Make Working From Home Work for You

In recent years, working from home has become the norm for many, with the pandemic encouraging businesses to facilitate remote working wherever possible. 

Likewise, during the last couple of years, many people have taken the plunge to start freelancing or building their businesses, which they run out of their houses. As a result, more people than ever are working from home, whether part-time or in a fully remote position. 

However, despite the time we’ve had to adjust, many of us still struggle to be productive while working from the comfort of our own homes.

With this in mind, here are the top six things you can do to maximise your success while working from home.

Have a specific space for work.

Having a specific room – or corner of the room – dedicated to working can improve your focus and productivity while working from home. It teaches your brain to associate that space with work, making it easier to switch into focus mode when you sit down in your dedicated workspace.

If you’re struggling for space inside your home, this space could be a quiet coffee shop or your local library – working remotely doesn’t always mean working from your house if you don’t have the space conducive to work.

Moreover, having a dedicated workspace can help you keep your work and home life separate, even though you’re doing both under the same roof. In particular, ensuring your work is done somewhere other than your bedroom can help maintain your sleep quality.

Keep digital distractions at bay.

When working from home, it’s easy to be laxer about the amount of time we spend on our phones since there’s no pressure from our colleagues or supervisors – whether real or imagined – to stop scrolling after a certain length of time.

With this in mind, consider putting your phone in a drawer or out of the room, silencing it or turning off social media notifications if making calls is a part of your work to minimise the time you lose to mindless scrolling or replying to texts.

More than this, when working on your computer, it can be challenging to stay off social media and avoid irrelevant reading articles, downloading a website blocker can help to return you to task and prevent you from losing hours to social media scrolling pointless internet browsing.

Establish boundaries with other members of your household.

One of the biggest distractions we face while at home is that we often don’t live alone, and our family members can interrupt us at any point in our working day; this can interrupt your workflow when it does happen. Still, it can make you feel anxious and distracted while completing other tasks knowing that it could happen.

For this reason, it’s a good idea to discuss with the members of your household the times you plan to work – including any scheduled breaks – and discourage them from interrupting you during those times.

Plan daily exercise/get outdoors.

One of the major drawbacks of working from home is that you can spend all day in your house, which can be detrimental to your mental and physical health. In turn, this is sure to impact your productivity negatively.

To avoid the monotony of spending all day in your home and staying on top of your health, plan for at least one active break. Ideally, outdoors or in a location away from your home, keep both your mental and physical health in check.

Keep your working area clean.

A cluttered working space makes for a cluttered mind, yet it’s easy to let the mess pile up when working from home.

By keeping your workspace tidy and clean, you will be presented with a workspace that’s more enjoyable to work in, but having a clean workspace makes it less likely that you’ll become distracted mid-task by the burning desire to clean your desk.

So, to minimise distraction and enhance how pleasant your workspace is to be in, it’s a good idea to get into the habit of cleaning up your workstation after you’ve finished your working day to return to a perfectly clean workspace in the morning.

So, to ensure your success while working from home, follow the six guidelines above to maximise your productivity, enabling you to produce the best work possible.