The Problem with Procrastination When Working from Home

Procrastination can be a problem in any workplace, but when you work from home there are even more potential distractions than there would be if you worked in an office or a shop. Working from home means that you can easily find your concentration drifting as you wander from room to room or sit down on the sofa and watch television. Your work may be interrupted by the arrival of your spouse when he gets home from work or by the children when school has finished. If you are not self-motivated it can be extremely difficult to make a career working from home.

When you work for someone else and have to consider how your inactivity affects your co-workers, you may be less inclined to shirk your responsibilities. When you work for yourself and it is up to you to establish goals and to fulfil your obligations to clients and customers you can quite easily get sidetracked. Without a plan of action, you could find yourself procrastinating and making any excuse to get out of doing work, even though it is ultimately your business that suffers. You may find that you simply cannot earn a living working from home.

If you can't stay on track because of all the distractions at home and because you don't have anyone standing there yielding a big whip you may eventually come to the conclusion that working from home just isn't for you. Many people regard working from home as an easy option, since you don't have to work set hours and you can choose which jobs to take and which to avoid. You are your own boss and you don't have to answer to anyone. However, working from home can be challenging and doesn't always reap the rewards you would hope for.

Sure, you may be able to set your own hours to a certain degree, but you have to make a real effort to create some kind of schedule and to stick to it. If you have no idea of how to use your time and are unable to prioritise, you could find yourself missing deadlines and working when you had intended to rest. You may end up losing clients and damaging your reputation so that it becomes harder to find work in the future and the trouble is when you're feeling down it can be more convenient to just bury your head in the sand. Procrastination can therefore interfere with your ability to work from home, making it extremely difficult for you to focus on the work that needs to be done. If you are unable to find a way to deal with your inclination to procrastinate you may not be able to earn enough money to make working from home worthwhile, so that you end up having to consider other options.