Working From Home: How To Stop Both Worlds from Colliding

When you work from home, separating your work and private life isn’t easy. You may find yourself getting distracted by your family whilst trying to work or not being able to relax in your free time because you keep getting work calls. It’s important that you divide the two parts of your life so that you can focus all your energy on each and feel as if you’re not stuck in limbo. Here are just a few tips for dividing your work life and home life.

Create a designated office

It’s healthy to have a designated work space that used solely for work. You don’t want to be working on the sofa in front of the TV and you certainly don’t want to be working from your bed – over time you could start to associate these spaces as work zones and you won’t be able to comfortable in your free time. Ideally, you want a designated office room – you can then shut the door and separate yourself from the rest of your home and all its distractions. Not everyone has the space in their home to do this, in which case you’re best settling for a desk in the corner of a room where you feel you still have your own area.

Schedule work time and personal time

It’s also important to have scheduled work time and personal time – don’t try to mix the two. Having scheduled time for work and personal time allows you to focus on each and it also allows your family to create a routine around you, knowing not to disturb you during work hours unless absolutely necessary. Many people working from home take up a nine to five work routine out of familiarity, however you may find that better hours suit you.

Use a separate work phone

If your work involves making and receiving lots of calls, consider getting yourself a separate work phone. When you’re not in work mode, you can then turn off this phone or mute it so you don’t have to answer calls and texts. Similarly, it will stop you getting distracted by personal texts and social media notifications whilst trying to do work. On top of this, having separate phones can make calculating business-related phone expenses easier. You can shop for business phone contracts at sites such as https://business.carphonewarehouse.com/

Consider a separate mailing address

You may also not feel comfortable giving your personal home address to clients. Setting up a virtual address can help to prevent you having to do this. Sites like https://physicaladdress.com offer the opportunity to rent an address – your mail is sent here and can then be redirected to you or viewed online. Such virtual addresses are also generally based in prestigious business areas, allowing you to convince customers that you’re not working from home in a small residential area but actually have your own office in a prime city location.

Set up a business bank account

It can also be worth opening a business bank account for your earnings to go into. You can then feed some of these earnings into your regular account, whilst keeping some money in your business account to spend purely on business purposes. This prevents you from using personal spending money for business purposes, as well as preventing you from using business funds for personal use. On top of this, it can make accounting much easier as you can easily see which expenses were for business purposes and which were for personal use. This guide https://blog.invoiceberry.com offers advice on the best banks for setting up a business account. You can also set up a business savings account for saving purposes.

Legally separate your business

On top of having separate bank accounts, it could be worth legally separating your business as an entity. You can do this by opting for a limited company business structure – this means that any debts that your company accumulates are not counted as personal debts. This means that if your company gets into debt and a debt collection agency are called, these agents won’t be able to take away your personal belongings but only assets registered under your business. Similarly, if you collect personal debts, a debt collection agency can’t take away possessions that are owned by the business.

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