Advice for Working from Home: 7 Tips and Tricks
Working from home is now becoming a new norm that people are trying to cope with in life. When you’re used to driving or commuting to your work station, such a situation can be a challenge for you. Now the questions crossing your mind are; how can I stay focused and productive? What are the best ways to set up for my success? Well, this article gives advice for working from home.
Here are some essential tips to help you work from home effectively and efficiently:
1) Designate a Space Just for Work
The first challenge when it comes to working from home is perhaps keeping your work and home lives separate. This issue, however, does not come with a surprise for many people. The fact is that not everyone has a study room or a home office, giving them a rough time to work remotely from their residential areas.
With no option to choose left, most will end up designating their bedroom or the living room as a place of work. In fact, there is nothing wrong with that as long as the place is convenient for you and can help you create the right mood for your daily task. For instance, you can designate a desk from where you perform all your work. Creating such a set-up will help you plug in and unplug as you may require.
Designating a space just for work will also help those around you understand that once you settle in your work station, you mean serious business, and definitely, no one will attempt to distract you. If you have an extra room, it would be much better to keep work and home strictly separate.
Remember, any business work requires a space even if it’s just a desk and a computer. In case you have that spare room you can designate to your business, be strict about using that crucial space for work. So before setting aside your working station, make sure that all the necessary equipment is in place; these include space for your working tools and enough lighting.
Also, don’t forget to prioritize your comfort while working by choosing a perfect seat that protects your back and neck.
2) Let Go of the Expectation That Your Output Will Be the Same
Expectations are premeditated resentments. Why should you even get disappointed in life simply because you didn’t achieve what you had expected? Calm down, expectations, and reality are two different words that we all experience in real-life situations. One of the most simplest advice for working from home is to realize that if things have just happened as you had anticipated, then perhaps you’re lucky.
What you do today may not translate to what you will do tomorrow, you may either achieve more or less, and that’s just okay. When you let your expectations define your experience, you are more likely to be disappointed and unhappy about yourself. Often when you find yourself in this situation, you’re likely to lose the positive energy to keep on working in the coming days.
Expectations are often influenced by what you want instead of reality. If you were able to accomplish more because you were energetic and motivated in the past, that might not be the same in the future. So learn to let go of the expectations that you will do it again like yesterday to save yourself from the disappointment of reality. Remember, you can only take certain positive steps to improve your experience and not reality.
3) Take Breaks, Walk Around, Have a Snack, Etc.
Working from the comfort of your home can be interesting as you have no one to keep you in check, unlike in office. However, there is nothing to celebrate either as your physical exercise is limited because you’re less active staying indoors.
On the sad note, you’re likely to forget about the importance of exercise since this kind of lifestyle will become obvious in just a couple of weeks. Sitting in the same position for long hours is not only boring but also has an effect on your body. You’re likely to develop stiffness on your knee and back pain as a result of this new habit.
You can start to develop a kind of “cabin fever” seeing the same four walls every day. So get out and take some fresh air. It is important that you take a break for a walk or exercise after long hours of working. Without the usual routine of a traditional working environment, you are likely to work way into the night and even skip your meals. But, taking breaks after a given during is a perfect time to look around and get some snacks and drinks for refreshment.
4) Celebrate Daily Accomplishments
One mistake that people make is judging themselves according to the amount of work they have accomplished. Do you have to be remorseful for small achievements? Absolutely No! The tendency to celebrate big success is the wrong notion that will kill your self-esteem someday.
One smart way to keep momentum regardless of how much you’ve achieved is spending a moment to acknowledge what you’ve been able to accomplish at the end of the day. If you keep fixating on what you still need to do, you will end up being unproductive for failure to appreciate the little, essential accomplishments.
Take your time at the end of the day to assess and acknowledge the things you’ve done instead of attending to the things you didn’t accomplish. Also, you can choose to keep a journal in which you can reflect on events of that day’s work and note the things you were able to check off your to-do list. When you develop this habit of reminding yourself, the things you were able to finish can tremendously help you create a virtuous cycle going forward.
5) Set a Cut-Off Time for Your Workday
The beauty of working remotely from home is that you don’t have to stick to the traditional time frame routine. For example, you can choose to start your work at 7 am and complete your tasks by 11 am. This perhaps is a great opportunity to take advantage of the flexibility and create a favorable routine right in your home environment. Creating the best routing can help you achieve a lot within the shortest time possible. One of the most important advice for working from home is to separate your work time from your leisure time.
Of course, some challenges can distract your schedule, and some may not be easy to deal with. However, you can find the best time where you can dedicate your effort and be productive. If you live in a noisy neighborhood like playing loud music or children racketing throughout the day, working into the night or getting up early in the morning would work best for you.
Before you schedule your working hours, be sure to observe your environment and take note of the source of distractions to help you find an ample way to work around them. In a nutshell, setting a cut-off time for your working hour will help you achieve more than sticking to a routine that simply works against you.
6) Be Gentle on Days You Don’t Feel Productive
Being your own boss is a price worth paying, but that doesn’t mean you become your own punishing boss. Why should you keep pushing hard when you don’t feel like? In fact, it is of no importance burning midnight oil just to complete what you didn’t manage to do during the day. Knowing when to push through and when to let go and call it a day is vital to realizing what reasonable pace of productivity is good for you.
Try to stick to your overall schedule, but be realistic and gentle to yourself, especially when you’re struggling emotionally to catch up with the new norm. Avoid carrying the guilt from one day to the next as it will affect your productivity level. Start your work with a clean slate, and never forget to congratulate yourself whenever you accomplish the task.
7) Find Ways to Self-Soothe When Feeling Overwhelmed
Just like in a normal office, working remotely at home can also be overwhelming. When you’re exhausted and hungry, there is little you can do to deliver a given task or beat the deadline considering the quality of the job. Learning how to self-soothe when you’re feeling intense is essential, especially if you want to be productive again. Coping strategies are focused on your emotions and usually defined as self-soothing strategies.
When you find yourself in such a situation, you can choose to engage in other different activities far away from workstations. Hobbies are the best ways to self-soothe. So go to your kitchen and prepare your favorite drink, sit back on your couch, and enjoy a cup of tea while listening to your cool music or just play and cuddle with your pet. Self-soothing can come from different ways, so find one that resonates well with you.
Working from home is a fine line that you cannot deny whenever there is a chance. However, you must learn how to give and take with yourself to avoid being taken over by the work itself. If you fail to adopt and practice this radical piece of advice, you will probably find yourself lazing around in your pajamas as you alternate between working on a crucial project and watching a thrilling movie. Take this advice for working from home, and you’ll see your productivity skyrocket!
