Why WAH?

For me, working from home has been on my to-do list since I found out I was pregnant with my daughter on April 1st, 2012. I always knew I wanted to raise my daughter and witness all of her big firsts, just like my mother was there for mine. What held me back? It was fear of the unknown and fear of being spammed. I had a job with dependable hours but I wasn't happy. I was just afraid of losing my paycheck. The day I quit my job was the day I got my call from AmeriPlan. Thank you Susan for blessing me that day! That was February 25th, 2013.  Now, I do not recommend to anyone else out there to just quit your full time job right away. You certainly want to build your income with your home business first. 

I made the decision to take control of my own life and I am working hard every single day to reach my goals. 

Are you?

Everyone's had mornings when they'd rather stay in their bunny slippers and gloat at the traffic reports while sipping coffee and working from their "home office." But in the past (let's call it the dark ages), some bosses considered "working from home" a euphemism for "doing errands" and only allowed it in the event of major plumbing or medical emergencies. Fortunately, progress in technology has made it possible to stay in your PJs and also be productive.

10 of the bazillion reasons to work from home:

10. Access quality coffee, snacks - Most offices brew up coffee in crappy coffee makers that burn the coffee within ten minutes of brewing. Then they give you free powdered creamer and bleached sugar, with which you can almost mask the bitter, acrid taste. Yum! More personal to me, snacks! One of the worst things at work is getting a rumbly tummy and being told when you're allowed to eat and how long you can take. Well, not anymore! I eat when I'm hungry and I eat as slow as I want!

9. Get some exercise -  Trying to fit in a routine in your cubicle will probably get you strange looks or worse. At home, however, you can take ten minutes here and there to do some highly effective exercises. Push-ups, sit-ups, squats, some light weights, or even a run around the block at lunch — all of these can help make the long day in a chair a little less destructive to your physical and mental health.

8. Spend quality time with your pet(s) – It has been shown that interacting with dogs is good for your health. A recent study even found that playing with your dog helps your body release oxytocin. Plus, there’s the matter of being a good pet owner. No dog wants to stay home all day penned up and alone. They need love and attention and play time too.

7. Spend quality time with the family - Moms, dads, and adults of all marital status's whether they're parents or not want more time with their family. Personally, being able to see my daughter and husband more has started lifting me out of my depression.

6. Listen to the sounds of silence - If you have small children, this might not be a good reason for you. But for the rest of us, real quiet time is often enough to increase productivity significantly. The “open office” design of most of today’s workplaces is conducive to information exchange with co-workers, but it’s also highly frustrating when concentration is required. Lately my favorite sound is complete silence with the buzz of traffic in the background.

5. Save the planet - My commute is about 10 feet, what's yours?

4. Save time and money- Commuters, again, win out when working from home. Thirty, forty-five, fifty minutes each way every day? It’s rough. If you carpool, you’re pretty well resigned to doing nothing for over an hour each day. If you ride public transportation, you might get something done, or you might get someone’s coffee spilled on your laptop. A better option is to work from home and spend zero minutes commuting. Then you can use your precious hour saved to exercise, call your mother, or finish that diorama you’ve been working on.

3. Get “other stuff” done - At home, you can accomplish a variety of household tasks without interrupting your work flow too much. In the office, everyone takes periodic breaks to use the restroom, talk to co-workers, get coffee, or eat a snack. At home, with the same amount of break time, you can get all the laundry done, do the dishes, or pick up your messy living room. It doesn’t take long and it saves you from having to do it over your two precious days of weekend.

2. Increase productivity - “The modern workplace is structured completely wrong. It’s really optimized for interruptions,” says Jason Fried, founder of 37 Signals. “And interruptions are the enemy of work. They are the enemy of productivity, they are the enemy of creativity, they are the enemy of everything.”

1. Maintain morale – According to a study by Jessica Pryce-Jones, author of Happiness at Work, “The happiest employees are 180% more energized than their less content colleagues, 155% happier with their jobs, 150% happier with life, 108% more engaged and 50% more motivated. Most staggeringly, they are 50% more productive too.” (Source: Forbes online.) Most of this probably seems redundant (happy workers are happier with their jobs? Who could’ve guessed?!), but the productivity thing is a major point. And working from home, for most of us, increases happiness with one’s job. It is a benefit, like good health care or a public transportation stipend. Employers should considering offering work-from-home days to employees who don’t need to be in the office every single day in order to do their jobs. It’s one of those things business people like to call a “win/win.”