The following guest post comes to us from Sarah Pike, a Community Outreach Coordinator for BusinessBee, an innovative and resourceful company that helps small companies successfully manage and grow their businesses. Sarah is also a college writing instructor. Be sure to visit her author’s bio below to learn more and to connect!
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How to Ease the Transition to Working from Home
The ability to work remotely grew 80 percent between 2005 and 2012 and it shows no signs of stopping.
Research shows working from home might be harmful to your health, but there are a lot of benefits you can gain from it too. If you’re nervous about making the transition from office work to working remotely, here are some ways to help make that transition a bit easier.
Learn to make yourself “present.”
Many people feel like they’ll miss out on opportunities by working from home. To combat this, make yourself as “present” at the office as possible without actually being there. Connect your smartphone and laptop to your office. Have instant messengers and email open at all times while you work. You can give the impression of being physically in the office by being easily reachable during your normal work hours.
Find more ways to connect.
Working remotely doesn’t necessarily mean working from home. Keep your options open. There are apps available, like Work+, designed to help you find available Wi-Fi connections no matter where you are. This way you won’t feel compelled to stay in your house all day, which can end up feeling just as confining as an office.
It’s been shown Internet access directly correlates to a person’s happiness, so having a good connection is essential to creating the perfect work-life balance. Make sure you have a reliable Internet connection at home or that you’re going to a coffee shop you know has a strong Wi-Fi connection. You’ll need a stable connection with speeds fast enough to handle your workload. If you’re unsure if your at-home Internet is up to par, this test can help you check your speed.
Set your schedule.
You can easily fall into a trap of staying in bed all day when working from home. To prevent this, sit down and define your schedule. It should follow a similar schedule you’d have if you were in the office. Begin work each day at a set time and stick to it. Just remember to end at the specified time each day too. Overworking when you work from home is an easy trap to fall into when you’re working in a solo setting.
As Ariana Huffington discusses in her book “THRIVE,” overworking can lead to sleep-deprivation. Not only can this lead to serious injury, as in the case of Huffington, but it can also lead to a fall in productivity and happiness.
Take breaks.
It’s easy to work without stopping when you don’t have people coming to chat with you or when you don’t have a break room to visit. In the same vein of setting a work schedule, you need to schedule break times. Set aside 15-minute breaks and a lunch period each day—and take them. Studies show people are more productive when they take their breaks.
Create your own commute.
For many people, the drive to work is the ideal time to mentally prepare for the day ahead. You may think you lose that period of reflection and preparation when you work from home, but you don’t have to. Take time each morning to walk to a specific place, maybe your neighborhood coffee shop, and back home. You’ll mimic the morning commute and give yourself time to relax and prepare before the stress of the workday takes over.
Avoid unnecessary distractions.
When you’re at the office, you don’t have the option of throwing in a load of laundry or starting to prep for dinner. When you work remotely, you need to stay disciplined to not do these things. These are distractions only serving to keep you from getting your work done. Set aside time to do your home-life chores when your work is done, not in the middle of it.
Make sure you still socialize.
Studies show that workplace socialization is paramount to getting ahead in a job. Not only does it make you more productive and help cultivate ideas, but it also builds trust among colleagues. Find social groups via sites like Meetup.com to help develop interaction or form a weekly or monthly get together with colleagues.
Over 75 percent of employers with remote work programs in place report happier employees. Clearly, there’s something to be said for working somewhere other than a cubicle. The key to making it work is finding the right balance for your schedule and needs. If you’re considering transitioning to working from out of the office, try out some of these tips to give you the confidence you need to get started!
About the Author: Sarah Pike is a Community Outreach Coordinator for BusinessBee and a college writing instructor. When she’s not teaching or writing, she’s probably binge-watching RomComs on Netflix or planning her next camping trip. She also enjoys following far too many celebrities than she should on Instagram. You can find Sarah on Twitter at @sarahzpike.
