. We don't have to worry about rush-hour traffic or going home too late (duh!). But we must remember that there is more to life than making oodles of money. We must never forget that we are social beings and we need to be with people every now and then.

Where to find people:

• Gym -- We need exercise. I do. I've grown significantly heavier since I started working at home. Sitting for long periods at our workstations will cause our waistlines to expand considerably unless we do something about it. Plus, going to the gym gives us the opportunity to meet attractive people (for single people only), or at least feast our eyes on them. ;)
  
• Clubs and Organizations -- You may want to do some volunteer work or pursue a hobby. Let's be well-rounded individuals! You may also form an organization with fellow telecommuters in your area.
• Cafes -- You can even work there if the nature of your job permits you to do so and if it's not too distracting. Take advantage of the WiFi especially if it's free. You don't have to talk to people. Hearing people talking in the background or just seeing them around can help you feel less isolated. In my case, I don't go to my favorite cafe to work. I take a break from work and go there to have a nice chat with my best friend over some cappuccino or latte.
  
• Bars -- Loosen up and grab a drink once in a while. Or better yet, buy someone a drink. ;)

Lesson#3: You are more important than your job.

We must not forget that we have needs. We need warmth, appreciation, love and affection. We need to interact with other human beings in order to grow. If we spend most of our waking hours in front of our computers, we would soon find ourselves emotionally starved. If your home-based job requires you to sacrifice your needs, then you might want to do a lot of serious thinking about it.

Loneliness is a challenge that every telecommuter faces, but it can be overcome. We need to have people nearby to make us feel supported and less isolated. Balance is essential. We need to give ourselves time to loosen up, be with our family and friends and meet people. Most of all, we should never neglect ourselves. Remember, there is more to life than work.

I'm out of sorts today. I feel a bit depressed and grouchy. I had to drag myself out of bed this morning. I had to force myself to turn on my laptop and work.

I'm a woman and it happens every month.

Okay. I've got to admit that sometimes, I hate my job especially when I meet difficulties along the way and when things don't turn out the way I want to. Yes, there are times when I feel like tossing my job out the window. PMS magnifies the feeling ten times.

But I also know that there are a lot of people who would love to have my job, people like Jen, my next door neighbor who is a teacher. She has to get dressed every day, wear makeup, buy gasoline and drive her motorcycle to the next town to teach nine sections of grade school pupils. She hates her boss, the principal. And she earns only a little over 1/10 of what I make each month. I ask her, "Why do you do this?" She just shrugs her shoulders and says, "It's the only job I can get." By the way, Jen was here a few days ago, asking me to teach her how to do my job.

I, on the other hand, just have to drag my butt out of bed to my work station which is literally just a few steps away. I can work in my pajamas. I don't even have to wash my face and brush my teeth before I start working (But of course, I brush my teeth and wash my face). It's just me, myself and my laptop. No fire-breathing bosses. No gossipy co-workers.

Sometimes, when I feel like bitching about my job, I have to remind myself what a lucky beeyotch I actually am.

Most people think it would be nice to earn a living in the comfort of their homes. For one, it’s nice to be able to work in pajamas and not worry about what to wear to the office. One doesn’t need to be too concerned about the rising prices of gasoline because there’s no need to drive or commute to work. Working at home also means not having a boss breathing down your neck or a yakking supervisor when you make mistakes. And there’s virtually no need for office politics. Working affords flexibility and a lot of freedom.

But as we all know, freedom must be used responsibly. While working at home gives one a lot of freedom, it also requires a lot of discipline. Some jobs require one to meet deadlines. Others require one’s full attention and keenness to detail. Most jobs require one to be organized and methodical.

While working from home is a privilege, it can also be a challenge for some. A home-worker has to face his or her number one enemy on a daily basis — DISTRACTION. Mothers who work at home may have to deal with babies or toddlers demanding attention. Sometimes, the temptation to browse non-work related sites is so strong that one is bound to get distracted occasionally.

Here are some tips to be able to maintain your focus on the job:

1. BEGIN WITH AN END IN MIND — To be able to focus, you need a target. You need to know where to direct your attention and your efforts. Establish a routine and a set of procedures if your job is repetitious; otherwise, make a to-do list. Just know what you are supposed to accomplish and what you are supposed to do at the moment.
2. ELIMINATE DISTRACTIONS IN YOUR WORK ENVIRONMENT — This is self-explanatory. Make it a rule with your spouse, children and other family members that you are not to be disturbed at certain times of the day unless there’s a life-and-death situation. Also, do not work near a television. Make sure that your work environment is comfortable, noise-free and clutter-free.
3. BEAT THE CLOCK. Impose a time limit on yourself and use a countdown timer. Keep the time limit short, but realistic. Make sure that the quality of your work doesn’t suffer because of this. When you are working against a time limit, you will be forced to focus. In my case, it keeps the temptation to browse non-work-related websites at bay. I don’t take it too seriously though. Beating the clock is a game to me where my opponent is the timer. You can get yourself a good stopwatch and countdown timer for free here.
4. WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS, STOP — You could be overstressed. Stress could impair our ability to focus. You could do some relaxation exercises. When I find myself overwhelmed and unable to think clearly, I do an exercise that I learned from Silva Mind Control Method. I stop whatever it is that I’m doing, close my eyes, take deep breaths, and count backwards from 10 to 1. After a few moments, I count from 1 to 5, telling myself that I am wide awake and feeling better than ever. This exercise works for me, but I’m not sure if it would work for everyone. For more relaxation techniques, read this article from MayoClinic.com.

Sometimes, we really don’t need more time to do the things that we want to do. We just have to maximize the time that is available to us. We can only do that if we can focus on the things that we need to do.

If you have tips on how to be able to improve concentration and to maintain focus on the job, you are welcome to post them in the comments section. I would appreciate it very much if you could share them. ;)