Positive Benefits

Work at Home Tips

Use these 7 work at home tips to help you decide if working out of your house is right for you.

Working from home comes with its own set of benefits, distractions, and frustrations that are quite different from those you find in the regular workplace.

Can you really work at home and achieve your career goals? The answer is up to you!

These thoughtful questions and informative tips can guide you toward successfully working at home:

1. Where can you devote space in your home to your work? Although it doesn’t have to be a whole room, you’ll need a desk and a couple of drawers designated for your work.

* A small storage cabinet will also come in handy for supplies and work-related documents.

* Consider the spaces in your home that are currently not often used. Maybe a guest bedroom or den could double as your place to work if you make a few changes.

2. Do you possess a strong work ethic and personal responsibility? If you’re able to set a time to start working in your home office and follow through with it, then you’re one more step closer to being successful in working at home.

* When you work from home, no one is watching over you.

* You don’t have someone 10 feet from you whom you can consult with or ask a question.

* However, if you’re responsible and self-motivated, you can do it.

3. Are others in your home during the workday that might cause distractions? Talking with your loved ones about working from home is important to your success. Get a commitment from them to support you in your endeavor to help reduce interruptions while you’re working.

4. Can you screen out other distractions? Neighborhood kids playing outdoors, noisy cars passing by and telephones ringing could all serve to sabotage your work success. If you can close your door and ignore these events, success will come easier for you.

5. Can you stay focused and on task while working at home? Due to the remarkable technology we all have available to us, it’s easier to lose your concentration on work-related tasks.

* You can waste valuable work time through repeated checking of email, social networking sites, and text messages during the day. For better concentration and greater productivity, refrain from these activities while working (unless you need to check emails for your work).

6. Consider drawing up a structured schedule. Depending on the type of work you do, it’s helpful to have a schedule that reflects what you’re working on and how long you want to spend on each task.

7. In the event your work involves prolonged sitting, build time for daily scheduled exercise. A healthy body and mind are also important to success. It’s wise to get some physical activity each day.

* A 30-minute time slot before lunch, for example, is a great time to take a walk, do some calisthenics, or complete an exercise DVD.

* If you’re an early riser, consider getting your exercise out of the way first thing in the morning. You’ll begin your work-at-home day with enthusiasm and be truly ready to sit down and focus.

People just like you all over the world accomplish working at home successfully. Using these 7 work at home tips along with careful planning, personal responsibility, and the ability to screen out distractions, you’ll find working at home to be rewarding and liberating.

Listening Skills

Do you experience confusing or disappointing miscommunications? Perhaps you can benefit from sharpening your listening skills.

Listening is an important part of the communication process, but it’s not given the attention it deserves.

Implement these strategies to strengthen your listening skills:

1. When someone is talking to you, be fully immersed in the conversation. Because most of us can’t do two tasks at once (or at least do them well), stop what you’re doing when another person speaks to you.

* If you’re unable to pause what you’re doing, let the person know. Ask the communicator to stop speaking for a bit, and mention briefly why you’re asking them to wait.

* Say something like, “Can you wait just a minute? I’m adding up these figures. As soon as I’m finished, I can listen to you.”

* Avoid attempting to communicate with others while watching television or playing games because these distractions will hamper your efforts to listen carefully.

2. Body language is integral to listening. As soon as you’re ready to listen, turn your body toward the communicator.

* Leaning toward the person who’s speaking also demonstrates that you’re paying attention to the speaker’s every word.

* Refrain from performing tasks that require you to turn your body away from the speaker, for example, doing dishes.

3. Make and maintain eye contact with the speaker. In most western cultures, eye contact sends the message, “I hear you. I’m listening.”

* Furthermore, holding eye contact with the speaker says, “You have all of my attention at this moment.”

* Be aware that the meaning and impact of eye contact varies from culture to culture. So, if you’re involved with cultures other than your native culture, it’s recommended to learn about that particular culture’s view of eye contact.

4. Focus your thoughts on the person’s words. Refrain from trying to think about how you want to respond while the person is speaking.

* Your goal in listening is to grasp what the speaker is trying to get across to you.

