In the last few days, the world has moved from being in-person to virtual. Working from home may seem like a good thing, but for many of us, working from home can be stressful. For instance, how do you separate your personal space from business? How do you stay on task and not get distracted? Listen, I have been working from home for a little over three years and when I first started, these questions often crossed my mind. So, I’d like to share five tips that have helped me become more successful from working at home which I hope you will find beneficial.
#1 Make a Home Office Space
Don’t place yourself in front of the television or work from the comfort of your bed. These are personal areas where you go to relax and if you choose to work here it will make it harder for you to stay on track with your work goals. My workspace is a bedroom that I converted to an office. If you don’t have the ability to convert one of your bedrooms into an office space, then I would choose your kitchen or dining table to work. But make sure that when you go to this area, you are in the mindset to work.
#2 Create a Daily Work Schedule
Now is not the time to change the regular schedule you had in the office. Get up and go to your designated workspace just as you would in the office. Don’t allow working from home to be a reason for these changes. Clients will still expect that they can reach you during these times, so be available for them!
#3 Dress for Success
It can be really easy to stay in your PJ’s all day and work. But studies have shown that if you get up and get dressed to work from home that your performance will be the same if not better than when you were working from the office. Being in relaxed clothes can make one feel too comfortable, which will hurt your productivity.
#4 Take Steps Not to be Interrupted
Make sure to let your friends and family know that during certain hours you are not free to take phone calls or texts. If you are at home and others are around, you place a note on the door that says “Do Not Disturb” or get headphones and wear them to help you cancel out distractions to stay focused. For co-workers, share your calendar so that they know when you are busy and free to get calls.
#5 Have Daily Check-ins With Your Team
Set up a quick Zoom, Go-To-Meeting or Skype meeting daily for 10-15 minutes so that you can video chat with your team to help you stay connected with each other on all the essential tasks needed to be accomplished. These calls or video chats will also help you not feel so isolated being at home. If you can’t do video chats then use a chat service such as Slack to chat throughout the day with your team to stay connected.
These are just a few of the basics that have helped me when I started working from home and I hope that they will help you too. If you need more tips on how to make calls, or how to conduct meetings from home we have several courses that can help such as “Working Remotely” or our “Distance Selling” series. Log into your training account today. And if you’re not a P1 Learning subscriber, no worries! Register for a 7-day demo here.