For anyone who is constrained to working on site from 9-5 each day, working from home may sound like a distant dream come true. But, in reality, working from home can be tough. It’s lonely, quiet and requires massive amounts of self-motivation that many people don’t possess. From extremely long days spent talking only to oneself to feeling like you have to work and respond around the clock, working from home can get old – really fast. Whether you work for yourself as a budding entrepreneur or you work remotely for a larger-scale firm, knowing how to make working from home more enjoyable is essential to getting through it and getting the job done right. Here are some tips and tricks of the trade for making your remote working scenario a success.
5 Ways to Make Working from Home More Enjoyable
Get on a schedule. Just because you’re working from home doesn’t mean your day should be unstructured. You need that structured time to feel like you’re part of something and that you have an effective routine. From morning until evening, work from a schedule just as you would if you were part of an office. Get in your early morning exercise, take a shower and get ready for the day. Eat a healthy breakfast and read the paper – participate in normal morning routines.
Get dressed like you’re headed out in public. There’s no need to don your finest business suit when you’re working from home, but it’s essential that you make yourself presentable. Skip the sweatpants and definitely get out of the all-day pajama phase. As great as that may sound, it will make you feel terrible about yourself faster than you can blink. So get up, take a shower and get dressed – just as if you were headed out for the day.
Set up a defined workspace. You may not have the room for a full and separate office, but – to the best of your ability – define a workspace. That means a desk or table and chair – a comfortable one – that you can spend the whole day in. No more working from bed on your laptop – those days are over – it’s time to get serious. Give yourself that defined space that will help your productivity, but will also give you the wherewithal to shut it down completely at the end of the day.
Take breaks. Don’t ever feel guilty about getting up from the desk and taking a quick walk around the block, grabbing a coffee or having a snack. When you work alone, you speak with no one – so you have to get energized every once in a while. Think about all the interactions, coffee breaks and chatting that takes place in an office – typically, you’d have loads of breaks without even knowing it. If you find yourself sitting for hours without getting up, set an alarm to take a five minute break every hour. It’s good for you!
End the day as though you’re leaving the office for the night. Just because you work from home doesn’t mean you work around the clock – and, that is OK. At the end of the day, shut your computer down, turn off the light and walk away. Go make dinner and spend time with your family – trust me, that work will still be there tomorrow.
Do you work from home? How do you make it more enjoyable?
