The Complete Guide For Work From Home Success

From an employee’s perspective, there are clear advantages to working from home. But it’s not as if it’s perfect. Without taking a focused approach to your work from home role, you may find that it causes more problems than it solves. The goal is to love working from home, not just tolerate it.

With that in mind, we thought it would be a good idea to put together some useful tips that’ll ensure your work from home experience is nothing but positive. 

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Go for a Morning Walk

You might not have liked the commute to work. But there were advantages to getting out of the house first thing in the morning. It helps to wake up your mind and puts a clear divide between your time in bed and your working hours. When you’re working from home, there’ll be no “need” to get out of the house. But still, it’s recommended that you do. A walk around the block will help to put you in a good mood and will put you in the right frame of mind to get to work. 

Create a Space

You could work for a day or two at the kitchen table. But if you’re permanently working from home, then that won’t cut the mustard. You’ll find it easier to work well — and more enjoyable — if you have a dedicated workspace within your house. Creating a home office will impact your productivity and also make it easier to switch off once you’re finished for the day. If you’re just working in the kitchen, then that space will always feel like some sort of work/leisure hybrid, which is not the type of energy you should be looking for in your house. A bright room with a comfortable chair and desk is what you should be going for.

Warm and Cool

One of the advantages of going to work in the office: it’s nearly always the right temperature. It’s hard to focus on work if we’re too cold, after all. Work offices are warm thanks to heating and the number of people in there. If you’re going to work well throughout the day, then you’ll need to invest in your heating (and cooling, but that’s less of an issue in the UK). If you’re worried about the cost of heating your entire home all day, then just focus on the room from which you work. A small heater just for your office will do the trick. 

The Right Set Up 

You can probably do your work on any device if you need to. But when you’re working from home, it’s best to put the time and effort into getting the right setup. This will mean a full scale computer if necessary, rather than just typing on your laptop. It might not seem necessary, but if you’ll be working from home with no end in sight, then getting the right tech can be a game-changer that influences your productivity and comfort levels. For instance, even buying a computer mouse can make a difference — it’s a subtle way to improve your setup that can have a big impact on your overall experience. 

Focus on Posture

Your posture is liable to suffer when you’re working from home. That’s because you naturally spend less time standing up throughout the day and because most people don’t have posture-friendly chairs in their homes. Sitting incorrectly won’t do any damage on a short-term basis, but it can make a big impact if you’re sitting incorrectly every day for months on end. 

There are two solutions to this issue. One is to learn how to sit correctly. It can take a bit of practice, but you’ll get used to it eventually. The other is to actively work on your posture by stretching and moving throughout the day. There are plenty of easy-to-do stretches that will improve your posture and alleviate the pain that comes from sitting down all day. 

Staying Social

You might not have always loved the chit-chat in the office, but you probably also don’t enjoy never speaking to people. One of the biggest gripes that workers have about working from home is that they feel isolated and alone. But in this day and age, there’s no reason to feel disconnected from other people. You can still communicate even when you’re not in the same space. Look at setting up a Slack channel with your colleagues (or non-work friends) so you can keep the flow of communication alive. 

City Treats 

Another perk of going to the office: you get to enjoy all the treats that come along with working in the city. It’s nice to go out of the office to get a delicious cup of coffee or a sweet snack. When you’re at home, you might not have the option (since there’s likely to be fewer coffee shops than there are around your work’s office). But that doesn’t mean that you don’t get to enjoy some tasty treats. It’s just that you’ll need to get from home. First up: coffee. Rather than settling for instant coffee, look at investing in the best bean to cup coffee machine; it’ll ensure you can enjoy coffee that you actually want to drink. It’s always recommended to fill your cupboards with (healthy) snacks, so you can give yourself a mid-morning energy boost. 

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Setting a Schedule

If you’re working from home, then it’s likely that you also have control of your schedule. This can be a blessing or a curse, depending on your approach. If you don't really have a schedule, then you could find that you’re spending way too long on tasks and that it’s difficult for you to have a set “cut off” time. As such, it’s recommended that you come up with a schedule that works for you, and stick to it. It’s just much easier to get into the rhythm of work when you start and finish at the same time each day. 

Winding Down

And what about when you do finish? The problem with working from home is that, at the end of the work day, you’re normally just leaving one room and going into another. This can be difficult to really switch off and move into the “leisure time” part of your day. As such, it’s recommended that you take a proactive approach to this period. For instance, you could go for a walk around the block, take a shower, or hit the gym and work up a sweat. Anything that jolts you out of work mode and moves into your personal time will do the trick. 

Bring the Noise 

Some people like peace and quiet when they’re working. But other people find the silence deafening for all the wrong reasons. They need some noise. When you’re working from home, you have the freedom to play around sounds you like, in a way that’s not possible when you work in an office. The trick is to find out which type of noise works best for you. If you miss the general chit-chat of the office, then a podcast or radio station could work, or you might prefer to play a “brown noise” playlist, which has been shown to improve focus. Failing that, it could be the opportunity to just play your favourite songs!

Establish House Rules 

You might be working from home alone. But it’s also possible that there are other people in your house while you’re there. Your kids, housemates, or partner might all be in throughout the day, and this can cause problems if you haven’t set the ground rules for working from home. For example, you might want to let people know that they should not interrupt you during working hours. Another related problem is when someone thinks that, because you’re working from home, you have the time and space to engage in household chores. For this, let them know that the same rules as when you worked in an office apply. 

Managing Distractions (social media(

Finally, let’s think about distractions. There can be many of them when you’re working from home. One good thing about the office is that you can’t spend an hour scrolling through your social media without someone noticing. When you’re home alone, there’s no one to keep an eye on you. You might find yourself texting all day, reading books, or just walking around your house. 

It’s best to take care of this issue as soon as possible. There’s a solution for everything. For instance, you might put restrictions on your phone that prevent you from spending more than a set amount of time on social media. Failing that, you might just take steps to improve your self-discipline, which can have a big impact on your overall quality of life.