For a lot of people, working from home sounds like the “dream job”.  Get up whenever you want to, stroll down the hall to your “office”, stay in you PJ’s all day long, take lunch whenever, work whenever, and get all of your personal chores done during the day.  Life is great working from home.

For the people that actually work from home the “dream job” can become overwhelming.  I currently work from home and have worked from home for another employer throughout my career.  Working from home takes dedication.

The misnomer is because you are home you have more time.  Not true. It seems that you work more when you are home because you don’t leave the office.  Your office is your home therefore, there is no disconnect at the end of the day. According to some of my peers who also work from home, they also try and find balance from work and home and experience the same struggles.

I’m not saying that working from home is all bad. There are some advantages of having the opportunity to juggle your schedule when needing to more easily. But keep in mind, you are still juggling and find yourself compensating for the time by working earlier or later.

Finding the balance is difficult but can be achieved.  For myself, I had to create a routine that I follow each morning. I get up at the same time and go through my morning routine as if I was actually leaving for the day.  Instead of getting into my car to drive to the office, I go to my office down the hall.  I try and schedule lunch at the same time (if possible) and stay within my working boundaries, the same as if I was at an office.  I do still struggle with keeping work and home separate, but we all do at times when there are deadlines and projects/items that needs to be completed.  It’s making sure that we don’t allow ourselves to become overwhelmed by trying to do everything and learn to shut down the computer for the night and walk away.  It’s OK – really.

Having a support system of family, friends and peers is a great help to finding how to achieve your balance.  I found a few groups that can help plus an article that is inspiring to finding a healthier you.  Check out this article called How to Be Happy With Yourself from HowStuffWorks.  Offers great insight and advice and definitely worth the read.

Also, if you  belong to LinkedIn and are a female, join the Groups: Girlfriends In Business and Women’s Network of Entrepreneurs.  You’ll find great people to connect with who offers support and insight.

How do you find your “balance”?  Do you have helpful advise that others can use? Feel free to comment.

Now what? You review the proposal, speak with the appropriate people to ensure a clear understanding, review the schedule requirements, schedule the development and design team, etc.

The administrative project functions are completed and now is the time to start the specification and flow chart process. How to begin? Where to begin?

Do you start with writing the specifications in a word document? Page by page, action by action. Do you accompany this with a flow chart? Once again, page by page flow based upon the actions? Does this become cumbersome and confusing as you go through the process? Are you writing, reading, revising, and writing again?

The specifications process is one of the most important aspects as a project. I’ve found that no matter how well and detailed you write the specifications, the development process always highlights items that were not included in the specifications or made clear. It’s the nature of the beast and these items can become time consuming to clarify and resolve.

I’ve recently discovered wireframe software which will enable you, as project manager, to create a pseudo functional site, make notes and annotations of functionality where appropriate, and provide to the client via link to a URL (if you have access to a server). The software also includes the ability to translate the wireframes into specifications. Once approved, the developers have a guideline to use for the development, thus increasing production and reducing questions, incorect development, time, and costs.

A few wireframe programs that I’ve found which are worth the time to review are Axure (http://www.axure.com/home.aspx) and Quality Unit (http://www.qualityunit.com/screendesigner/).

Congratulation on your new project and good luck. I’m sure you’ll do great and shine with the right tools to make your project planning a smooth one.