How To Work From Home Successfully

How To Work From Home Successfully

5 Actions to take to ensure success while working remotely

from home.

We are living in a time where more and more people are working from home. If COVID has

taught us anything, it’s that a lot of jobs don’t require in-office work. With technology, remote

work is becoming the norm for a lot of businesses.

However, if you’ve never worked from home before, or if you’re a social butterfly - it can be

hard working from home by yourself. Whether you plan to work remotely from home for a short

period or permanently, here are 5 things to do to ensure success while working from home.

1. Have A Dedicated Office

This has to be one of the biggest things that set’s successful work from home people apart from

those who struggle. Having a dedicated space in your house goes such a long way while working

remotely because it will ensure the mindset of working from a dedicated desk that we get while

working in an office. This means your dedicated home office shouldn’t be your dining room

table or anywhere else that you need to move your computer and items to and from each day.

Ensure your ‘home office’ is your space and no one else's such as your kids' art table.

Setting-up your home office doesn’t have to be expensive, nor take-up a large amount of space

in your house. Finding a space in your house that is right for you will take a little thought and

planning, but can be very rewarding. Some things to ask yourself while choosing a location in

your house are: Is the space large enough for what I need? Will I enjoy working from this space for 8 hours a day? Does this space have enough light for what I need? Will I be easily distracted

here?

Whatever space you choose, make it your own! Put a little money and time into setting-up a

desk, chair, lights, pictures on the walls, and anything else that will spark your appeal each day

to work in that space. There are great resources out there for bringing your office together.

2. Have A Routine

When you’re used to going into the office and then suddenly expected to work from home, that

transition can be tough for a number of reasons. One is that you’re no longer driving to work,

signing in, getting your coffee, chatting with your co-workers, having that morning meeting, and

sitting down at your desk. Which is why it's so important when working from home to keep a

routine going.

Set an alarm, get-up when the alarm goes off, take your shower, get dressed (sorry no robe), put

on your make-up, dry your hair, get your coffee, and sit down at your dedicated home desk.

When you don’t have a set routine, it is easy to fall in the trap of snoozing your alarm, staying in

your robe all day, and working on your laptop while watching TV from bed. Avoid these at all

costs as they distract you from work and prevent you from working effectively.

3. Take Breaks

Working remotely from home with no one around is great for a distraction-free work

environment. However, this also means you’re not getting-up from your desk to chat with

co-workers, going to the water cooler, or going out for your lunch break.

Set aside time, by putting alarms on your phone or in your work calendar for 10 minute breaks

during the day. These small breaks are great for taking a walk around the block, going

downstairs to get coffee, sitting on your back porch for some fresh air, taking meditation breaks,

or networking with other people.

Consider going out to grab lunch and bringing it back to your house, or meet up with other

friends that also work from home for lunch.

Every company allows breaks, take them! You’re entitled to them, and they are much needed

for our mental health.

4. Stay Connected

Working from home can sometimes feel like you’re on an island. Especially if you’re one of the

few people at your company that works remotely. Even more so if you are a freelancer and

don’t have any co-workers. Whatever the case may be, it’s very important to stay connected to

people outside of your house.

Staying connected could be in the form of written communication such as slack channels or

teams chat, but also should be in the form of zoom meetings or phone calls that are more face

to face and personal. If you don’t have meetings set for the day, reach out to one of your

co-workers for a 10 minute catch-up during one of your breaks or call a friend you haven’t

spoken to in a while.

If at any point you do start to feel like you’re on that island, reach out to your boss and ask to be

included on more things or volunteer to work with others on internal projects.

5. Set Boundaries

This last action is two-fold; it's important to set boundaries for your work AND for your friends

and family. It's essential to set boundaries to ensure a good work-life-balance.

Going back to point number one, having that dedicated office that isn’t on your dining table,

will help avoid you seeing your computer and thinking ‘oh I’ll just check that email real quick.’

Because you now work where you sleep, you need to set boundaries for yourself and your work

that you aren’t going to work after hours and that you shouldn’t be reached while not working.

Just because your desk is right there, doesn’t mean you should take care of something for work

when you’re not technically working.

It’s also important to set boundaries for your friends and family. When you start working from

home, your friends and family might start saying things like, ‘oh you work from home, just pick

us up from the airport real quick.’ or ‘Oh honey can you run this errand since you just work from

home.’ Saying no to friends and family is hard, but very important for your work life balance.

Conclusion

It’s not always easy to work from home. However, with these tips above, you can join the

growing group of successful (and happy) work from home people.

If you’re looking for a new job which allows a better work-life-balance, or you’re wanting to find

a work from home job, we’ve got you covered. Click this link to get started searching for your

next remote job