Working from home is an attractive option that grants autonomy, creativity, and the opportunity to become your own boss. Often entrepreneurs working from home will feel a sense of ownership, pride, and freedom to set their own goals and follow through with them. The free reign and seemingly infinite opportunity to work when and as much as you please can also run the risk of being easily distracted, losing productivity, and feeling less inspired due to isolation. These three things alone can cause irreparable damage to a business run from home. With the right discipline through the following practices, you can find a way to stay focused, productive, and motivated by applying the following working from home tips.
Making the Most of Your Time
Not a 9-to-5 person? You don’t have to be. Often the chief reason for choosing to work at home is to avoid the menial, Monday through Friday timeslot that they dread so much. It’s still important, however, to create a disciplined schedule and stick to it. Don’t just think it’s a chance to sleep in throughout the day, by dedicating yourself to the nocturnal work of twilight hours, you could find yourself only being productive for 2-3 hours per day—if that. What’s best is to find a rhythm where you can get 6-9 hours of work done in an average day. If you can find the times you’re most productive and/or most creative you can stay disciplined and outwork the conventional alternative.
Décor Productively
When working from home you should differentiate between the spaces to relax and the space to be productive. You cannot rely on having the same flow of energy from the same spaces. The workspace and home are both extensions of your life where you will dedicate much of your time and energy. While it’s important to decorate your work area according to your personality, getting too comfortable could run the risk of being unproductive. For instance, working from the couch is often discouraged, the same way in which having a desk with work stuff shouldn’t be the ideal place for watching weekend movies and sports. It’s important to decorate your space as a means of inspiring productivity.
Move Around Places to Work
Working from home can blur the line between work/life balance. What this can do is affect productivity and create isolation. Working in your pajamas for too long can leave you couch-locked and antisocial. This can also impact your ability to meet other colleagues and collaborate with them.
The first solution for avoiding isolation is to find entrepreneur groups, meet-ups, seminars, workshops, and conferences with people of a similar industry. The second solution, the one we prefer the most, is to spend some time working in a shared space or Coworking office. Not only will you be in the presence of other people in an environment designed for the best productivity, but you will also expand your horizons and learn new things about your business and how you can make it work best.
Working from home shouldn’t just make entrepreneurship easier, it can also make it more effective. Using these working from home tips should enable you to stay focused, motivated, and disciplines to make the most out of how you work. Make sure to avoid these pitfalls by finding the time of the day that gets the most work done and sticking to it, decorating your work area toward fulfilling your tasks, as well as finding ways to work with others through shared spaces and entrepreneur groups. For more information on how WUN can improve productivity, boost morale, and build community, please click the button below.