Jobhop Jobhop's blog : How To Stay Motivated When Working From Home
Are you one of the millions that have been working from home since early 2020?
Not everyone has returned to the workplace, and not every company will fully return to the typical office environment.
How do you stay motivated when working from home?
We’ve seen many reports where some people love it, and others who are finding it a struggle.
Whichever category you fall into, here are some tips to stay motivated and not overwhelmed with working from home.
* Create a dedicated workspace, for some, this is an entire home office, for others, it’s setting up on the dining table. However you manage it, creating a space that you can arrive at, and, more importantly, can leave every day will help to stop the home and work bleeding into each other.
* Your working hours may still be 9-5, but you no longer have an hours commute at each end of your day. This doesn’t mean rolling out of bed and straight to the desk, honour your old routine. Ensure you are waking up at the usual time every day, make time for breakfast, to be part of the morning with your family, to get yourself ready and even to listen to a podcast or some music, before turning up to your workspace at 9 am ready. By doing this you are setting yourself up for a working day, you are affording yourself some valuable time, the brain will appreciate the serotonin boost and you will be engaged and ready for your day.
* Additionally, take a lunch. Get up from your workspace, make lunch and sit and enjoy it elsewhere, it could be in the garden or taking your dog for a quick walk, but leave your workspace to take a break. If you don’t do this, you aren’t affording any time for your brain to take a break and reset, instead, you are tiring it out, resulting in a mid-afternoon lag.
* If you used to leave work at 5 to rush home in time for dinner, or to pick kids up from an after-school club, then you must still finish at 5. Make your to-do list for the following day and log off at 5, just as if you were in the workplace. It may be tempting, but don’t log back in to send that email in the evening, allow yourself the downtime.
* Plan your week or day ahead, crossing off tasks as you go, remembering to schedule time for breaks and meetings, emails, or general admin time. Doing this will help keep you focused and on track, as well looking after yourself by ensuring breaks are still prioritised.
* Working from home can mean you are easily distracted, perhaps by a family pet, and child or your partner, or even the tv or phone. Normally, people wouldn’t think to call you while in the workplace, but now you are based at home, they think it's okay. Set your phone to do not disturb or silent, don’t put the tv on, wear your headphones, or schedule your work in small blocks to allow 10 minutes reset time with (older) children. All of these are small actionable steps you can take to minimise your distractions.
* Don’t get into the habit of multitasking. So don’t fold the washing when you should be paying attention to a meeting, you couldn’t do it before working from home and you run the risk of missing important information.
Back when many of us were thrust into working from home with no warning, we adapted quickly, falling into habits and routines without noticing, and now some of us will continue to work remotely its time to form new habits.
Working on a healthy routine will benefit you physically and mentally, allowing for a clear separation between working and being off the clock in order to conquer feeling overworked, overwhelmed and instead become happy and productive.
- Career