What do you think about teleworking? Is it a pain or a blessing for you? Well, if you are like me you’ll surely try to move heaven and earth before even considering having a home office. Not feeling me?
Just try to follow me through this scenario for a second:
You just arrived home from a productive morning, you woke up early, did some exercise, and even had some spare time to do your groceries. And after taking a nice shower you are ready to lie down in bed for a while and enjoy a good show on Netflix, so you turn on your laptop, and guess what?
You see a bunch of work email notifications that you’ll have to start answering once your shift starts. Now, your shift doesn’t start until around 45 minutes, so you still have some time to prepare, but what a way to ruin the mood, am I right?
That foul mood is because you forcefully went from relaxing mode into working mode, without being mentally prepared, and truthfully speaking, that’s a feeling I dislike very much. There’s nothing worse than associating my relaxing space, my bedroom, with my job.
I hated having a home office… But that’s because I didn’t know how to do it properly. Most of what I hated about working at home was caused by my own mistakes and bad habits, and boy, I surely had a rough time back then.
What You Should Do When Working From Home
There are many things you should avoid when teleworking, and since I don’t want you to go through the same troubles as I did in the past I prepared some useful tips to ensure that you love your home office environment, and also improve it to be even more productive than you’ll be in an actual office.
I assure you that after applying all of these tips, you aren’t going to miss your office at all:
1. Get Out Of Bed!
Working from the comfort of your bed sounds like a dream come true like you hit the job jackpot.
I know that when you spend hours and hours working in an office you miss your bed a lot, and working from it sounds like a comfortable and cozy way of going through your day.
However, doing this will likely lead to a lack of self-control. Believe me, I learned this the hard way.
Using the bed as a workspace means you’re bringing your work with you to bed, both literally and figuratively.
If you’ve been working all day from your bed, you’re likely to continue thinking about work and have a hard time “turning it off” once you slide under the covers for sleep.
Imagine losing the feeling of relaxation that your room and your bed normally give you.
Sleep-related problems are no joke, and working from bed may cause you to give in to heavy eyes and take naps when you want to be working. Trust me, more than once I’ve suddenly woken up after an unplanned 40-minute nap. Not funny.
Insomnia is also a big thing to take in consideration. This can be a complication with or without working from the bed, but mixing your work and sleep space is likely to make it worse.
I know working from home sounds comfortable, and it sure can be! But working from bed it’s not the right option to take.
2. Get Comfy! (The Right Way)
It’s a real hazard to try to focus and be productive when you are constantly straining to see your computer screen or rubbing your aching back.
Although it’s a home office, remember that you’ll be sitting in front of your computer for a long time, and the commodity that an actual office can give you is not to be undervalued.
Fortunately, you can bring the commodity of an office to your home and invest in a good office chair to make sure you’re sitting in an ergonomically correct position at your desk.
Remember to keep your desk clean and organized so that you can work comfortably and focus on being productive. Like at work, you wouldn’t like to spill a cup of coffee on your laptop, right?
Also, it’s your own house so I won’t tell you how to dress, but personally speaking, I do feel much more productive working while wearing a shirt and pants than when I’m in my underwear.
Like working from bed logic, try as hard as you can to separate your relaxation mode and work mode, so you don’t confuse them.
Little things like decorating, adding up some plants, and scents, and a good desk and chair will highly increase your comfort level, allowing you to focus on getting your work done.
3. Avoid Distractions
It’s important to take meaningful breaks once in a while to rest and recharge batteries.
It could be a book, a game, or an app on your phone, maybe a walk outside to get some fresh air or just enjoying a good cup of coffee. You should reward yourself with short breaks but try to keep the books or games outside of your workspace area.
You don’t want to be constantly tempted to read the final of that chapter or continue with that quest in your game. This will highly hinder your productivity since you won’t be able to think about your actual work, and you’ll end up losing your focus.
Or even worse, abandoning your work to continue having some fun. — Guilty as charged.
4. Talk to Your Housemates
Maybe it’s a roommate, a spouse, or any relative.
If you are not living alone don’t forget to remind the people living with you that even though you are at home, you are working and your time is important.
Talk to them and let them know your schedule, at which times you are available, and at which you should only be called for emergencies.
Heck, more often than not I’ve had one of my roommates walk into my room as I was having an important meeting. I even thought of putting out a sign in front of the door once.
It’s important for everyone living together with you to be on the same page when it comes to work schedules, I would even recommend creating a shared calendar so that each one of you knows when important things happen and when they can come in to crack a little joke or two.
5. Adopt A Growth Mindset
Developing a growth mindset will help you beat your most challenging obstacles.
Activities like keeping a diary of your achievements, recording how the journey was when working to achieve a specific goal, and exploring and analyzing what you could do differently next time will help you to change your perception of your results and increase your desire to learn, to grow.
We have a whole article talking about How to Shift from a Fixed Mindset to a Growth One. By clicking there you can learn much more about the topic, and keep growing and learning as a freelancer!
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