Working from home is becoming a more popular and practical option, cutting out the commute and saving everyone involved money. However, working from home does take a certain amount of self-motivation. Ensure that taking the following measures in order to stay productive and get the best out of a career from the comfort of your home.
1. Separate your home and work life
The most difficult challenge that those working from home face is separating their home and work life. You’re best setting a special office area of the house and keeping this as your work zone. Don’t slip into the bad habit of working from your bed or you’ll find a reason to get up. If you’ve got family around, let them know when you’re working so that they don’t disturb you unless there’s an emergency. You can take extra measures such as having a separate phone for your work and a separate computer, which may be supplied by a company unless you’re working for yourself or freelancing.
2. Digitally secure your home
Your office may be digitally secure, but your home might not be. If you’re dealing with other people personal details or other sensitive data, you should consider upping your security. Spam filters can prevent dodgy emails from scam artists whilst data disaster recovery software can back up all your files on the Cloud, prevent hackers from posing a danger. Make sure that all devices you are using including your phone and any tablet are all protected.
3. Keep to a schedule
Working from home allows some flexibility – you can set your own hours in most cases. However, having a schedule is important so that you can still get in the zone. Without a schedule you may be more encouraged to lie in late or take long lunch breaks. Stick to a nine to five routine if it’s easier – set alarms if you have to in order to stop you going astray. There will be days where you will have to put in more hours than the other day, but hey, that’s normal for a regular office job as well. Just give yourself the break to sustain a long-term work from home schedule.
4. Stay active
Without a commute, it’s easy to become housebound and slack on exercise. Find a way to stay active during your day either by doing deskercises, going for a jog in the morning or walking somewhere and eating out for lunch. Walking into town a day or so a week and working in coffee bar could give you some brief exercise and give you a fresh change of surroundings. Join a neighborhood Zumba club or if you are self-motivated go take on a gym membership. However to keep yourself committed it really helps to go for a fitness instructor based gym membership – a commitment on regular payment and having a coach keeps you from procrastination.
5. Celebrate your wins
Working alone from home can be great at limiting distractions – but you can also miss out on a lot of the comradery. Loneliness is not having anyone to help share your achievements with. You must set aside time to go out with friends and share your work-from-life wins and loses with them. If you’ve just scored a massive sale, there’s no-one there to congratulate you. Set your own goals and rewards for each day – if you meet these goals you can reward yourself at the end of that day. This will keep you motivated to succeed.