Many people dream of working from home, but how many actually can or are able to do it? The truth is that working from home may require a different set of work habits and methods. Whether you’re brand new to the idea of working from home or are already doing it, it’s always good to review your work habits, particularly if you intend on working from home on a long-term basis.
Working from home can be a dream come true for anyone who wants to escape the daily commute and get more time with family. But it comes with its own challenges.
If you’re thinking of making the switch, here are some suggestions for how to make working from home work for you.
1. Set up a dedicated space for working. Whether you choose to work in a separate room or just in a corner of the living room, make sure that your workspace is free from distractions and set up so that you feel comfortable there.
2. Create a schedule. Working from home doesn’t mean you don’t have to work! You still need to keep to a schedule and make sure that you get things done on time. When short on time, we like to try and multitask by doing things on the fly. This may work sometimes, but it’s not a good habit to get into. You may find yourself burning the midnight oil to avoid missing a deadline.
3. Create boundaries with your family. It’s easy for family members to interfere with your work schedule when they’re around all day long. If you have a spouse, kids, or roommates, it’s important that they understand that they need to respect your time as you’re running a business and keep out of your office during work hours!
4. Invest in hardware and software tools to make your job easier, such as setting up separate phone services for business calls, productivity software like Office Suite 360, and a timekeeping program for tracking hours worked for invoicing clients. Setting up your home office just like you would a physical office will help you remember to keep a level of professionalism and structure in your daily tasks when working from home.
The Best Remote-working Software Tools
- Video calls & conferencing: Zoom, Microsoft Teams,
- Collaboration and task management: Slack, Basecamp, Dropbox
- File-sharing and documents: Google Drive and Google Docs
- Note-taking and To-Do lists: Evernote
- Time-tracking and invoicing: Quickbooks Time, Toggl Time
Like anything else, working from home takes a certain level of self-discipline and motivation. If you’re not motivated to work or you’re too distracted by other things going on around you, it’s not likely you will be successful in your endeavors. Motivation is key to staying productive while working from home, but discipline and structure are also important.
There are many advantages to working from home. Among them:
There are many workers for certain jobs with certain people who have obstacles, for example a housewife who has small children can work from home while taking care of her child.
parents who have children can still work without having to leave their children.
Working from home saves on transportation costs. The first advantage of WFH is that you don’t have to spend money on transportation. Because, you no longer need to pay for public transportation, online transportation or buying gasoline. You can also be free from traffic jams and save time on the trip.
Improve communication skills
With the lack of face-to-face communication when working from home, you will gradually adjust the way you communicate with coworkers better during this work from home period. With these adjustments, you indirectly also have additional skills in communication so that you are more flexible and will be more sensitive to use communication methods that are appropriate to the time and place when the world returns to normal later.
Working freely to set working hours Working from home also allows you to set your own work time as you wish. Work from home allows you to decide when work should start and when it should be finished. That way, you can easily adjust your time to other needs, such as cooking , washing and cleaning the house. But, that doesn’t mean you can work however you want!
Then, what are the benefits of working from home next? When you work from home (work from home), you can create a more comfortable working atmosphere and as desired so that it can be more conducive. Therefore, by working from home (work from home) you will be safer to avoid the distractions that are sometimes present at work. With minimal distractions, of course you will find it easier to present maximum work results which can also cut your work time so that you have more maximum rest time.