If you’re someone who works from home most of the time, then you know what a struggle it can be. Most people probably tell you how lucky you are and how they wish they could work from home in their pajamas too. While there are certainly perks, like making your own schedule and not having a commute, there are also difficulties. When you work from home you can get lonely. A number of things can happen. You can start to feel a little grungy from never getting dressed up for the office. You can feel like you’re always working even when your family is home or you can have a really hard time getting work done when you could just as easily do housework, turn on the TV, or run errands.
- See How to Have a Professional Attorney Image When You Work from Home for more information.
- Make a plan the night before or stick to a regular schedule. Having a set schedule for the day can really help you get certain projects done or keep from avoiding your work with chores or errands. Make a plan the night before of what you think you can get done and set your hours for work. When you sit down to start, and you already know what you plan to do, it can save you a lot of procrastination from not having a direction.
- Wear “work clothes.” When you work from home, it’s so easy to wear yoga pants, sweats or even your pajamas all day long. To help you feel more like it’s “work time,” take a shower when you get up in the morning and put on your work clothes. You don’t have to wear business attire, but come up with what makes you feel like it’s time to work.
- Schedule activities with friends. It can be so easy to be lonely when you work from home because you don’t get the same social interaction that you get when working at the office. Make a point to schedule dates with friends or your significant other during the day, whether that’s meeting them for lunch or getting drinks in the evening.
- Have a ritual to close down your workday. It can be so easy to keep your laptop open when you work from home and start answering emails or doing work in the evening when you should be spending time with your family or just relaxing and refreshing your brain. To keep yourself from being overworked, create an end-of-the-day ritual to help you mentally shut down work and focus on your personal life.
- Find an accountability partner. Even if your accountability partner lives on the other side of the country, find a friend who also works from home and check in with one another. It can be so nice to have someone who knows what you’re dealing with day to day. Keep each other accountable to goals that you want to set for getting work done and check in with one another so you can give one another boosts when you need the support.
- Allow certain time slots for distracting activities and breaks. When you’re working from home you can easily decide to fold the laundry, and suddenly it’s two hours later, and your house is spotless, but none of your work is done. Avoid procrastination by scheduling breaks into your day. Need to run to the dry-cleaner? Set a break time to do that and get out of the house, and then know when you need to start working again.