5. Share with the person what you just understood him to say. When the speaker ceases talking, take the opportunity to check out what you heard.

* Try stating aloud back to the communicator what you believe you heard.

* Here’s an example: “So, you can’t pick up the kids after school today because you have a dental appointment at 3:00 p.m. You want me to pick them up, right?”

6. Let the speaker clarify. As the listener, stating what you heard allows the speaker to correct or clarify his remarks. The speaker then hopefully replies something like, “Yes, that’s right. Can you do it?” or “No, I’m not talking about today, I’m asking you to pick up the kids tomorrow because of my dental appointment.”

7. If you’re in a relationship, listening skills are important building blocks to strengthen the relationship.

* A common complaint of people in partner relationships is, “My partner doesn’t listen to me.”

* Because partners communicate daily, it’s easy to slack off using these skills at home.

* Even so, partners can apply the above suggestions on sharpening listening skills to enhance their communication with each other.

When you understand what you’re being told or asked, effective listening has taken place. If you believe you could benefit by focusing more on people who are speaking to you, you aren’t alone.

Strive to strengthen your listening skills. You’ll be a better communicator and your relationships with others will thrive!

Get More Out of Your Life

Would you like to get more out of your life? It’s never too late to make a new choice or reverse your life’s course. One way to live a more enriched life is to be conscious of what you’re doing at every moment. This way, you stay connected with your behavior and feelings.

Here’s an example situation: You’ve decided to stop eating potato chips and chocolate. You make a pledge to yourself to watch what you eat. But two hours later, you suddenly realize you’re sitting in front of the television, bag of potato chips in hand.

Now imagine the same scenario, yet this time you behave differently. You spend some time thinking about how to ensure you avoid potato chips and chocolate. You decide to take your junk food over to a friend’s house and leave it there. At dinner, you smile to yourself as you prepare to eat a salad and baked chicken because you plan to thoughtfully focus on eating healthy.

The second scenario demonstrates the concept of living a conscious life. Knowing what you want, choosing how you spend your time, and staying in touch with your feelings are indicators of a conscious life.

There are many techniques you can implement to help you purposely live the way you want to. When you live consciously, you’re no longer a victim of the wind, being blown about this way and that way by the circumstances of your life. You can create the life you desire with conscious living.

Try these ideas to get you started and inspire you on your journey:

1. Create the life you want one step at a time. Rome wasn’t built in a day.

* Spend some time exploring what you already love about your life. Also investigate what you’d like to change.

* Then, think about how you can take deliberate steps to create the life you desire.

2. Seek balance in your life. For example, if you disagree with someone, take time to consider the other person’s side of the argument.

* Allow yourself to change your mind.

3. Live in the present moment. You’ve most likely heard this suggestion before. But what does it really mean to live in the moment? Consider this example:

* While you’re visiting your mother, think about her and enjoy your conversation and activities together. Avoid making your store list mentally or trying to recall what else you have to do today. Just stay in the present moment with your mother and focus on what the two of you are doing.

4. Know yourself. Awareness of your likes and dislikes is important to conscious living.

* Learn what’s important to you. Discover what makes you tick, what drives you, and what you find inspiring.

* Self-understanding is an integral part of living life consciously because if you know your preferences and motivations, you can then create circumstances that will enable you to accomplish your goals.

5. Live your own truth. As a teenager, you might have gravitated toward peers who didn’t judge you, which made you feel more comfortable. Perhaps, in actuality, you didn’t have all that much in common with them. As an adult, you can now stay more true to your own beliefs.

* When you live your truth, you stay faithful to what’s genuinely important to you.

6. Learn to let go of negativity and situations you can’t control.

* Conserve your emotional energy for what you actually can change: yourself and your own life. Now that’s conscious living!

7. Take action. Become interested and involved in the goals you’ve set. Put effort into achieving those objectives and you’ll be well on the road to living consciously.

Altering how you live your life can be an ongoing challenge. Selecting just one of the above ideas and putting it into practice will help you begin your journey toward conscious living. Living life consciously will bring you the healthier, more joyful existence that you deserve.