Working from home can save you hundreds of commuting hours, resulting in less stress, and more flexibility with your home life. Starting a load of laundry before a conference call might seem ideal for some, however depending on your personality the long list of household chores could be a distraction.

Working from home has it’s downfalls that may hinder your productivity or your quality of work. Last week I read an article, The Myth of the Home Office, from Women Grow Biz about working from home and it prompted me to dissect the real pros and cons of working from home.

The article mentioned two key challenges that most people that work from home struggle with:

It’s far too easy to sit down at my computer after work hours are officially over
Working from home means you need to have consistent, reliable access to your work. When your peers leave the office they usually leave the work in the office. Working from home means the line between your personal and work time becomes fuzzy as you “finish one quick thing”. A healthy work-life balance is critical to your professional success as well as your family.

Don’t work where you sleep
This was a huge problem when I first started working from home. I had a small one bedroom condo and my bedroom doubled as an office. I lost many hours of sleep as I felt my computer calling my name. When I did finally crash from exhaustion I wouldn’t get enough sleep because my body had grown accustom to working in the space not resting.

Survival tips from my personal experience:

Interruptions are inevitable unless you create a “work shift”
I recall a friend, who was taking classes that ended around noon, would stop by often to see what I was doing. His day of classes was over and he was bored and he knew I’d be at home. After he failed to get the subtle hints that I was working to meet deadlines and didn’t need to “take a break”, I sat him down and we had the talk. I explained that while I was at home I had work to do and deadlines to meet. I also told him that I was no longer available when he stopped by – politely informing him that I wouldn’t let him in because I had work to do. Being that we had a great relationship, he apologized and showed up the following day after my “shift”. Lesson learned is to make sure you set clearly defined work hours by creating a “work shift”. Defined and consistent work hours lets others know that you are unavailable to talk, gossip, shop, or anything else other than work.

Loneliness shouldn’t become a distraction
Some people experience the other side of the spectrum and don’t have enough interruptions. These social butterflies experience loneliness from working at home. There is no collaborating with a team in a conference room or friendly break room chatter. It’s just you and communication through email or Skype. Some people thrive off the steady hum of noise in a traditional workplace setting. To compensate, they crank their music loudly or call friends and family out of sheer boredom. This hinders a professional’s productivity significantly. Be careful that you aren’t wasting too much time trying to talk to others.

Maintain your professionalism
Pay close attention to maintaining your professionalism. Don’t have a baby crying in the background during a conference call. Take the dog outside since he always barks when you get on the phone. Surprisingly, I’ve seen this happen on numerous occasions – don’t stay in the room when the dishwasher or washer/dryer are running.

Have a plan for meeting with clients
Working from home is wonderful until it comes time to meet with clients. Unless you have a home that’s suitable for professional entertaining you may be hesitant to bring clients home. It’s never advisable to meet new or potential clients at your home for safety reasons. Working from home can require you to meet clients in public places like Starbucks, Borders, hotel lobbies or anyplace else you can score a WiFi connection. This means you’ll be buying drinks and perhaps food so budget accordingly.

Alternatives to working from home

Go ahead and get out the house
Perhaps its time to find an alternative to working from home. If you don’t have a central office to return to, find a shared office space or rent your own, like Affinity Lab. If you’re a small business that doesn’t require a large amount of space, a shared office space could be ideal for your business, sanity, and wallet. Along with the shared space, you get to be around other like-minded peers, possibly have a receptionist, and have access to superior office equipment like printers and copiers.

Expand your network
Join a group of freelancers, consultants, and other work from home professionals. Meetup has lots of groups for you to share ideas, stories, and tips.

Consider hiring a professional organizer
Perhaps your home work space has become filled with too many personal belongings or you have too much paperwork that just needs to be sorted and recycled. Revitalize your space by hiring a professional organizer to help you make the best use of your space.

Get hourly office space
Perhaps once a week you’d like to venture into a new office space. Perhaps this is the day you meet with clients. Utilize short-term, hourly and daily business centers, using tools like iStopOver. Avoid the noisy coffee shops by renting temporary offices which can include amenities like Internet access, videoconferencing, and conference space.