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Last Updated on March 7, 2021 by Work In My Pajamas
Whether you freelance or work for a major corporation, it can be difficult to stay motivated when you work primarily from home.
But fortunately, there are some tips and tricks that can help you stay on task and remain productive while the laundry is sitting in the other room calling your name.
Here are some tips for staying motivated when you work primarily from home.
In This Post:
Get Out of the House
When you’re sitting inside your home all day by yourself, it can feel very isolating. You can only talk to your animals so much before you start feeling like you’re losing your mind. So, to help combat the isolation, try to get out of the house for at least a portion of every day or week.
If you don’t take many phone calls, you can work from any library or cafe. You may not be interacting with many other people, but at least you’re not working alone. You’ll find many people working alongside you in these places and it will feel more like a traditional office which you might find yourself missing.
And when all else fails, you can start scheduling lunches with friends or clients to get more of that human interaction into your days. It’s important to get some face-to-face human interaction or you might start to get stir-crazy.
Use Productivity Tools and Apps
When no one is looking over your shoulder, it’s easy to spend too much time scrolling through social media or doing some personal online shopping. Before you know it, half of your morning could be gone.
To combat these time-wasting activities, try setting a timer to designate work time versus break time. If you use the Pomodoro technique, you’ll work for 25-minute intervals and take 5-minute breaks in-between. There are also many productivity apps you can find that will help evaluate how much time you spend working versus handling personal things.
These can be helpful as they prompt you to get back to work when you’ve gone astray. Try a few out and find a good one (or combination) that keeps you focused, motivated, and driven!
Set Daily Goals
Use your calendar or a project management app to help you set and track daily goals, so you know exactly what a productive day looks like in your world. Don’t overdo your task list or you’ll end up feeling like you’ve failed even if you’ve gotten a lot done.
Never set yourself up for failure. Just try to be reasonable with the amount of time things will take you in a day and what you can accomplish. When you hit your goals consistently, you’ll feel like a rockstar and it’ll be easier for you to continue knocking those goals out of the park.
Set Aside Time for Personal Tasks
When you’re working in an office, you may spend time talking to coworkers or taking a walk around the building to clear your head. And it’s okay to spend some time on things that aren’t productive because it helps your productivity when you are working. So, go ahead and take advantage of the fact that you get to work from home by setting aside time to take care of those personal tasks.
For example, if you’re working with the Pomodoro Technique, you may handle laundry on your 5-minute breaks. And then, after you’ve done 4 intervals, you can increase your breaks to 15- or 20-minutes each. This gives you time to run some laundry and get it folded. This way, you’re getting things done instead of worrying about your mounting personal to-do list when you’re supposed to be working.
Keep Your Spirits High
Think about how many people out there who would love to have the opportunity to work from home. You are truly lucky to be able to have such flexibility, and it’s up to you to make it work and to work it to your advantage. When you’re having an especially bad day, you can find quotes to motivate you and post them in your line of sight while you’re working.
Working from home provides a lot of flexibility, but there are definite challenges with motivation. Master motivation and your life, and work, will get a lot easier.
