How to Successfully Work From Home

by Mark Dollan

Many of us continue to work from home, or at least work from home much more often in 2020. Likewise, there are a great many of us who have spent years working in an office, or from the road. Working M from home is a blessing in many ways. However, more than a couple of months in you may realize that days and hours blur, and there seems to be a lack of structure that can impact mood and productivity.

Having spent about two-thirds of my career working from a home office, I thought I would share some of the tips and tricks I’ve discovered over the years to help avoid the subtle challenges of working from home.

5-Part Plan to Stay Productive While Working from Home Create A Routine And Stick With It

One of the biggest challenges with working from home that can lead to burnout is not protecting home life and personal time. And the best way to avoid that is to create a daily routine.

For example, start and stop work at the same time every day. This helps create a feeling of separation between work and personal time. Obviously, there may be an occasional need to put in a few extra hours. But, when you live where you work it’s easy to slip into unhealthy patterns of working long hours too often or working random hours.

The more you stick to the daily routine you create, the less you’ll feel work bleeding into your personal time.

Get Dressed For Work

This is one classic work-from-home trick that has research to back it up. Getting dressed for work, as if you were going to the office, has a profound psychological effect that works to your benefit. It’s all about how it makes you feel.

First, by dressing for work and changing into casual attire after hours, it further separates your work and home life and reinforces that daily routine. It also can help you feel more focused, competent, and professional as you go about the day. And these positive feelings will increase your personal productivity and sense of accomplishment.

Create A Dedicated Work Area In Your Home

One of the most important tips I learned by working from home over the years is to separate my work area from my living space as much as possible. Doing this helps you be able to “leave the office” after working hours as part of your daily routine.

If you can, try to set up a dedicated workspace away from the common living areas of your home. Spaces like your living room or kitchen are areas that should remain sacred to your home life and personal time if possible. That way, when you’re making dinner or watching a movie, you won’t be looking at your desk and thinking about work.

Likewise, if you can manage it, try to leave your desk completely at lunch and eat in another room. Everyone needs to take a break from work to rest and recharge. And physically separating yourself from your workspace during your personal time will help you mentally disconnect from work in a healthy way. »

Make Exercise Part Of Your Routine

By working from home, you’ll find that you’re logging fewer steps per day than you were at the office or from the road. However, exercise does more than help to keep our bodies healthy and trim. It also has mental benefits. Exercise has been proven effective by many studies to help relieve stress, anxiety, and depression. So, keep moving to keep your spirits up and make exercise part of your daily routine.

Over Communicate

Loneliness and isolation are two common feelings remote workers experience. And the best way to combat those feelings is through communication. Because we’re not all working in the same office space right now, it’s important we all make an extra effort to stay in touch and check-in with each other. This involves communicating with your teammates and manager more often than you normally might. By staying in closer contact with each other while not in the office can help reduce miscommunications, and minimize the feelings of loneliness and isolation working from home can cause.

The Good News

Here’s a bonus suggestion for you. Because work is still work, and home and personal time is sacred, keep in mind that you deserve a prolonged break. A getaway? Time for a project you’ve been putting off? Yes, those of us who work from home still need to take a vacation. So think about where and how to spend that time, and get it scheduled! MHV

Mark Dollan is vice president of marketing for MHVillage and a six-time international award-winning marketer. He has been an official judge for the Davey Awards, W3 Awards, and Communicator Awards for more than a decade.

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