14 Tips for Working From Home to Make it Easy & Effective

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“Success means doing the best we can with what we have.”

– Zig Ziglar

What if you could enjoy all the bonuses of working from home and feel as connected & focused on work as at any regular office? How can you finish everything you need to get done when there’re so many distractions at home?

Time management is one of the biggest challenges when you decide to shift your work base. From my personal experience of having worked in this setting for over 10+ years, here are some tips for working from home productively while maintaining a healthy personal life.

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Tips for working from home – but first, is working from home good?

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Depending on everyone’s individual mix of circumstances & requirements, you will get a variety of reasons why working from home is good. But the better question would be to ask yourself first whether working from home is the right fit for you.

I have been working as a freelancer for over a decade & working from home has made me a more responsible person in terms of time management, knowledge expansion, & work-life balance.

The benefits listed here are from my own experience & those of other remote working people I know. But what comes out as the common thread is the immense sense of freedom.

It also comes with added challenges for which I will be sharing tips for working from home productively a few paragraphs down. So, keep an eye out for those.

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1.         Better use of time

No time spent traveling to & from work plus traveling only for must-attend-personally meetings means you have more time to use for the things you’d love to do but didn’t have time before.

Also, less commute means more environment friendly. So you’re doing your bit to save the life on earth.

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2.         Better use of money

Since you won’t be worried about not repeating your work clothes too often, there’s no need to maintain a big wardrobe of expensive work clothes.

Working from home, you also save commute expenses, pitching in for those office parties you weren’t so excited to join, & so many other little expenses that add up to a big grand total by the end of the month.

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3.         More comfort

You have the luxury to choose any spot where you feel most comfortable, inspired, & productive when working from home. Even if you have a home office, you can work in any part of the house that suits your mood that day. Not to mention what you can wear for work when working remotely.

It’s less stressful & you have the freedom to customize your home office any way that makes you feel happy & stay focused, like a quieter corner of the house with everything you need within hand’s reach.

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4.         More in tune with yourself

When working from home, we become answerable for our own productivity because of less immediate supervision. This is good because you become more aware of your work style, ability to focus, areas requiring growth, & other aspects that work in the background to make your efforts a success.

You become more in tune with yourself and so are in a better position to improve, grow, & align your efforts to the goals that truly bring you happiness.

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5.         Better job satisfaction

You have more options to do what you love. For example, you wanted to join yoga classes or some other hobby class, but they were either too crowded when you had the time or collided with your work timings. When working from home, you can break up your work schedule to fit in a less crowded class.

Being able to do things other than work that make you happy, helps improve focus & motivation at work. We get better job satisfaction when things work out well on both personal & professional fronts.

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Tips for working from home productively

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“Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work in hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.”

Alexander Graham Bell

If you’re looking for pointers on how to start working from home in a meaningful & productive way, Or you began some time back but are finding it hard to stay productive, these ideas will help improve your focus & productivity.

These are the things that have helped me stay productive and also sane balancing work and family for over 10+ years now. These tips for working from home will help you get started on the right foot and also spark more ideas of your own that suit your specific mix of circumstances.

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1.         Focused time:

Staying focused on work is an important life skill for success but is one of the major challenges when you start working in an informal setting like your home. There are a hundred things to divert your attention & no one to supervise productivity except yourself.

So, here’s a trick that will help you stay focused in a fun way & would also come in handy even if you decide to work from office after all.

Create a to-do list for the day with maximum those many tasks as you have available for work that day. Put them in order of priority. Set an alarm for 50 minutes & focus on one task at a time till the buzzer goes off.

Reward yourself with something that you would enjoy. After the 10-minute break is over, set your alarm again & continue with one task at a time from your list.

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2.         Use distractions to your advantage:

Distractions aren’t always a bad thing because you can use them to reward yourself after completing tasks or after spending a focused productive 50 minutes.

Say, if you just want to curl up in front of the TV watching your favorite shows, use it as a reward for having completed your day’s to-do list.

Or, check the updates on one of your favorite social media channels when you take a well-deserved 10-minute break. Using distractions as a reward will help you be motivated to stay focused on your work.

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3.         Review:

Every morning before beginning work, check the priority of tasks on your to-do list. That way, even if end up doing a couple or a single task, they would have been what mattered most.

Keep aside a couple of hours every weekend to review how the week went, what needs more focus, what worked & what didn’t, and any ideas you can come up with that would help move work along more smoothly in the coming week.

Then create a general plan of action for the next week. That’ll help get most results from whatever time & energy you have available for work during the week.

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4.         Mental health focus:

It can very easily start feeling lonely working from home once the initial excitement of having the ability to work in your PJs wears off. Choose video calls & conferences over voice calls whenever possible.

Not only will it give you a sense of being connected with other people but it will also positively affect your mood when you make an effort to look good on video.

Take care of your mental health with frequent breaks from your work with a stroll in the yard, 10 minutes in the neighborhood park, or even taking in the fresh air from your balcony or window.

