There are many who have this ideal image of working from home: a glamorous office, flexible working (and waking hours), no actual dress code (zoom conference in jammies bottoms), working on your laptop with a cat in your lap. While working from home is a great way to reduce costs for companies, and an even better way to integrate work in your life as an employee – this type of labor is not for everyone.
Working from home requires a strong and positive mindset (yes, even if you’re an introvert, doesn’t mean you’re dark and gloomy), good organizational skills, an ability to self motivate and also to set boundaries. If you’re interested in how to work from home and be successful at it, please read the following tips. These are based on my own experience of being a remote worker for the past 5 years (and more than 7 yrs combined).
11 Tips for Working at Home from a Remote Worker
1. Create a schedule and stick to it
This is by far the best tip under my belt. If your remote job doesn’t require you to be online in a particular time interval, then you are going to have to create your own schedule – and make sure you stick to it. Once you break the routine and go off the rails, waking up in the afternoon, working in the evenings and during the nights, you’re setting yourself for exhaustion, burnout and unhappiness. And that’s a downward spiral that’s hard to break out.
READ MORE: 9 Accountability Quotes To Inspire Action
2. Watch out for bad snacking habits
When working from home it is really, really easy to work and snack. The fridge is dangerously close, and so is the need to engage into something “pleasurable”. If you’re going to snack make sure you snack on healthy things – like fruits, yogurt, nuts, smoothies etc. If you want to indulge, do it, but not every day or every hour of the day.
3. Make sure you eat properly
When working from home it is really easy to eat unhealthy – and I don’t mean only snacking. It’s also about skipping breakfast (or another meal), eating delivery only or fast food menus on a frequent basis. You need your energy even if you’re not going to leave your home – not to mention your health.
4. Work out
Working from home can easily lead to spending a lot of time in one place and that brings up a lot of health issues – from depression to headaches and backaches. This is coming from someone suffering from shoulder aches to the point of tears. Remember that working from home makes you in control of your schedule, and life. If you want to live a healthy life, then you need to plan your schedule to include working out, which can be anything you want it to be: yoga, Pilates, tai chi, running, going to the gym, swimming etc.
5. Take breaks
I can’t even begin to tell you how easy it is to forget about the time when you work from home – and yes, you will realize it’s been 3hrs since you last got up from your chair. So take breaks throughout the day: several short ones and a longer one. I work using the Pomodoro technique, a time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. The technique uses a timer to break down work into intervals, traditionally 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks. So my work hour looks like this: 25 min work, 5 min break, 25 min work, 5 min break. And after 4 hours I usually take a longer break, of one hour length, when I usually have lunch, go outside, call my mum or watch something on Netflix.
6. Don’t Netflix and work
Since I mentioned Netflix before – for the love of God, do not Netflix and work – it’s just a bad idea (coming from personal experience). You will end up binge watching your TV series and answering some emails every now and then. Trust me, this will kill any productivity.
7. Say no to jammies
Working from home comes with the benefit of casual, laid back looks, but it’s only a step from that to working in your jammies. And that will make it harder to separate work from off time, which in turn is going to make you think that all you do is work all day.
8. Don’t work from your bed
Avoid working from your bed as much as possible. I know it’s hard, but make sure you’re spending more time at your desk, rather than in your bed. First of all, working from bed will kill your back and shoulders. Secondly, it will make it harder for you to separate these two activities, and sooner than later, you will realize that you wake up in your office, and you go to sleep in your office. Nobody wants that, right?
read more: How I Dealt With Poor Sleep & Exhaustion
9. Create your work from home office (or desk)
It is very important to have one place in your home that is your office – or desk. You might work from other places for a short time, and that’s fine, but make sure there’s one designated place in your home that you can call your office. That’s where you leave your work related stress, tasks and worries.
10. Set boundaries
It is very easy to forget how much you’re working – when you’re working from home. Those who enjoy the benefit of working alone from home need to set personal boundaries (when and what to eat, when to work, when to answer emails or work chats). Those who are sharing their home space with others (moms with kids, couples etc) need to set boundaries with the other people. When it’s work time – it is work time, ask not to be disturbed. A good way to do this is to have a schedule printed and displayed in your kitchen with the time slots when you need quiet and alone time to be able to do your work (having calls, conferences etc).
Read more: What to do about Burnout
11. Make plans for after work
When you work from home you enjoy a much more flexible schedule – and that means that you can take an hour break during the day to go for a stroll, to go to the gym or to go to the market. It also makes you way more comfortable with staying in the house and reducing the amount of activity and social interactions in real life (or outside). Since your schedule is flexible you will be tempted to schedule work hours when others (friends, colleagues, family) are out and about. Make plans to go outside and socialize at least once a week, otherwise you will end up not leaving your home or seeing other people (than your food delivery guy) for weeks in a row.
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Hi there! My name is Monica Badiu. I am a mom, a paper artist, an entrepreneur and marketing coach.
