Many seniors are attracted to working at home, but the juggle and struggle of managing both your home life and your work life effectively can be challenging!

It takes planning and working with a purpose to find a formula that meets the needs of home and work. If too much time is spent on the business, your social life can suffer! If too little time is spent on the business, the results can be a meager income.

At different stages of your work-at-home business, your needs from you will change. Summer schedules vary from a winter routine.  Life events (yours and/or your family’s) can alter your schedule.  In other words, accept the unexpected.

Here are a dozen timeless tips to help you work at home effectively:

1. Create telephone rules

The biggest technology change in the recent past are with the capabilities and reach of cell phones.  Many people have opted to not have a landline, relying on their cell phones 100% of the time.  When you work from home, answering your cell phone can make the difference between eating sandwiches for a week or being able to afford a meal in a restaurant.

But what gives?  The younger generation are often seen with their phones as an extension of their arms – never being away from them, even sleeping with them.  They often replace a younger person’s social graces in lieu of just texting folks and never physically talking to them, enjoying their company or growing a relationship.  

Set rules for your telephone (cell or landline).  For example, you will not answer your phone before 9 o’clock am or after 6 o’clock pm.  You will also plan face-to-face meetings or social events instead of locking your life in your home and then wondering what happened to your friends.

Exceptions can be made, are sometimes more realistic.  Just know that the phone is a convenience and not a replacement for a social and/or business life.

2. Hands-free telephones.

With a cordless head set on, you can be talking on your landline and cooking dinner, folding clothes or doing other busy work.  the same goes for using a hands-free device with your cell phone. These advances in technology can be a real time saver.

3. Take a day or two off weekly.

Treat at least one day a week as sacred and do not work. This helps you to refresh and energize yourself and prevents the counterproductive feeling that you are always at work. This is important if you are building a business to last over the years. Home-based work can feel closed in. Set boundaries now that will help you in the future.

4. Set up office space.

Working from home can be a great convenience for you.  A wonderful answer to help bring a little more income into your golden years.  One of the best ways to delineate your ‘home’ space and incorporate a work-at-home lifestyle is to set up a home office.  In fact, this is very necessary if you plan to write off a home-based office space on your income taxes.

Whether it be converting a spare bedroom in your home or apartment or just making room for a corner office in any room of your abode, make it happen.  This also helps with the ‘always working’ feel of your life, too.  When you are in your office, you are working.  When you aren’t in your office, you are in your home.  Two separate spaces, two separate parts of your life.

5. Plan ahead and cook ahead.

It may seem silly to add this to a list of work-at-home tips but you may be surprised at how much time and money are saved by pre-planning your meals. Many seniors like to eat a bigger lunch and then a light supper.  By pre-planning these two times of your day, you can save money at the grocery store and save money by not eating out.

Once a week, create a daily menu. You can include just one big meal a day or go all the way by planning three meals a day plus a snack or two – including such things as desserts or adult beverages, too.  It’s your choice, your epicurean adventure.  From that plan, then make your grocery list.

Am sure you know that you should never go to the grocery store hungry as that may break your food budget.  You should also not purchase things that aren’t on your grocery list.  Additionally, as a senior, you probably don’t eat as much as you used to so buy accordingly.

6. Pace your office expenses based on your income.

A person just starting a home-based business will most likely need office items such as a computer, business cards, personalized business stationary, etc.  Try to find places where you can get all of these items at a discount or by using a coupon.  And order/purchase the smallest number possible.  You can always order more, if you run out…but you cannot return personalized office products if you ordered too many.

7. Use one calendar for work and family.

Mark important activities of yourself, your children/grandchildren/great-grandchildren in a different color. Let your family know you will work hard not to miss their special events. Don’t forget yourself – you need some fun time, too, for a sympony concert, a day at the beach or just time to relax and unwind without worry that you are forgetting something on your calendar.

8. Set aside time for household chores.

By the time we have reached senior status, we usually have our daily chores down to a science.  But that is sometimes thrown out the window when you retire.  For real!  You are RETIRED – why do you have to still do your daily chores?

The laundry still has to be done, the groceries purchased, errands taken care of, etc.  Again, refer to the previous suggestion by adding your chores to your calendar.  Make time for them as they will help keep you organized so you can focus the rest of your time with your work-at-home business or with friends and family.

9. Take a mental health day when needed.

Give yourself an unplanned day off when tasks are piling up. You will be empowered once you take a break. Used judiciously this can be a source of maintaining one’s well-being, too.

10. Feel the power of the shower or a bath.

Many important ‘Ah-hahs!’ have been discovered in the quiet of the shower. On those days when you have too much to do or need to restore your focus or just to get away from the world, take refuge in the bathroom.

11. Accept the “mess of success!”

Lower your standards a bit for a perfectly kept house. As your business grows, you will have more mess that goes along with home-based business success! Become comfortable with a reasonable amount of organized clutter. You will be able to tolerate that your house may not be as spotless as if you did not have a home-based business.

12. Have a clutter-buster day!

STOP! Gain control when you are having a paper attack! When the clutter becomes a deterrent from managing home and work, set time aside and rein in the clutter.

One of the greatest things about having your own business is that it is ALL up to YOU. One of the hardest things about having your own home-based business is that it is ALL up to YOU!

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©2016 ~ All Rights Reserved ~ By Tammy Harrison, wife, mother of four children.  Tammy can be reached by emailing her at hrhtqop (at) gmail (dot) com.