Scientific research has also shown that even being around flowers & plants where you work can make you feel happy & peaceful.

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5.         Tips for working from home – the importance of routines

Setting up routines for the day will help you know when & how much time you have available for work & for personal tasks. This makes it easier to plan your day productively & also cuts out a lot of stress of either falling behind schedule or hampering your personal life.

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6.         Time management:

Time management is another major issue when working from home because the partitions between personal & professional life become so much more fluid. There are so many duties & obligations that you can’t avoid when physically present at home.

However, the key to effective time management is getting clear about the priority of tasks (whether personal or professional), learning to say no, & being realistic about the limits of your time & energy.

Set realistic deadlines, use online free productivity tools to begin with, and avoid trying to multi-task if you want to be productive & still have time left to enjoy life.

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7.         Tools for organization & online security:

Working from home almost definitely means being online for at least some time. To protect your data & ensure privacy, have virus protection & VPN installed. It’s better to bear the small cost upfront than to get hassled with getting everything back to normal after being compromised.

Take care of the iffy internet as best as you can afford. Try out some of the free task management software available online to check out their suitability & effectiveness for your style of work before investing in them. But they do help improve productivity working from home.

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8.         Tips for working from home – decluttered environment:

The two crucial requirements of your workspace to boost productivity are comfort & clutter-free.

If you don’t have a dedicated office space at home yet, choose a location (even if it’s the kitchen table) that’s comfortable and one which fits your mood that day. To improve your focus, clear away the clutter before you start working.

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9.         Create schedule for social media & mails:

Unless you’re expecting a time-sensitive important e-mail, turning off mail & social media notifications is a time-tested way of improving focus.

Shifting from checking updates & focusing on your work is like rebooting the operating system on your computer every few minutes. So, you can see how it affects productivity.

Create a schedule for checking them, may be even as a reward for staying focused on your scheduled task & completing it!

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10.       Schedule learning slots:

Stay updated on what’s happening in your line of work. What new developments are happening, what changes are taking place, and the general trend of things so that you know where you need to amp up your knowledge.

Schedule learning slots in your weekly or monthly schedule like on alternate weekends or whatever suits your routine. This’ll ensure you stay productive and on top of things when changes inevitably take place.

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Tips for working from home with kids

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If you’re full-time working from home with kids, it’s surely going to be challenging sometimes. Whether you are working from home online or doing the bulk of your work from home, every parent knows that getting anything done with kids around can be almost impossible sometimes.

But, it’s all about finding the right balance. So, here are some tips for working from home with kids that will make it easier to stay productive with the bundles of energy rushing around.

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1.         Create a routine

The first thing you should focus on while planning to start working from home with kids around is to create & maintain a routine or schedule. It definitely would be tough sometimes to stick to that routine with a hundred things always going on with kids, but overall it will definitely make your life easier.

Make sure everyone at home has set wake up, meal, play and sleep times. When they know what they need to do when, it makes it so much easier to plan your work time during the quietest periods.

Schedule family time on your breaks so that they get to spend some quality time with you & are less likely to disturb when you need to get on with your work.

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2.         Plan activities

When you have to work on something important and need some undisturbed time, engage the kids in some craft project. Kids like a craft project and almost all of these projects take time to be completed. Although it would be a good idea to find out which one they like most.

You can also set up things such as sensory buckets or let them use educational apps. True, screen time is a touchy subject in most parent-child relationships.

But, to be fair, they would be learning something because of the ‘educational’ part. And, the kids would be happy because they get to spend time with eyes glued to the screen.

Plus, you get to work undisturbed on your important task. So win-win.

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3.         Managing uber-energetic kids

It can be tough trying to work with super-energetic kids running around. Keep them healthy & wear them out by getting them physically active in some kind of game or simply running around in the back yard.

You could create a mini obstacle course or look online for creative games that would use up some of their energy and keep them happily engaged. Once they’re done with it, they will be more likely to play quietly for some time. 

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4.         Tips for working from home – use nap times

If you have younger kids at home, use their nap times to get a bulk of your work done. Plan out what you can finish in the time you would get once they go to sleep and charge into it without waiting to finish up nonessential things.

There will always be time to pick up the toys & everything else on the floor later on!

Related:

How to overcome feeling overwhelmed at work

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Now that you know what goes into making remote work a success, you will be able to make a more informed decision as to whether working from home is right for you. Before making any major life changes, it is always good to sincerely assess your strengths and weaknesses.

If you’re thinking of working as a freelancer, it would help to have a clear picture of your finances right now & at least a year into the future. You can try it out as a side hustle and see how it goes before quitting your day job.

Working remotely has a lot of bonuses but also a few challenges. Do your research well, create routines, & be absolutely sure of the ‘why’ behind your decision because these are the things that will make work from home a success for you.

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So, what is it about working from home that makes you feel it might be a good option? Let us talk about it in the comments below…see you there

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