While many tout the wonders and independence of working from home, whether you've got a regular job that allows you to

telecommute or you own your own home-based business, they

often don't talk about the challenges that face the home-

based worker.

Not that I'm going to trade the benefits in for a "real

job," mind you…

Some of the challenges that face any work-at-home person,

whether they have been working from home for years or are

just starting out, are tough. For me, personally, they rank

in this order: self-discipline, loneliness, family over-

time, distractions, organization, and respect.

Self-Discipline

Self-discipline is by far the hardest thing to master when

working from home, whether you're working at your business

or not. While it's easy to envision yourself succeeding

and "getting things done," it's much harder when the real

rote and tackle of work is in front of you. Even if you

absolutely love your chosen profession, there are at least

some aspects of it that are tedious to you. These are your

biggest stumbling blocks.

For me, mastering self-discipline was the roughest part of

working from home. Other challenges on this list are easy

compared to this one, since most of them are just the

"excuse" you need to avoid discipline and getting things

done.

Loneliness (aka "Cabin Fever")

For some, this is no big deal. These are people we'd

normally define as "home bodies." I'm not one of those.

I'm an extremely social person. Luckily, email and (some)

phone interactions during the day abate this problem to some extent. I've also got other things I do to keep my normally fidgety self from collapsing in self-pity.

I walk the dog, I see a couple of friends for coffee at

least once a week, I participate in political activities in

my area, and I spend time with my family doing things… In

short, I have plenty of things I do outside of my work (and

office!) to keep me healthy socially.

Family Over-Time

This one's tough and can sometimes coincide with the lone- liness problem. When your family members are home all day,

as you are, it can easily lead to friction, a breaking down

of "structure," and a lot of other similar problems.

For instance, when my wife is home with a day off or a short day at work, we can sometimes get on one-another's nerves or distract one another from tasks. I have several ways to fix this.

The most preferable for me would be to own a large mansion

with rooms defined as "suites" and organized into distance- separated sections defined as "wings." Since I'm not a

multi-millionaire (yet), this isn't feasible. So I resort

to plan b: a notebook computer and the library… I load the

stuff I'll need onto my portable computer, go to the library and spend a few hours working there instead of at home.

Distractions

The above problem is also closely related to this one.

There are a million things in your home environment to

In my own experience, the dog and computer games are my

biggest nemesis in this department. The only way I've found

to combat these issues is self-discipline using "rewards"

for good behavior. I promise myself that if I finish the

task at hand, I'll play that game for an hour or wrestle

with the dog for a while as a reward.

Organization

By nature, I'm not a meticulously organized person.

However, I do have certain habits which seem to facilitate

easy organization: namely I have a calendar and keep email

archives. :

I recently purchased a $4 pocket calendar/weekly day minder.

On my wall right next to the desk is a marker board on which

I write "To Do" lists (coded with special symbols like "*"

and "-->" to tell me importance of the item). I also have

two marker-board calendars (one for the current month and

one for the coming month) on which I keep short notes.

These basic tools keep me on track for the most part.

Other parts of organization include your office/business

files, your computer's data and backups, invoices and

debits, etc., etc. Coming up with **simple** ways to

organize these items is key to keeping yourself from feeling "swamped" with details. I emphasize the word "simple"

because if your organization is too complex, you'll start

"cheating" and it will eventually fall into chaos. KISS is

a favorite military term: "Keep It Simple, Stupid."

Respect

Lastly on my list comes respect. Many people assume that

These are people who see you during your best hours and

don't see the 16+ hour days you're putting in slaving in

your office, the struggle to coherently write a web page,

email, etc., etc. while functioning on three hours' sleep,

or your long battles with the IRS when filling out "self

employment" tax forms.

To work from home without going insane or maybe to jail for attacking some nay-sayer, you'll have to grow a thick skin… or make a lot of money you can flaunt in front of them todisprove their foolish notions…either one will work. I

personally use the first while working towards having the

second. :)

So working from home isn't all gravy. Oh well. Nothing in

life is. The true beauty of working from home comes from

the independence, freedom, and self-reliance you gain in

"going it on your own." It offers opportunity, excitement,

mental stimulation, and more. Take pride in your choice!

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Aaron is the proprietor of Aaronz WebWorkz, a full service

company catering to small businesses online. Aaron

publishes a weekly newsletter full of hints, tricks, and