Working from home is becoming increasingly common. According to a Global Workplace Analytics and Robert Half International study, 52% of full-time employees work remotely at least some time. Unfortunately, this trend has led to many misconceptions about working from home—that it’s less effective than working in an office or requires nothing but completing everyday tasks on your laptop while lying around in your pajamas.
These myths can make it problematic for people who want to work from home or managers who want their employees to work as effectively from home as possible. However, here are ten tips that will help you not only succeed at working from home but also thrive:
Find a Designated Workspace and Stay Organized
A designated workspace is vital to your home-based business. Your workspace should be where you can focus and work without distraction. It should be clean, organized, and preferably quiet so you’re not distracted by the sounds of household chaos.
Designating a whole room for your office is ideal. This allows total concentration on tasks without being bothered by family members or other distractions. If you don’t have a spare room, setting up a workspace within another part of your house, such as on the kitchen table or living room couch (if space allows), may still be beneficial.
The time spent working from home depends significantly on how much work must be achieved each day/week/month, etc. Regardless of the available time, we suggest setting aside at least one day per week without distractions. This includes social media sites like Facebook or Twitter, which drain energy from essential tasks rather than helping motivate people to complete tasks.
Separate Your Home and Work Lives
If you’re working from home, you must have a separate space for work and personal life. It’s easy to blur the line between these spaces. However, it is best to keep your work life at work and your personal life at home. This will make things much easier for you in the long run! For example:
- Don’t bring work home with you; leave it at the office or in a designated ‘work’ area of your house.
- And don’t talk about work when friends visit or over dinner (unless they’re also working from home). You may want to say, “I’m sorry but my brain just isn’t ready to process any more information today!” This is especially true if most of your friends aren’t working from home − they won’t understand why you need time away from the office so much more than they do!
Optimize Communication
A calendar is an excellent tool for scheduling meetings and appointments; however, it can also be used to organize day-to-day tasks and activities.
- Chat with coworkers, clients, or other team members using an online chat program (or even a messaging app like WhatsApp). Keeping all your communications in one place makes life easier when you need to find something later in the day (like an email exchange about your client’s request).
- Also, chatting with coworkers over video calls is another option if they are available during work hours (and not just after hours or while away from their desks). Video chat programs like Skype allow users to communicate face-to-face remotely on their computers.
Use the Right Tools
Several tools and apps can help you stay organized, communicate with coworkers and clients, remain productive, and focus on work and home projects. Here’s a brief list of some of our favorites:
Evernote (free)
This is our go-to app for organizations. You can easily create notes for yourself or others in any format (text, photos, web pages—you name it). Evernote also has an easy tagging system so that you can find items later on when you need them. We keep all our client files in Evernote, allowing us to access them anywhere without having to lug around bulky folders or notebooks of paper documents.
Google Drive (free)
Dropbox might seem like a better choice because it allows users to share files with others more easily than Google Drive (this may change).
However, we still prefer Google Drive because it integrates seamlessly with other Google products such as Gmail and Calendar. This makes sharing files much easier than Dropbox ever could manage at this point in its life cycle − Dropbox does not yet have these features!
Have an Action Plan in Place
An action plan is a detailed list of tasks you must complete to achieve your goals. It allows you to stay focused and motivated, so it is essential to have one before you start working from home.
Here are some examples of how action plans can be used:
- Assign your tasks’ priorities, such as A, B, or C.
- Create deadlines by when the job must be completed or assign due dates based on when the project is anticipated (e.g., the annual report due date is June 30).
- Break down large projects into smaller steps that are easier to manage (e.g., create one page of content per day instead of writing an entire book).
Establish Social Media Guidelines
It’s easy to become lost in the digital world, especially if you work from home. Social media is an excellent way of keeping in touch with friends and family; however, it can also drain much of your time. Establishing guidelines for yourself is essential so you don’t become too attached to your phone or laptop while working. If you want people in your personal life (family members) not to distract you on social media at work, ensure they also have clear guidelines!
