This homegirl has gone home-based.

Yes, after more than 14 years (no hiatus) of working office-based I finally took a leap of faith to do home-based work.

Though technically I have been teaching part-time online English classes from home for 5 years now, I still had my full time job in the BPO which was in a regular office set-up. I was doing online teaching as a passion.

I started with my home-based work journey in the middle of January 2018. I was encouraged with this decision because I have people in my close circle who do home-based work for a long time already. My sister is doing full time home-based online teaching, my cousin-in-law who does virtual assistant/data entry/customer support also home-based, and friends who do it part-time. At first, I made my online teaching full-time. But I was fortunate to get a referral from a good friend who is working as an appointment setter. The job was via Upwork (formerly known as oDesk). I went through 2 interviews before I got hired. Then took a 2 week training – all via online.

All I needed to make it possible was a well functioning laptop (thanks to my DH who gave it to me as a wedding anniversary gift), Upwork account, stable internet and headset. I just make my make-shift office space anywhere at home. Wherever I feel like working for that time/day (hahaha).

So let me give you my opinion so far of working from home.

PROS:

1. No more painful daily and expensive commute to the office and going home. Road traffic is relative to the time of day.

2. You can start working as soon as you wake up. Of course there is the part where you need to boot your laptop, set up your tools, etc but you get what I mean, right?

3. The once travel time is now extra time. Extra time to do other activities that I’d be too tired to do when I get home from work before – cooking, chores, blogging (you might have noticed the last timestamp of my last blog entry), wifey duties, hobbies time, etc.

4. Less laundry to do, cost saving on laundry cost. You can work even in your pajamas (hahaha #truestory, refer to # 2). But of course this is possible if your work does not require you to open your webcam and have video calls. If that’s the case, you can just put on your blazer on top of your pajama (hahaha #truestory).

There are too many PROS, promise. I will just edit and add more here next time, okay?

Okay, for the CONS:

1. Food is way too accessible. The fridge and the pantry are within a few steps and within reach. I keep stuffing food to my mouth. So I stock on fruits and veggies so I have healthy food to snack on. But you know there are really times when you are weak to temptation (sorry naaa).

2. I get sleepy often. So I nap for 30 minutes to an hour in the day.

3. Butt pain because of my make shift office chair. I need to use a pillow to sit on next time.

4. I am now lazy to go out. Just thinking of the traffic and the commute makes me tired already. So when I have chores where I need to go out, I am sooo tamad.

Overall I am enjoying so far my home-based work journey. For those who are thinking of doing it but are a bit scared of the unknown, message me or comment below. Or you can just comment on whatever about this post. If you need help or want some tips, let me know in the comments section, too.