Working from Home? Top 11 Tips to Staying Efficient and Motivated on the Job

Tips on how you can effectively work from the comfort of your home

Data shows that working from home increases employee productivity, drives efficiency, lowers stress and boost moral. These are amazing benefits. To take full advantage of them, it’s important to ensure you follow certain guidelines. If you work from home or are thinking of it, check out these top tips to make the most of your time:

1. Make a special space for yourself: you need to feel professional when working from home and working off the kitchen table sometimes just doesn’t do it. Find a room that isn’t used much (living room and/or dining room) and carve out a spot. If you’re lucky, you can dedicate a full room for a home office.
2. Make your office space ‘pretty’: When you find a spot for your office, invest in dual purpose furniture and make your space ‘pretty’. This is important because you need to be able to turn ‘off’ when work is over. Shutting a door, putting things away in a cabinet and ensuring your space looks good allows you to go from work to play in a matter of minutes which helps find harmony between the blurred lines of working from home. Hint: Murphy beds are great if you convert your spare room into an office!
3. Invest in technology: Get yourself a high-quality printer, computer, high speed internet, dedicated phone lines, to name a few things. These are your tools of the trade and if they are sub standard it makes working from home harder. It’s like trying to hit a nail with a screwdriver…you can do it but it’s frustrating as hell.
4. Invest in people: Find people who can be of assistance/service to you. When working from an office, all your resources are at your finger tips. When working from home, not so much. You got an IT problem, who do you call? You have an emergency print job, who do you call? Take the time and find people who can support you to be successful working from home. Put these people on a speed dial list.
5. Network: Now that you work from home it’s more important to network and put yourself front and center. You may be getting a lot done but you aren’t surrounded by people who ‘see’ it. So, you need to be diligent in ‘sharing’ with others the great work you’re doing.
6. Use technology: Use the many amazing software/apps we have out there. Use Skype for conference calls, use the cloud for data storage and sharing, use apps for file management and easy accessibility. You don’t have to be in the same location to retrieve your information or share it.
7. Perform mundane multitasking: I’m the first to say that multitasking never works. You can’t drive and text at the same time, not only because it’s illegal, but because both activities use our brain. But you can put in a load of laundry when you’re on a business call. This is one of the many perks of working from home. You don’t have to deal with rush hour traffic and you can get your laundry done too. Just don’t get sidetracked with doing too much around the house. Do your major chores during your personal hours.
8. Internet restrictions on specific devices: OK, working from home can sometimes be distracting. I’ve made myself lunch and turned on Netflix to watch one more episode of a season I’m really into…this is a slippery slope. Not good when you’re on a deadline. You need a lot of self-discipline to not fall into this trap so if you have devices not needed for working, put internet restrictions on them.
9. Put up a ‘Do not disturb’ sign: This is important when you need concentrated efforts of time with no interruptions (this also works in the office). I use our PowerHour door hanger. It’s bright green on one side saying ok to knock and come in; or bright red on the other saying do not disturb come back later.
10. Play the part: It’s important to feel professional when working from home. You don’t have to get dressed up in a suit, unless you want to, but getting out of your PJ’s helps with putting you in the right frame of mind of creating and working vs lounging and resting.
11. Be flexible with your day: Yay, you work from home. There are a lot of bonuses when you do this so ensure you enjoy it too. Give yourself a structured time for work and a structured time when you can do other things. Just ensure you are disciplined with your time.