Here are some tips for keeping social media use under control while still being able to enjoy it:
- Set aside specific times of day when all devices must be turned off (e.g., phones are not allowed after dinner).
- Limit screen time before bedtime. Do not check emails between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m., browse Twitter feeds after 11 p.m., etc.
Make sure your Internet Connection is Secure.
A common misconception is that you can’t be safe working from home − this is simply false. To ensure your safety and privacy, use a virtual private network (VPN) to encrypt your traffic and ensure you have a strong password. When using public WiFi networks, consider using two-factor authentication for added security. Ensure your home is secured with deadbolts on all doors, motion sensor lights or cameras outside, and an alarm system inside the house—especially if you’re working late. Also, secure yourself fully when working in unfamiliar locations.
Finally, consider choosing a secure cloud storage service like Box or Dropbox as an alternative to Google Drive or OneDrive. This could help if you are concerned about hackers stealing sensitive information from the servers of your service providers (which they’ve been known to do).
Encourage Self-Care
Self-care is vital to anyone, whether or not they work at home. If you are working from home, though, it’s easy to put self-care on the back burner because of the convenience of working from the bed or your couch. Such convenience can be helpful in terms of creating a flexible schedule. However, it also means that you must make extra efforts to get up and move around, even if no clients are waiting for responses or calls coming in.
You might think that working remotely would reduce the need for self-care because no coworkers are nearby. No one can help you get out of bed and shower when needed. However, having no coworkers can sometimes mean more pressure on your personal life than would be applied when having them!
When thinking about self-care as an essential part of any job or career path (not just when people work from home), here are some common choices people must follow:
- Eat healthy meals (or snacks) throughout the day; don’t skip breakfast!
- Spend time outdoors daily for at least half an hour (even if it’s just going to a nearby park).
- Exercise regularly—scheduling regular exercise times in one’s day can increase productivity over time. Exercise helps us feel better mentally and physically after each workout session ends! This is especially true when having fun, like playing tennis with friends on weekends. Exercise is an excellent alternative to watching TV all day and eating junk food off our laps while lying down.
Maintain Consistent Schedules and Presence
It’s essential to be consistent with your working hours, availability, and attendance. Having a set time to be available each day will help ensure that people can reach you when needed.
If possible, arrange for the same days off each week or month so that people know which days they can count on seeing you before noon or after five. Whatever works best for you will work best for other coworkers as well!
The last thing anyone wants is their boss or coworker not to respond until the following day because she was “in meetings all day” or “didn’t see the email until later.” Flimsy excuses are sometimes offered rather than admitting why responding took so long. It’s not good enough to say ‘sorry’ (which isn’t an excuse). Being sorry is better than nothing, but annoying nonetheless: when we send out emails asking questions about deadlines like “How long do we have left?” we expect answers right away − why else would one bother to ask?
Provide Structure and Feedback for Employees
- Provide a clear outline of what is expected.
- Provide regular feedback to employees.
- Set deadlines for tasks and projects.
- Please clearly outline the process for approaching technical or social problems.
Home Office Success: Follow These Tips for Productivity with Your Team
Working from home can be difficult, but with a few simple guidelines, you can make it work for you and your boss or employees.
- Working from home can help you save money on transportation, which means more money in your pocket.
- You don’t have to commute to work, greatly benefiting those who live far from their offices or want to avoid traffic.
- Not having an office can make you feel you’re not part of the team. However, it also gives you more freedom and flexibility that most people don’t have at work, making your job more productive and enjoyable!
- If your boss doesn’t trust you to do the job at home, consider investing in a second computer. During business hours (or whenever everyone agrees), you can separate your personal life from professional activities like emails or phone calls with customers/clients/colleagues. If nothing works well between both parties involved, perhaps working remotely isn’t right for either party after all.
Conclusion: 10 Tips for Working from Home
We hope these tips help you start on the right foot and feel more confident working from home. Remember to keep your workspace organized, separate your work from your personal life, and use the appropriate tools for each task. The most important thing is consistency to make this new lifestyle sustainable!