Working from home has many benefits, including more flexible hours and eliminating the hassle of commuting. But working from home introduces a whole new set of challenges.
Here are some common ones:
- Household chores and other distractions
- Housemates and their needs
- Unclear boundaries between home and work life
- Staying motivated
- Lack of direction and unclear performance metrics
- Managing time and schedule (either overworking or goofing off).
Sound familiar? If you work from home then you probably struggle with one or more of these. I know I do.
Read on for strategies to help you overcome these challenges and work from home more successfully.
Be honest about the realities.
We cannot control every aspect of our environment. For example, if you have children or pets at home, there are going to be interruptions, unwanted noises, and occasional squabbles. To expect otherwise is to set yourself up for extra frustration.
Take an honest look at the realities and limitations of your living space, housemates, neighborhood, and equipment. Maybe you’re dealing with cramped quarters, fire sirens, or the noises of a busy street. Wishing things were different doesn’t help. Neither does blaming your lack of productivity on others.
Instead, do your best to get the cooperation of housemates, and work together to figure out what you can do to limit the impact of external factors. Read on for suggestions on how to do that.
Minimize distractions.
Distractions come in many forms. Here are a few common distractions unique to the home-office worker:
- Household chores
- Housemates
- Pets
- Snacks and cooking
- Toys/sports/hobbies
- TV
- Bed
Which ones distract you the most? Identify your biggest distractions and come up with a plan to limit their effect. Here are a few ideas: Store sporting goods or hobby equipment elsewhere. Schedule household chores into your daily planner so you aren’t tempted to tackle them during working hours. Move your work space away from the TV, your bed, or the kitchen so you aren’t tempted to take extra breaks. Lock pets out of your work area so they don’t interrupt you.
Get clear on your goals.
How can you prioritize your time when you don’t know what the most important goals are? If you haven’t been given clear goals and performance metrics, ask your boss to clarify them. If you’re self-employed, spend some time coming up with reasonable goals (weekly, monthly, quarterly) and performance metrics that will help you stay on task and be productive.
Set clear, specific boundaries.
If you don’t create distinct boundaries for your working time, everyone in the house will continue to treat you as if you’re home and available 24/7. Therefore, you need to clearly explain the differences between your at work vs. at home expectations, so everyone in the house is aware of what is and isn’t allowed during your work day.
Housemates of all ages require easy-to-identify cues so they know when you’re at work and when you’re not. It might be as simple as putting a sticky note on the door, reminding others not to disturb you. If you aren’t able to shut yourself in a home office or studio, look for creative solutions for sharing living space during work hours. Curtains, a specific pair of headphones, or some other visual cue can help housemates remember to leave you alone.
Create clear guidelines regarding what kind interruptions are allowed during working hours, how housemates should communicate with you, and how to handle situations you can’t ignore. Can you delegate simple household decisions to someone else while you work? Or what about agreeing on specific times during the day when you are available to talk with housemates about the issues that arise.
Communicate your schedule ahead of time so everyone knows when you will be free and when you won’t. Also plan ahead so that everyone knows about important meetings and can work potentially noisy or disruptive activities around those hours.
Get into “work mode.”
You need clear work boundaries in your own head, too. Defining concrete hours for your workday will help you make the mental switch from work mode to home mode. I suggest choose an actual start time and stop time for your work day, and then sticking to that decision as much as possible. This will help you avoid the twin perils of procrastinating and becoming a workaholic.
Working from home will go smoother when you keep your working life and your home life in separate boxes. A fuzzy boundary between work mode and home mode wreaks havoc on your productivity and adds tension to your housemate relationships.
Read this post to learn more about training your brain to switch into work mode.
Take chore breaks.
If keeping up with household chores is a struggle or a constant temptation, try this idea—Take a planned break from work and use the time to complete a few quick household tasks. The benefits of this strategy include A) helping you tick items off your household to-do list, B) giving you a quick boost of motivation because you just did something active and productive, and C) helping you fully disengage from the work task for a time, so you’re brain can rest.
Chore breaks are not an excuse to put off difficult work tasks so you can iron the bed sheets. Breaks should be strategic and planned ahead of time. Give yourself a goal of working to a predetermined time or the completion of a specific task. When you hit that goal, get up and take a break for about 15 minutes. You may be surprised how many household tasks you can complete in that amount of time.
When the 15 minutes is up, return to work and get back into the next task.
Keep track of your work.
Even if you aren’t required to log your work hours, do so. Keep track of when you start and stop work tasks, and what you accomplished during the day. Here are four reasons why it’ a good practice:
- Logging hours helps you stay on track and reminds you of your work priorities
- Being able to look back and see what you’ve accomplished in a day or week boosts motivation and feelings of accomplishment.
- The work log is helpful when facing performance appraisals or other discussions.
- It helps you identify when you are most and least productive. If you log your time and work activities for a few days and you may learn some surprising insights about when and how you work best. Knowing when you do your best work helps you schedule you day for maximum efficiency.
The bottom line
To summarize, a lot of your success at working from home hinges on how you manage the distractions around you. Communication, clear boundaries between worn and home life, and finding ways to reduce distractions will all help you work more productively and reduce tensions with those you share space with.
Have you heard the good news about my novel, Death and a Crocodile? It won two awards in August. It was a finalist in the 2021 American Fiction Awards, historical mystery category and it won the 2021 Golden Scroll Novel of the Year!
