How to Work From Home: 24 Tips From People Who Do It Successfully?
Working from home is awesome, right up until the cat throws up on your computer. And your neighbor, who you can only assume is building a time machine, starts firing up all sorts of power tools and noisy machinery across the street.
COVID-19 has caused remote work to become a necessity instead of a luxury for many professionals. But which environment allows us to be more productive: the home office or the office office?
In the office office, your colleagues often pose the greatest threat to keeping you from getting some real, heads-down work done. They drop by your desk, engage you in conversation, and invite you to lunch — or so I hear. The social benefits are nice to have, but they can become a challenge if you're easily distracted.
However, at the home office, while family members can be a distraction, I find that it's easy for you to become your own worst enemy. Because without coworkers around, you’re free to drop those pesky inhibitions. At the home office, no one's watching. You don't necessarily feel that same peer pressure or communal obligation to get stuff done. (Also, you don't have to wear pants.)
Below, I've compiled many great work-at-home tips and tricks from some of my awesome coworkers.
How to Work From Home
1.Communicate expectation with anyone who will be home with you.
2.Take clear breaks.
3.Interact with other humans.
4.Prepare meals the night before.
5.Pick a definitive finish time.
6.Eat and sleep.
7.Talk to your employer.
8.Join a remote-friendly company.
9.Start a career as a freelancer.
10.Start a home business.
1. Communicate expectations with anyone who will be home with you.
Of course, you might be working from home but still have "company." Make sure any roommates, family members, and dogs (well, maybe not dogs) respect your space during work hours. Just because you're working from home doesn't mean you're home.
If you share space with another work-from-home adult, you may have to lay ground rules about meeting times, shared desks and chairs, and quiet times.
2. Take clear breaks.
It can be so easy to get distracted as a telecommuter that you avoid breaks altogether. Don't let the guilt of working in the building you sleep in prevent you from taking five minutes to relax.
However rather than just opening YouTube and watching some comfort clips, use your breaks to get away from your desk. Go for a walk, enjoy fresh air, or spend time with others who might also be in the house.
3. Interact with other humans.
When your office starts working from home, you'll likely miss the casual social interactions with colleagues you're used to throughout the day. When working from home, you don't have the small talk and other activities that make each day at the office unique.
So what can you do? Communicate.
Fight boredom and loneliness by frequent communication with other employees. Reach out to them through video chat via apps like Zoom and Slack or however else your company communicates.
Remember: You're working from home, not the moon. Interacting with other people during the day is allowed, even if they're not your colleagues. It’s a good idea to see another face during the day when most of your workday is solitary. So, use your breaks to interact with others.
"Go outside and find a human to interact with — ordering your coffee, running an errand, whatever. It keeps you sane."
- Corey Wainwright
4. Prepare meals the night before.
When you're in your own home, it can be tempting to spend time preparing a nice breakfast and lunch for yourself, chopping and cooking included. Don't use precious minutes making your food the day of work — cook it the night before.
Preparing food ahead of time ensures you can use your meal times to eat and that you aren't performing non-work tasks that spend energy better used at your desk.
Digital marketing strategist, Lindsay Kolowich, adds, "Cooking at home is time you wouldn't have spent meal prepping if you'd been in the office that day, and I find the minutes can add up in the end. To mitigate that, I try to cook and prep my meals the night before, just like I would for a day at the office."
5. Pick a definitive finishing time.
You might be under the impression that working from home establishes more work-life balance, but be careful with that assumption.
Working from home can also feel like being at a casino — you can get so caught up in your activity, in a relaxing environment, that you lose complete track of time.
"If you work from home full-time (or regularly), it’s really easy to let your work life bleed into your personal life," says Tyler Littwin.
He continues, "Maintaining a boundary is important for both halves of the equation."
In lieu of coworkers, whose packing up and leaving the office reminds you to do the same, set an alarm at the end of the day to indicate your normal workday is coming to an end. You don't have to stop at exactly that time, but knowing the workday is technically over can help you start the process of saving your work and calling it quits for the evening.
6. Eat and sleep.
What is the biggest perk to working from home? One of the biggest benefits for some people (me), is complete access to the kitchen.
As soon as I take a break, I automatically drift towards the kitchen for some snacks.
An unhealthy diet can affect productivity and drain energy. When I switched to a healthier diet, it made me function better and get the most from my routine.
So eat well when working from home.
It's also vital that you keep to a proper sleep schedule. Save binge-watching your favorite shows for the weekend. With the right food to keep energy levels high and sound sleep to refresh your body and mind, you can make a success of working from home.
7. Talk to your employer.
If you like your current job and don't want to change it, the obvious step is to find a way to pivot the position.
One of the tips for doing this is folding the possibility of going remote into your next promotion cycle. Talk to your boss often about your intention to pivot.
And, if you're not sure your employer will agree to working completely remotely, talk about the option of working remotely one or two days a week. When you use the work from home tips we've provided above, and your boss sees how productive you are, they could allow you more days to work from home.
8. Join a remote-friendly company.
If your work can be done remotely, but your current boss or organization doesn't allow you to work from home, you might need to get a new job.
When looking for a work-from-home job, you can use the same methods you used in finding your regular office job. This includes channels like job sites, local job ads, and social media platforms.
Job sites that list work from home ads include:
Flexjobs
Telecommute Job List
FreelanceJobOpening.com
Weworkremotely
Some remote-friendly firms include:
HubSpot
Randstad
Twilio
NTT Group
Aquent
Check out these firms to see whether you meet the requirements to start working remotely for them.
9. Start a career as a freelancer.
If your current job isn't remote work-friendly, you can go remote by starting your own business as a freelancer or a consultant.
Depending on the nature of your current job, you may start your own freelance business while still being employed.
The benefit of starting your freelance business while still employed is that it reduces the financial strain experienced by any new business.
10. Start a home business.
Starting a home business is one way to enjoy remote work.
Unlike other fields, certifications and education are not usually prerequisites. Instead, researching, having a smart business plan, and choosing the right business is more essential to the success of your business.
You can find more work-from-home tips in the books listed in this best remote work books article
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