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A Freelance Designer’s Discipline of Working at Home

by . June 30th, 2014

As a freelance designer, you have the choice to work within the comfort of your own house.

Working from home has several advantages like how you get to save money from transportation expenses. It also have disadvantages such as interruptions, forgetting to rest, and there is no room for collaboration.

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In this article, I listed down a few things to practice when working from home that will help you maximize your time and achieve a good performance and productivity.

#1 Dress up as though you’re working in an office environment.

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Why can’t you just work on pajamas? Because if you’re going to work on pajamas, it will set a sleepy mood and you’ll realize that you’re bed is just a few steps away. Then, no task will be accomplished. I suggest that a simple shirt and pants will do.

#2 Set up your work space.

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Reserve a spot or space in your home to be used only for work. Don’t eat/drink on it or just don’t do anything on it that is not work-related. Read “A Designer’s Guide On Workspace Organization” for some useful tips.

#3 Schedule your regular working hours.

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Stick to a regular schedule. Set the time of your working hours including lunch breaks and naps. This routine will make your body work like a well-oiled machine everyday.

#4 Advise family to respect your working hours.

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This is why there is a need to set up your work space. During work hours, discipline your family or anyone who stays with you at home to keep away from your work space and avoid bothering you. This is important because the constant interruption may affect your performance and productivity.

#5 Cease from working by the end of the day.

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Point taken from number three, work as though you’re still in the “real” world. Stop working at the end of the day and give yourself some rest.

#6 SOCIALIZE.

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Contrary to number four, don’t forget that there’s still someone with you inside your home and try to have a conversation with them during your breaks or anytime you feel like it.

#7 Sleep.

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Just because you’re working from the comfort of your home, doesn’t mean that you should stay up all day trying to accomplish tasks. Take naps because studies suggest that it boosts productivity and gives you a jolt of creativity.

#8 Invest on a 3-in-1 machine.

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Printer, scanner, and copier. This is especially helpful for your work processes and it actually saves you time instead of moving from one machine to another.

#9 Have an answering machine.

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Unlike being assigned daily tasks in an office environment, you may receive multiple offers at a time as a freelance worker. An answering machine is especially helpful for recording received calls and the task of going through them lies with you by the end of the day.

#10 Own a laptop or a tablet computer.

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If you work on interfaces or websites, something that has a different screen size offers a good deal of help to test their responsiveness. Tablet computer apps are also handy for quick sketching, note-taking, etc.

#11 Stash of supplies.

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A small stash of essential supplies like pens, tapes, paperclips, scissors, papers (for printer/copier), and notepads will do.

ALSO READ: Habits of Successful Freelance Designers

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

A simple but cool guy who loves photography and graphic design. You can follow me on my personal blog and Twitter.