Work from Home Effectiveness
Work from Home effectiveness depends on the adept use of the two forces in the universe, always working against each other: the force of order and the force of chaos. I don't think this is news to anyone. Let's say you have a house. The force of order works on it when you maintain it, the force of chaos when things break down, termites come, and all that stuff.
Life implements order on the physical universe.
The physical universe implements chaos on life.
This is a constant process, yet sometimes we think that we can bring order to a system and it would just stay in order. That is not the case; chaos never gives up. As soon as you put order into an area of your life, chaos enters into the picture:
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You wash your car, and dust immediately accumulates
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You finish everything on your to-do list, and more tasks accumulate
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You build up a strong economy, and a pandemic comes out of nowhere to wipe it out
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You live, love, build a business, and then die.
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You clean your kitty's cat box just in time for her to use it.
Remember, the universe is a chaos maker. This is especially the case in regards to Work from Home effectiveness. As you continuously attempt to make your life orderly, the universe continuously attempts to make it chaotic. It is a constant battle. It has been going on since the day of the caveman: order, chaos, order, chaos...
Fortunately, for Work from Home Effectiveness, you don't have to eliminate the chaos (an impossible task, you just have to know how to deal with it.
Dealing with the Chaos
Work from Home can generate oodles and oodles of chaos. Suppose businesses are to hop on board the Work from Home bandwagon. In that case, they will have to accept the fact that there will be chaos.
There is even worse news in regards to work from home effectiveness: It never ends, it never goes away! There is no rest. The second you do rest, chaos starts to creep into the system.
Work from Home amplifies the chaos side of the equation:
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Distractions from spouses, children, and pets.
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Social and other media interference
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Technological failures
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Physical Chaos such as clutter in the home office or no real office to begin with
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Loneliness: Work from Home can get lonely allowing negative thoughts and attitudes to creep into your mindset, causing chaos
For instance, I have been involved in the Work from Home community for a couple of decades. My doctoral dissertation is on e-mentoring and Work from Home effectiveness. Yet, I still have to deal with the chaos of the cat jumping in front of the computer screen and the disruption to the meeting it causes. I put order into the system by moving the cat, and she adds chaos back into the system by scratching me. I put in order by placing a band-aid on the scratch, and there is the chaos of the cat who then wants to play with the wrapper. When you work from Home, It just never ends!
But what if you just accept this fact and continue to put your life in order anyway? What if you allowed the chaos to creep in and then deal with it. Dealing with it may not be straightforward. This requires a plan of action. It requires delineating the tasks and putting regular times in your calendar to deal with the chaos. Different jobs may require different intervals of time to deal with them. For instance, I clean my body daily. I clean my office weekly. Wash my car monthly (Hey, I am in California, we are short on water).
There is also putting time and communication in order. It may sound complicated, but working with others makes it much more fun and more manageable. Remember to, you don't want to order things just for the sake of order. Great projects sometimes add lots of chaos into your life.
Business leaders, if you want to make sure your business is thriving even in the age of WFW, you must structure your business.
What is really important is that you have fun dealing with these two diametrically opposed forces!
To that end, stay tuned. I will be leading a Reboot Your Life Challenge to help each other order our lives to increase our productivity (And have fun in the process).
Although it will be geared towards the needs of the Work from Home community, anyone can benefit. It will include organizing physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual life while still completing your tasks and reducing distractions, interruptions, technical challenges, and increasing collaboration. Chaos will creep in, but life doesn't stop! We will learn to maintain the balance in The Force.
The Solution
It is easier for people to get distracted by internal or external stimuli. Family members make demands, Technology fails, people feel lonely working by themselves all day. People may need to find new ways to organize their time, space, tools, inputs, and outputs in new ways. Work from Home, implemented with alacrity, can cause a new renaissance. By transforming chaos to order, we can make Work from Home effective. That is why I do what I do.
Dr. Jeff Levine is a thought leader on work from home effectiveness. His clients call him Dr. Work from Home; he is available for consultations about Work from Home and Organizational Development.
To learn more about me, click here
