How to Enjoy Working from Home
There’s this notion that working from home is a prime example of ‘living the dream’ or the ‘good life’. And there are many reasons to believe that. You can lounge around all day in your PJs. You can set your own schedule and work when and where you want. You’ll have more time to spend with friends and family as the dreaded commute becomes all but a distant memory (thank goodness for that)!
However, you may have found that it’s not all plain sailing. As nice as it sounds to work from home, there are many challenges, such as interruptions from family members, feelings of isolation, distractions such as housework, and lack of external motivation. After all, there’s no boss telling you what to do, or teammates to hold you accountable.
When work takes over your life
You may find that without the routine of going to the office means that your work and home life bleed into one another. While it may be fun at first, soon, you may feel that all you do is work without that clear separation between work and home, leading to irregular working hours and feeling burnt out. It can also be hard to shift from a relaxed/home mindset to a work one, especially if you don’t have a dedicated workspace.
People who have lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and are now based at home looking for work or moving into contract work, may find themselves more susceptible to feeling numb, unmotivated and detached as their world has been turned on its head.
Whether you’re a novice or an old hand at working from home or hybrid work (whether by design or circumstance), there are certain drawbacks you may not have anticipated. So if your hand has been forced or you had a dream of working for yourself but are finding it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, this post is for you. Especially if you have friends and family who say how much they love it and you can’t understand why.
How to establish a new work routine
Over the last ten years working from home, I have learnt a thing or two about how to enjoy it. Through trial and error (and plenty of perseverance), I find that I work best when I have a routine in place. It doesn’t look like it did back during my corporate days. But it’s a routine that I’ve built around what works for me, and I encourage you to try and find out how you can make working from home work for you.
5 tips to help you enjoy success working from home
1. Create a dedicated workspace
Don't work on the dining room table if you can help it, especially if your dining room is open plan, because this gives your family permission to interrupt and interact with you.
If you don't have the luxury of a spare room which can be utilised as an office, think about the spare corners that you could convert into a workspace using simple things like a desk made of a door and trestles. Avoid underestimating the value of investing in an ergonomic setup - you’ll be more successful if you’re comfortable!
Decorate this space like a workspace and even put a ‘Do not Disturb’ sign up for family members when you’re working.
2. Treat your work time as work time
Set expectations for family members, for example, ‘When I’m at my desk, I can only be interrupted if it is an emergency.
Get dressed as if you are going to work. This doesn’t necessarily mean you need to be in a suit or formal wear, but you definitely need to get out of your pyjamas. When I get up in the morning, I get dressed for work, which helps me feel ready to work.
Set up your calendar to include work times and play times, just like you would at work. I use a timeboxing technique, which means I have allocated work time each day and allocated play time. Then each day, I plan what I will do with that time. Rather than a to-do list, this involves carving out time for a specific focus.
3. Set office hours
Have regular planning and review times, for example, 15 minutes at the beginning and end of each day. In the morning, review your must-dos for the day and anything else you would like to do in the morning. Then in the evening, check what you have achieved in the evening and congratulate yourself.
Learning to self-congratulate is a wonderful way to increase self-reliance and self-motivation.
If you didn't get everything done, simply transfer tasks to the next day or ask yourself, ‘Do I really need to do this?’.
Productivity is key, particularly being able to focus for bursts of work. I use the technique known as Pomodoro, but in reality, I learned to do this when balancing full-time study with full-time job and a family.
It involves setting aside a block of time, and a piece of work that you need to do, then working for 25 minutes on this task before taking a short break. Then doing it all over again until the block of time is up. This means that your focus is very intense but only for short bursts of time. I like to think of these as work sprints.
4. Build a new network around you
Create a cohort. Working from home as a career coach, I spend long periods alone with all my client-facing work via video call, and I spend long periods of time alone. When I started out, I didn't have a team (these days, I have a marketing team which adds another dimension), and I was tempted to return to full-time work just to have some colleagues.
But I resisted. The need for the company wasn't enough to pull me back into a 9-5 office job.
So what did I do instead?
I found other like-minded people working from home on an internet-based business, some of whom are coaches. We created a ‘mastermind’ session each week to talk about the highs and lows of being in business.
In these sessions, we brainstorm ideas about how to promote our business; what to do when business is slow or overwhelmingly successful; different marketing strategies and so on.
Now I save up my watercooler conversations for these times, and guess what? My mastermind group now stretches from New York to India and Australia!
5. Switch off in personal time
Set clear work hours and stick to them. It’s vital to preserve downtime to make time for yourself, family and friends.
I find it helpful to make regular time for hobbies and to socialise - something I really enjoy and look forward to each week.
One of my hobbies is painting, and I’ve expanded my personal time to create an art collective. It’s been an enriching experience that has enabled me to learn how to be a watercolourist. I have also started a charitable trust which has allowed me to do something bigger than myself.
Roundup
If you’ve been struggling to find a way to enjoy working from home, I hope these techniques help. Feel free to share this article with friends, family and colleagues who may need a hand - you never know, it may spark something new.
You can also learn how I helped one of my clients figure out how to make working from home work for her!
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