Given a chance, almost everyone would like to work from home. Home-based work promises comfort. If you work from home, your friends will tell you that they envy you. They tend to forget that you do as much work as them or even more. Working from home is not at all easy.

There are just too many distractions at home.
When you go to an office to work, you forget pending domestic tasks. You come back to them only at the end of the day. However, when you work from home, you can see all those domestic chores and other work that you need to attend to. Even if you don’t attend to them immediately, they stay at the back of your mind. Family, friends, neighbors, television, books, your favorite magazine, a phone call – almost anything – can distract you. Only the most disciplined can overcome these distractions and focus on work.

The flexibility factor is misused.
Most people choose a home-based profession for the flexibility factor, and that makes sense. But this flexibility often gets misused. People tend to prolong their breaks and pull their work too long when they are working from home. They don’t always work with a plan, affecting their work adversely.

You are responsible for establishing your credibility.
When you work from home, you are responsible for everything. You are accountable for every single mistake that happens in your work. Establishing credibility is challenging when you have to take care of everything.

Maintaining work-life balance becomes difficult.
People who are not disciplined enough cannot make use of the benefits of a home-based job. They end up losing so much time being distracted that they don’t have any time left for themselves and their families and friends.

It is important you understand the challenges in working from home before you commit to it.