According to a recent survey, more than 40% of Americans work remotely. In Russia, statistics are much more modest. The number of employees working remotely does not exceed 5%.
Work at home has obvious advantages: from the lack of the need to buy office clothes to the opportunity to save money on daily transport. But, despite such significant privileges, remote work does not boil down to walking in pajamas all day or playing sports in the middle of the day. Many people believe in the myth that freelancers work a couple of hours a day and manage the rest of the time freely. However, this is far from the truth. Most employees spend much more hours on work than they would carry out their duties while sitting in the office. Remote work requires a high level of self-organization and discipline.
There are some tips on how to motivate yourself and not get out of the schedule if you choose remote work.
Organize your workplace
The fact that you do not work in the office does not mean that you cannot create a business space at home. If you do not prepare a specially designated place, the probability of finding yourself in the middle of a working day lying on the couch in front of the TV. It is important to clearly divide your home into leisure and business areas.
The mental association that you create between work and office makes you more productive. Therefore, there is no reason to get rid of her by performing job functions remotely.
Get started early
When you work in the office, time spent in transport helps you wake up and feel ready for a fruitful day. At home, however, the transition from a pillow to a computer is much sharper.
Believe it or not, one way to work remotely is to plunge into your to-do list right after waking up. Simply completing a work task first thing in the morning can be the key to making progress on a project throughout the day. Otherwise, stretching breakfast, you allow morning lethargy to prevail and deplete your motivation.
Take breaks for communication
Remember that you work at home, not on the moon. Communication with people is permissible, even if they are not colleagues. If you feel that the number of tasks makes you feel bad, and the desire to work effectively has disappeared somewhere, go out into the air. For example, you can stroll over a cup of coffee to the nearest cafe where all the waiters are familiar to you, or meet a friend at lunchtime. Social communication is an important part of human life. You can’t refuse them. Lack of informal communication, contrary to expectations, reduces productivity and leads to isolation and depression.
Do not have breakfast or lunch at your desk
Eating at your desk means mixing workspace and nonworking spaces. This always leads to confusion in the head and disruption of the schedule.
Take full breaks. Enjoy your breakfast and lunch in a comfortable environment.
Despite this, remember that cooking is better the night before to avoid switching to a home routine.
Schedule
Freelance gives you the right to be your own boss. But still, it’s important to be disciplined to do the work when you should do it.
If no one is watching us, we tend to be lazy and put things off for later. This is bad for the result.
To avoid such consequences, adhere to a strict schedule. Use the online calendar to remind you of personal appointments and scheduled tasks. Try to choose the hours of work that are most comfortable for you and effective in your area of work. Do not be distracted from work at this time.
Keep busy
A strange but true rule of performance is that the more things you have planned, the more you will complete. This is similar to Newton’s law of inertia: "Every body is in a state of motion or rest until the forces acting on it change this state." Productive people are constantly engaged in any activity during working hours so as not to lose motivation.
Dress like you are going to a meeting
There is an opinion that you need to wear things that you would wear to the work that you want to get, and not to the one that you already have. When you are a freelancer, this theory is often not applied in practice. However, very in vain. Clothing affects the working condition of the spirit. Do not neglect morning changing clothes, even if you plan to spend the whole day at home. This one will help you tune in for a productive day.
Work elsewhere at least once a week
Work from home is awesome ... until your pet decides to smash the apartment in order to distract you from business, or the neighbor doesn’t start repairing using all kinds of noisy power tools.
Changing the atmosphere is sometimes very helpful. Coffee houses, libraries, coworking and similar facilities where there is Wi-Fi perfectly imitate office energy.
