8 Tips You Need To Be Successful At Working From Home

Working from home is a relatively new concept that is becoming more popular every day. Thanks to COVID-19, more employers are jumping on the remote work bandwagon than ever before. Hopefully this is a trend that is here to stay. 

The freedom and flexibility that comes from a remote work life is unparalleled. Most people tend to increase their productivity while minimizing the hours worked. This is great for all. While us digital nomads have been working remotely for awhile now, working from home or remotely can be tough for some at first. 

I can no longer imagine coming into an office every day, or being forced to work in one spot. After working remotely for two years, it’s become obvious that this shouldn’t be expected. Why do we need to go into an office for 8 hours a day? It’s a waste of everybody’s time and an outdated business and productivity model. 

While it’s been shown that there are really only benefits to working remotely, you may need some help getting started in order to reap those benefits. Working remotely is a learned skill. You may struggle with motivation and holding yourself accountable, but trust me, it gets easier. While working from home during a pandemic is definitely more challenging, the tips below are relevant to most remote workers’ situations.

Use this guide to get the most out of your work from home life.  Hopefully, you can convince your employer to go digital indefinitely once you prove your skills.

1. Live By Your Calendar

I schedule everything. I’m serious. Every single thing I do is in my calendar and it keeps me accountable. Every Sunday night, I sit down for about 45 minutes and design my calendar for the week.

This means I have whatever social plans, events, trips, workout sessions and appointments all mapped out. From there, I map out my work week. I don’t just put meetings and deadlines on my calendar, I literally break down each day and schedule a time block.

Say I have blogs to write, SEO and keyword research, various tutorials, writing sessions, Pinterest maintenance, volunteer stuff, etc. I literally break down each specific task in several hour blocks.

Breaking down my work schedule into specific chunks of time is my biggest motivator and productivity hack. This way I’m not checking multiple to do lists, forgetting obvious things and trying to remember what I’m doing every day. It’s all planned out and it’s there for me to seamlessly follow, with no thought. 

2. Set Unrealistic Deadlines

This is the ultimate productivity hack. As a friend once reminded me, the biggest issue with office work is that we have to fill an 8 hour work day every day. Why? Because our boss is expecting this and watching us. However, most of the time, our work week does not need to be 40 hours. We could be so much more efficient.

If you’re working from home or remotely, efficiency should be your best friend. You should absolutely be getting more done, in less time, than ever before. How though? By setting yourself up for success with extremely unrealistic deadlines. 

If you convince yourself you have one hour, 15 minutes, two hours, to get a task done, you probably will. If you know you have all day to do one thing, you’ll probably find a way to make that thing last all day. This should never happen once you start working from home. 

Set those “unrealistic” deadlines and watch miracles happen. Literally cut yourself off when your time is up and you’ll start training yourself to work better, and faster every day. You’ll have more free time, and you’ll ultimately be accomplishing the same amount of work, if not more, than before. 

3. Don’t Assume Wifi Is Always Available

This is for those work from anywhere workers (like me). I live and breathe cafe work spaces, and traveling while working. As such, good wifi is essential. If you’re planning on working from the road, from various trendy cafes, or even wineries, you should never assume that good wifi is always available.

Do your research. If you’re traveling, don’t just settle for the wifi icon on your Airbnb or hotel listing. Specifically ask your host or front desk what the wifi speed is and if it’s suitable for remote work. Stress that this is essential for your stay. That way, if it ends up being a nightmare, you have a documented reason to support you if you need to switch accommodations and get a refund while you’re at it.

For cafes, check the reviews and the pictures diligently to ensure this is a workable space. Then reach out to the business directly to confirm that their wifi is available and it’s suitable to work at. I’ve had many, many situations where I was stranded in the middle of a work day with no decent wifi and had to burn through my monthly data or get behind on the work day. Don’t let a lack of preparation ruin your work week. 

4. Schedule Your Breaks

If you’re struggling with motivation or work life balance when working from home, this is your solution. Don’t forget your breaks! If you’re used to office or scheduled work, you’re used to being told to take a 10 minute break or a lunch break. Once you’re at home, no one’s going to tell you to stretch or move or shut the computer down for a moment. You are your own daily boss. 

Make sure you’re still taking rest and recharge breaks, because you need this to be your best at work. Schedule these on your calendar to set yourself up for success and then stick to it! Turn your computer or slack off, get up and take a breather, everyday, throughout the day. 

5. Create Your Own Work Space 

If you’re working from home, you’ll need to find a way to designate a work zone in your house. If you start working from your bed, or sofa every day you’re going to quickly find that you either struggle with motivation or you struggle to relax when the work day is off. When blending your work and home space, you need to be intentional about how you do this in order to keep that work life balance. 

Create your own “office” so you start associating that space with work, and the rest of your apartment as home and rest. If this doesn’t work for you, maybe you’re a cafe worker like me or someone that needs to do a little bit of both. 

Sometimes, a day or two at a co-working space, another day at a cafe, and the rest from home is what works the best. Play around with it and you’ll find how you function and thrive the best for remote work. 

6. Be Diligent About Work Life Balance

This goes into the all important work life balance. So many of my friends have said that since the pandemic, and working from home for the first time, their companies have really taken advantage. They suddenly work all day and night, with no excuse to “unplug” any more. This is not the goal of working from home. 

You need your boundaries more than ever so that you can still differentiate the work day with the rest of your day. First of all, make sure that your contract and expected work hours are firmly negotiated and defined with your employer before making your switch. If you’re working across time zones, this is super important. There should be no confusion on when you’ll be available to pick up the phone or have meetings.

Deadline and project based work is my personal favorite, especially when it comes to working remotely. You should not be expected to be sitting in your house for 8 hours a day if you don’t need to anymore. But you should be expected to deliver on your deadlines and get your work done just like before. 

Once you have clearly defined work hours and deadlines with your employer, you can define your work life balance for yourself. If you work for yourself, or you’re a freelancer, it’s important that you know when to shut off the computer and relax. Just because you can work whenever, doesn’t mean you suddenly should be all the time. 

7. Silence Your Phone and Turn Off Your Wifi

When it comes to working efficiently, losing hours on the internet and social media is really our downfall. If you’re setting tight deadlines, breaking down your schedule, and scheduling your breaks, you should also be putting your phone away during these scheduled work times. 

If the work you’re doing doesn’t involve wifi, turn your wifi off on your computer so you’re not tempted to suddenly open a browser and get distracted. During your task blocks, put your phone somewhere else and set it to do not disturb. This works wonders for me personally. I cannot believe how distracted I am by my phone, so I have to be vigilant with this or I’ll lose a day. 

8. Create Community

Last but not least, don’t forget your community and support system. This is the biggest thing I miss about going into work: having co-workers to see and talk to. Work is unfortunately a big part of our lives, so having people who understand this part of our life and can relate is important. 

If your co-workers are remote, having regular zoom calls or having a virtual buddy is super important. If you are your own business, networking is everything. Many freelancers work from co-working spaces occasionally, purely to meet other people like them.

Most places I’ve gone to have digital nomad meet ups or co-working networking events, and I’d definitely recommend seeking these out. Just because we no longer have an office doesn’t mean we should no longer have a professional community and network. 

---