Business Miscellaneous

5 Tips to Make Working from Home Work for You

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It’s 2020. By now, we all know the many benefits of working from home.

No commute. No pointless meetings. No office politics.

Just to name a few.

And while that is all great and dandy, how do you make working from home work for you? What are the best practices? How do you stop yourself from procrastinating? From popping to the fridge every ten minutes for yet another snack?

Working from home isn’t easy. For many of us, it requires a lot of will power and dedication. It requires you to develop good habits so that you can stay on top of your work.

This article shows you five ways to do just that.

Tip 1: Schedule Your Day

When you work from home, you’ll want to wake up whenever you feel like it, hitting the snooze button five, ten times in a row before you finally decide to get out of bed.

You think that because you’re working from home, you have all the time in the world to complete your tasks.

The thing is, you don’t. In fact, what will happen is that you’ll start to feel as though you’re working all day, all of the time.

Now, this doesn’t mean that you have to wake up at the same time you would have done if you were going out to work, but it is a good idea to set yourself a schedule.

Decide on when you’re going to work and for how long and stick to it.

Consistency is the real key here, and you’ll need to treat your working from home job as if it is the real thing if you want it to become the real thing. Establishing a good routine helps to switch your brain into ‘work mode.’

Use planners to set daily tasks and tick them off as you go. This will help to keep you accountable and, most importantly, it will help you get work done.

Tip 2: Find Your Working Place

A designated work place will take your productivity to the next level.

Sure, you can work on the sofa in front of the television or at the kitchen dresser, but will you be working to the best of your ability, or will you be taking sneaky glances at the television? Will you be nipping to the fridge every once in a while?

A proper work environment is so important when working from home. It’ll help you to be more focused, organised, and motivated.

Find yourself a place you can call your own. It can be anywhere from a spot in the living room—just make sure you turn off the tv—to a spare room. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy. It just needs to be somewhere that you can do your work in every day.

Tip 3: Turn off Distractions

Of course, it’s tempting to take just a glimpse at YouTube. You’ve just received a notification, and you really want to check the video out. And it’s only ten minutes long.

Funnily enough, this then leads into another short ten-minute video and then another one, and before you know it, you’ve spent a whole hour lying in bed watching YouTube videos.

In the grand scheme of things, it isn’t a big deal if you do this every so often, but if you want to start as you mean to go on, it is essential that you develop good habits straight away. Bingeing on YouTube videos isn’t one of them.

A better one is to turn off all notifications while you’re working. You can watch all the videos you want in your spare time. Your work time is for work. Stick to it.

Tip 4: Take a Shower and Get Dressed

It might be tempting to wear your pjs or jogging bottoms all day long, keeping your hair in an unkempt horror of a hairstyle, but it wouldn’t be wise to do so.

There is something to be said for getting dressed up like you’re heading off to work even if ‘heading off’ only means that you’ll be walking into the room next door.

Let’s be honest, when you’re in your joggers, and you haven’t even splashed water on your face let alone had a shower, you’re not really telling yourself that you’re ready for business and that you’re ready to be the best that you can possibly be, are you?

Take that shower. Brush your teeth. Put a comb through your hair. And find yourself a nice outfit that you can wear for the day. As a result, you’ll be more focused and ready to give everything you’ve got.

Tip 5: Remember to Give Yourself a Break

Just because you’re working from home, it doesn’t mean that you should work, work, work, and do nothing else. Give yourself a break, like you would do if you were going to work.

This could be a five or ten-minute break after you’ve completed a task, or a longer break if you’ve been working on something a bit tricky.

Remember to take breaks, too, if you’re struggling with a task.

Staring at the screen for hours on end, hoping for inspiration to jump out at you, usually doesn’t work. Taking a step away to make yourself a cup of tea or to stretch can be all that is needed to find the right word for that article of yours.

Breaks are an important part of the working process.

It allows your brain to rest up and catch a breath before pushing on again. Don’t neglect them.

Bonus Tip: Get out Often

Just because you’re working from home, it doesn’t mean that you need to remain in your home all day and night. Don’t do it!

Instead, make sure you go out into the great outdoors—even if it’s minus something outside. Meet up with people, with your friends. Even ex-colleagues are more pleasant to be around now that you don’t have to see so much of them.

This will do wonders for your mental health. It can be difficult not speaking to a soul all day when you’re working from home. Don’t isolate yourself and get out there!

If you truly want to make working from home work for you, start as you mean to go on and follow these tips. You know it makes sense!

About the author

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Cassandra Charles

Cassandra Charles is a freelance writer who specializes in article and blog writing. She enjoys writing both long and short content in a variety of categories, including e-commerce, digital marketing, and self-improvement. You can find her at cassandracharles.com