When working from home, should I have a set routine or not?

This article first appeared on November 16th, 2011.

I’ve started working from home after a long corporate career and feel that I should stick to my nine to five hours.

Should I keep a set routine or should I vary it depending on the day?

The challenge is to increase your capacity to manage uncertainty and the desire to replicate what worked in the corporate world that has built up your confidence, while ensuring that you have time to go out into the garden, have a cuppa with friends and still stay on top of marketing and management schedules.

Never forget that your freedom is your biggest purchase in a home-business and the source of your personal growth and development.

In your corporate career I am sure that you found that the key to productivity and performance was flexibility, customer focus and a willingness to tackle the tough assignments.

It’s always nice to have a steady routine in a large corporation, where there are colleagues at hand to address the various competing demands of the clients and superiors, but when the only boss you have to blame is yourself, the rules of the game must change.

As I say in my book, No Workplace Like Home, taking up a position in your home-based business can be a pleasurable experience if it is the right vehicle to drive your ambitions.

However, time schedules have to be modified to address your role in the value chain, the demands of business development, the schedules of family, friends and of course competitive suppliers of your products and services.

A better way to respond to the time schedule and routine is to look at it as a question addressed by your business and marketing plans.

You will find that the way that you go about the only real task of business – creating and coralling customers – relies on a systematic focus on staying within the decision-making cycle of your clients, customer and business communities of interest.

If you have returned home with a good business plan, a sound support team and sufficient capital to respond to the needs, wants, hopes and expectations of your customer base, rises and falls in your cash flow will be a better indication of when to work.