Working from home can seem like a dream come true. No more stressful commutes, peace and quiet to get on with your tasks and a better work-life balance. However, there’s a knack to getting home working right and if you don’t know how to approach this change in your professional life, you could run into a range of difficulties. To help ensure your transition is a success, take a look at the following five top tips.

1) Find a suitable space

Firstly, make sure you find a suitable space. The seeming luxury and convenience of working from your bed or couch will soon wear off once the aching neck and bad back set in. Similarly, perching your computer on a coffee table in the lounge isn’t a good plan. Instead, you should find yourself a designated working area away from any household hubbub where you can really focus on your tasks. Ideally, you’ll have access to a separate room that you can turn into a home office. Don’t worry if this isn’t an option though. Converting the corner of a bedroom or spare room, or even creating a work zone on your landing, can work just as well.

2) Make sure your furnishings are spot on

Once you’ve identified an appropriate area, it’s time to choose some furnishings. A comfy chair is a must, and office furniture specialists like Calibre offer a range of seats in both classic and contemporary styles. Regardless of the design you go for, make sure your chair offers you impressive levels of support. A decent sized desk is another necessity. This item should be large enough to accommodate your PC or laptop along with paperwork and stationery.

Make sure you stock up on effective storage solutions too. You’ll need plenty of space to house your documents, books and other items. If you’re short on square footage, take advantage of space saving solutions like under desk pedestals.

3) Get organized from the start

Another tip is to get organized from the start, and stay that way. It’s easy to be a little too relaxed about things like filing when you’re working from home. However, if you’re not diligent when it comes to keeping your documents in order, you might quickly find you run into problems. Your business mail may become mixed up with your personal mail and you run the risk of accidentally throwing important paperwork out. By implementing a thorough filing system at the start, you can avoid these problems.

4) Stick to a schedule

Make sure you stick to a schedule too. If you’re not careful, you could end up getting behind on your tasks, or you may find yourself working late into the evenings and at weekends. In contrast, by setting well defined hours, you should find it easier to keep on top of your workload and you’ll get more time to yourself at the end of each day. In turn, this will help you to maintain a good work-life balance.

5) Make an effort to interact

One aspect of working from home that’s often overlooked is the fact that it can be lonely. To ensure you don’t feel isolated, it’s important to make an effort to interact with colleagues or customers. For example, you might benefit from getting out to speak to people in person sometimes rather than always dealing with them by phone. Meanwhile, if you’re self-employed, it’s a good idea to attend networking events in your local area.

As long as you follow advice like this, you should be able to make a success of your home working venture.