There are diverse opinions on why you should or should not work from home. People who work from home or remotely have shared their success stories with potential remote workers. When done right, working from home can save you commute time, money and can actually make you happier.
What’s your personalty type?
If you can comfortably and productively work independently without supervision, you could consider working from home from time to time to save you some time and cost of transportation.
On the other hand if you tend to procrastinate a lot, it may take time to do some productive work from home. You should just know your personalty type to make the most of a home office.
Start your day with a to-do list
Start your day off by writing down exactly what needs to be accomplished by the end of your day. And focus on getting that done. You are better off with a list than just doing anything that needs to be done in the week. Focus on daily tasks.
To be wholly focused on your work, pretend you are not at home and remain focused on working productively without home distractions.
You still need to stick to a plan!
Social distractions are real and they could be your worst enemy when you want to work from. The temptation to keep switching between browser tabs just to check your social updates is more real than you think.
Just because you are connected all the time doesn’t mean you should be available to everybody at all times. Set up absolute productive time for yourself where you focus on getting work done. Of course you should also set time for your breaks just like you will do in a traditional office.
Essential tools for working effectively from home
Get the best internet at home
Don’t underestimate the power of a great internet service. The most frustrating thing about working from home is to an erratic internet service that disturbs your flow. Make sure your internet providers are given you the best of broadband service.
There are many factors to consider when comparing packages from BT or Sky broadband, but perhaps the most important are speed, cost and contract length. The first step in making a decision is to know exactly what you need.
Make the cloud your home!
Remote workers love the freedom work from home, coffee shops, libraries and shared offices. You can comfortably transform the way you work by getting used to the cloud.
Don’t keep important files on your desktop computer or your laptop, you can loose it easily with a single problem on your laptop. There are now robust cloud storage apps like Dropbox, box, Gooogle Drive, SkyDrive etc that even offer free spaces if you intend to keep just work files. That way you can log in from anywhere and never need to worry about having your files with you or having to protect your laptop from crishing wich is out of your control.
You can still use your wall!
If you like the idea of a brainstorming board, you can easily fix one for yourself in your house for your personal idea generation sessions.. You could host your own brainstorming session with a simple idea board on the wall.
Remodel your home office!
Perhaps one of the best ways to effectively make use of your home office is to invest a little money to make it look like a real office. You can significantly increase your productivity if your working environment at home is as good as any other traditional office.
How about a nice sofa, built-in bookshelves and mini storage cabinets, special lighting and a comfortable office desk. Get yourself a comfortable business chair to get your working without back pains.
Stay in touch with co-workers
Not everyone can work from home without communication. There is some benefit to being able to speak with coworkers.
If you still have a traditional office and work from home from time to time, it’s important to maintain communication with employees from the office. Speak to a manager or a superior from the office at least once a day at stay close to what is going at the office. Tools like Asana, Skype, CoTap (WhatsApp for business) could be useful.
Let us know if you have tried working from home and how you have successfully done it.
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