10 Ways to Make Working from Home Work for You
If you’re reading this, you’re probably considering working
from home so that you can spend more time with your family or escape the stress
of long commutes and unreliable public transportation. The good news is that
it’s entirely possible to work from home and still achieve these goals. Here
are 10 tips to help you make working from home work for you.
1) Set boundaries
If you work at home, it’s easy to let your personal life
bleed into your professional life. To stay productive and make sure you get
work done, establish set times where you turn off your laptop and put down your
phone.
2) Get organized
If you work from home, it’s easy to get sidetracked. Get a
head start on your daily tasks by laying out your clothes, getting all of your
materials organized, and setting out snacks. This way, when you sit down at
your desk in the morning, everything is ready to go!
3) Let go of distractions
As tempting as it is to pick up your phone and check social
media, you should resist. When you work from home, there’s a tendency to get
distracted by things like television or surfing the web. Instead of letting
yourself be pulled away from your task at hand, set up an office space that
helps you stay focused on what needs to be done.
4) Decide what counts as work
Don’t spend your whole day at home lounging around. Decide
ahead of time what counts as work, and stick to it. This can help you focus on
important tasks without feeling overwhelmed by trivial ones. For example, you
might decide that work means checking email or making phone calls only during
certain hours of the day.
5) Find resources you don’t have at your job
If your work-from-home job requires certain resources that
you don’t have at home, such as specialized software or a specific license,
make sure you can access those things before accepting your new position.
6) Limit time online
It’s common knowledge that getting online isn’t a good way
to spend all your time at home. If you have trouble staying away from your
computer, try setting up an automatic timer so you can’t get on when you don’t
want to.
7) Have a routine
When you work from home, it’s easy to get distracted by
household chores and leisurely activities. It helps if you can create a routine
that ensures work gets done before these other demands start calling your name.
8) Network with other freelancers/remote workers
When you work for yourself, you have more control over your
schedule, but that also means no one else is forcing you to do anything. It’s
up to you to make sure you stay productive and don’t waste time on social media
or watching TV.
9) Give yourself a break!
If you work from home, try not to set aside a specific
work-space. When we’re at home, most of us aren’t working, so our workspace
might be anywhere – your couch or your kitchen table or even in bed. Just
remember that if you give yourself a break from time to time and let yourself
do something other than work, it will make it easier to get back into gear when
it’s time to buckle down again.