In my long quest for a job, work from home on my computer seemed to be the best available option. Especially, since I needed to work around the many schedules of my family. Besides the schedules of after school activities, I also had to consider homework. Being there to help out with homework and watch basketball and soccer practices was important to me and to my kids. My husband's position just doesn't allow much room for compromise when it comes to last minute schedule changes. So, it is important that I be flexible. But, it is also important that I make money and bring home an income.
When it comes to a job, work from home on my computer seemed the ideal choice. Oh, how naive. Although work-from-home did allow more flexibility than the typical office position, it was also much harder to get motivated to do. At least it was difficult at first. There is much more to a home based job than you realize, or at least more to it than I realized.
In my mind, I could just get a job, work from home on my computer, get paid. It takes as long to "land" an online job as it does to find one in the workforce. You are expected to have the same qualifications, experience and education that you would if you were applying for an office position or customer representative job or sales position in a standard office setting. The only difference is you will not have someone looming over you pushing you to meet those deadlines or finish that project.
That is where self-discipline is crucial. Although the work from home job generally allows greater flexibility, it also requires that you set aside enough time in your day to make sure that you can complete the tasks required. Not only does the work have to be completed on time but it has to be quality work. So, even a job that you can do from the comforts of your own home is still going to require that you spend time on that work.
I found the best solution was setting and sticking to a schedule. I set a time for my job, work from home on my computer completing any and all duties in the scheduled time, and then move on to family time. However, when it is "work" time, I focus on my job. My family is aware that when I am "working" then I cannot be interrupted unless it is an emergency. They understand that I am working at that time so that I can spend the rest of my time with them.
It took a while for them to comprehend. Since I was "home" it was hard for everyone to realize that I wasn't always available. But once we set a work schedule and began to abide by it, things got much smoother and we were all much happier. I am available to run the kids from place to place, do homework and still earn a second income. So I was able to make it work and have my job, work from home on my computer, and family as well.
