How to Work from Home Effectively

It is becoming increasingly popular for people to work from home, even if it is only one or two days a week.  Working from home can seem like such a great idea, but how do you make sure you don’t end up still in your PJ’s, watching Jeremy Kyle reruns at three o’clock in the afternoon?  With fewer restrictions and no boss hovering over your shoulder, sometimes we can relax a little too much, causing productivity to suffer.

Here are my tips that will ensure you are as productive at home, as you are in the office;

How to work from home effectively

• Create a happy work space – Our work surroundings play a large part in how we feel about our work and consequently affects our productivity.  Setting up an attractive desk area, with everything you need ordered and to hand, will help you feel in control.  Perhaps pop up some inspiring pictures on the wall and create a space that gives you positivity.

• Dress as if you are going to the office – It can be VERY tempting, when you are at home all day, to throw on some casual comfy’s or remain in your PJ’s!  Clothes have a tremendous effect on how we feel.  To feel in control, you have to look in control and no-one looks in control sitting in their jim jams with bed hair.  So dressing for the office, will put you in the right frame of mind for the day ahead and will make you more effective.

• Set yourself a schedule – When you work in the office, you may have a coffee break or lunch time.  Breaks that divide your day up.  These breaks will refresh and re-energise you.  The risk with working from home is this schedule doesn’t exist and so your day might turn into one large chunk.  This may mean that your productivity drops, so set your self a schedule and give yourself regular breaks.

• You are at work!  Don’t get distracted by putting the washing on or giving the place a quick hoover.  The chances are one quick ‘home’ task will turn into a few and before you know it you have put the tea on and mopped the kitchen floor.  So have breaks, but treat them like the breaks you would have at work in an office, I doubt you would be mopping the floor there!

• Limit external distractions, such as unwanted telephone calls.  Panasonic call blocking phones, for example, can be useful to block those annoying interruptions from telemarketers.  We get so many a day and if you add them all up, it can be a significant proportion of time.

Do you work from home?  What are your top tips to remain efficient without the office constraints?

Disclosure: This is a collaborative post.