Whether it’s just taking a day out of the office or you work from home full-time, mastering the art of home working isn’t as easy as some might think. Some people are suited to setting up an office and working from home but unfortunately there are lots of distractions that can get in the way of a productive day’s work.
5 Top Tips for Working From Home Click To Tweet
Here are some top tips to keep you focused on the main objective: getting your work done.
- Set up a designated office area
Ideally, you want to have a room that you can use as a dedicated office to physically separate your working and home life. A dedicated office should be free of distractions – no TV or other non-work related items that can take your attention away from your work. If you don’t have the space to use a room solely as an office then at least try to keep it in an area where you won’t be disrupted by domestic noises or the need to do chores. If you can see a few dishes in the sink, it is easy to want to wash them up but this will eat into your productivity.
- Schedule your day
If you don’t set yourself a strict schedule for break times and lunch then you will find yourself frequently wandering into the kitchen to make a coffee or raiding the fridge for a quick snack. Keep to your schedule as all of these little breaks add up. You may find it easier to stick to if you have a schedule on display.
- Get dressed
You may think this sounds like a strange bit of advice but people can easily fall into the trap of not being bothered to get dressed. Unless you’re planning on using web video conferencing then the chances are nobody is going to see you if you’re sat in your pajamas but you can’t get properly into work mode if you aren’t dressed for work.
- Don’t be everyone’s savior
If you let family and friends think that you can frequently help them out as you’re ‘just at home’ then you’re not going to be able to successfully work from home. If people think you are available for emergency childcare, taking deliveries or doing domestic activities during your working day then they will sabotage your work. Stay strong and explain that your work commitments are no different than if you were going to an office each day.
- Don’t become a recluse
It is important that you get out of the house as much as you can when you’re not working. Even if you don’t have a car, there are other ways of getting around like getting an Uber through ridester.com.
It can become a very lonely place when you’re working from home, so keep up with your social network as much as possible. If you schedule yourself an hour for lunch, maybe meet a friend for lunch or go for a bit of exercise to get yourself out into the real world. Whilst it can be tempting to not bother with a lunch break, research shows that this hinders productivity.
