Work-from-home jobs have grown increasingly popular over time. And for good reason: having a home office can help increase productivity, reduce stress levels and enhance overall work-life balance.
Remote work can also reduce your carbon footprint: in 2015 alone, remote workers cut their average commute time in half, saving 7 billion vehicle miles!
1. Set a Schedule
An outline of your work day includes tasks you need to accomplish and can help you prioritize them for maximum productivity. By creating and following a schedule, it allows you to organize your priorities more effectively so you can get more work done faster.
Develop a schedule is key for remote workers who wish to make the most of their time. Without one, it could be easy to become easily distracted or waste time on nonproductive activities that don’t serve your goals.
If you have many personal responsibilities, such as taking care of a child, then creating a schedule to balance work with other obligations can help keep everything on track. Perhaps setting aside some time each week for personal matters.
Establishing a schedule is also key for managing stress and maintaining productivity. A good schedule helps set realistic deadlines for your projects without overworking or straining yourself too much.
Make a work-at-home schedule using either physical documents or an online calendar app. A digital document may be easier for sharing among multiple people while being easier to edit than its physical equivalent.
As you create your schedule, always take into account when you feel most energetic and productive in order to avoid having one that is either too rigid or too flexible, which could cause you to dread working again.
If you tend to be an late riser, considering selecting an earlier start time. This will allow for extra restorative sleep or fun time with the children before work begins – something particularly challenging for remote workers. This may help ensure a regular sleeping pattern as well as reduce temptation for overwork in the morning hours.
Make a schedule that mixes work and nonwork time, such as taking on projects during lunch breaks and using free time for personal pursuits or fun activities. This is an effective way to balance personal and professional priorities while taking full advantage of working at home career opportunities.
2. Set Boundaries
Work from home can make it hard to distinguish between your professional life and personal life, which makes balancing family life, cooking and cleaning tasks, as well as other household responsibilities difficult. It is often hard to set clear boundaries between work and your personal life when working from home.
Implementing a consistent schedule can help keep you focused on your work and manage time more effectively. This could include setting an alarm on your phone to remind you to set aside work time or setting your computer with an automatic shutoff when you leave the room.
Establishing rules for personal and professional relationships with colleagues, says Moran. You could tell your teammate you require a break during the day or that you will be available until a certain time via chat or instant messaging if they have questions.
Moran emphasizes the importance of setting boundaries as one way to protect one’s mental health and avoid burnout, and also to help gain control over both one’s work life and personal life.
First, determine what boundaries exist before creating them. This could involve setting visual or verbal barriers, like shutting the door to your office or posting signs that show that your work hours run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Set boundaries for yourself by restricting access to social media during working hours or turning off your laptop before bed. A pre- and post-work routine that includes activities like taking a walk, reading a book, or participating in another activity to decompress can also be beneficial in setting aside some of that stress and relaxing.
If you need to work around children, ensure you hold regular conversations with them about your work from home boundaries. Make sure they understand what activities they can and cannot perform.
Boundaries may seem intimidating at first, but they’re essential in protecting your mental health and avoiding burnout. Boundaries can improve productivity, decrease stress levels and make you a happier individual overall; in addition, they help build strong relationships and build self-confidence in yourself and others.
3. Automate Tasks
No matter if it’s your first time working from home or if you have years of experience under your belt, automation of daily tasks is key to staying productive at work from home. Automating can save both time and mental energy so you can focus on work that truly matters instead.
Repetitive tasks can eat away at both time and resources daily for knowledge workers who specialize in complex data-driven tasks. With RPA or other technologies like Natural Language Generation, repetitive tasks can be automated significantly saving both time and resources in daily operations.
Automating service request or ticket management can be a useful task, saving both time and resources for management. Automated solutions may create tickets from emails or forms sent directly to users; send notifications directly to team members; route approval requests to appropriate personnel; add details to reports or dashboards, among other benefits.
Scheduling meetings with clients is another common task that can be automated to increase productivity and make sure every client can arrange their desired appointment with you.
When automating tasks, it’s crucial that software be intuitive and straightforward; this will reduce confusion and allow your employees to become more productive.
Select a process management system that can accommodate multiple teams for optimal collaboration across departments and teams. This will make sharing information and working together easier than ever.
As such, you’ll be able to closely track your work-from-home progress and ensure that everything remains on course.
Calendly also allows you to set your availability preferences, enabling clients to set meetings at times that work best for them.
Saving you multiple hours each day, this strategy will allow you more time and energy to focus on what matters. Plus, it gives you the chance to build relationships with clients and leave an indelible mark in their lives.
Automation can be an excellent asset to anyone working from home, but it’s essential to remember that automation alone won’t ensure productivity. Setting and adhering to a schedule is also key; this allows you to stay on top of tasks without procrastinating and decreases productivity levels.
4. Find a Place to Work
Working from home can save money on travel and commuting expenses while giving you more time with family, particularly if you have children. One study concluded that remote workers were happier and more productive than their counterparts who commuted daily into an office setting.
When selecting an employer to work for, look for ones with competitive compensation packages, an inclusive company culture and supportive leadership teams. Such firms tend to meet employees’ financial, mental and physical needs so that they remain committed long term.
Select a place that’s quiet and private so you can focus on your work without interruption from others. A desk with high privacy glass may help keep unwanted people at bay; or opt for chairs equipped with screen-hiding features as alternatives.
Setting up an effective office or home setup can help you concentrate and be more productive, so it is wise to research what options exist near your location. Perhaps coworking spaces or cafes could offer ideal working environments?
Choose a location with high-speed Internet, which will enable you to keep up with email and online work efficiently. San Diego provides numerous coworking spaces and coffee shops that offer remote workers a relaxing change of scene.
Staying in contact with your colleagues and managers requires using communication tools such as instant messaging and group chat, video calling, as well as scheduling weekly check-ins to discuss upcoming projects and goals.
Your friends and family may assume you don’t work full-time from home, so it’s advisable to inform them that this is in fact your primary source of income. Doing this may help them appreciate just how hard you work while being more supportive in return.
Some of the top work-from-home jobs offer attractive perks for their workers, such as free lunch and gym memberships or other incentives designed to motivate workers. Furthermore, top workplaces often prioritize employee welfare; their culture reflects values they hold dear like strong sense of community or an inclusive diversity program – this makes attracting and retaining talented employees much simpler.
