When it comes to working from home, it can either be your most productive period or it can be your laziest. It will all depend on your ability to manage yourself. In turn, managing yourself depends on the habits you've built up in your life.
Many people prefer working from home since the pandemic. It has opened our eyes that we can do our jobs right from the comfort of our own homes and ditch the effort and stress that comes with commuting. So you really get more time for yourself to get more sleep, clean your place, and even bond with your family at your home.
Going to meetings doesn't have to take a lot of hours and effort to go to your office. Nowadays, with work from home, we can simply join a Zoom meeting, put on our clothes and we can get started with business already. How convenient, right?
However, to balance everything out, we must also be aware of the cons of working from home. You see, when you're working from home, it can be hard to ignore distractions. What's more, is that these distractions can come from all sides of your house. It can be your phone, someone knocking at your door, your neighbor's noise, or even your loved ones talking to you while you work.
So if these are familiar to you, then you know it's time for you to take control of your time. If you have no idea how to do so, then don't worry because you are not alone. Here are the biggest mistakes people do when working from home that you must avoid:
Not getting dressed on time #dressedontime
Since we are working from home, meetings usually have to be done via applications such as Zoom or Google Meetings. During these meetings, no one can see our entire outfit. This is why most people tend to not dress properly while working at home. Not to mention that we don't usually have to open our cameras all the time and that these meetings don't happen regularly.
So what happens is that while we are working at home, we are in our pajamas or in our very casual outfits.
There is nothing wrong with wearing what you want since you are at home. However, what most of us don't know is that the way we dress sets our mood for the day. So if we are wearing very casual outfits, it can lessen our confidence in our work and even lower our motivation to finish our tasks. In other words, it can make us too relaxed and can make us more prone to mistakes as we don’t have a “professional” feeling ourselves while working.
So what we must do, at the very least, is we must dress as if we are meeting a very important client. This sets the tone for how we will behave during the day. Not only that, but it increases our motivation and makes us act in a way that is more professional even while we are working at home. Hence, this can increase our productivity and help us develop more professional habits.
Not setting boundaries #settingboundaries
Working from home can blur the boundaries between work and your personal time. These boundaries can be physical, such as our desk and workplace at home, or even nonphysical, such as our time. You see, the longer we work from home, the more the line between work and leisure blurs.
This is why it's important for us to set boundaries for ourselves. We must set a clear workstation where we will do nothing else but work and be professional. In addition, we must also set boundaries in time for ourselves. Since there is no one to supervise us while we are working from home, we must set our working time by ourselves.
Work while it is your work hours and relax when it is your personal time. Don’t play games or have distractions while you are during your work hours and at the same time, don't check your emails or other work channels when you are in your personal time. Remember to set clear boundaries between your work hours and personal time.
No one can work all day, but at the same time, we should not just relax and have fun all the time as well, even while we are working at home and there is no one to supervise us. You'll find that you will be more productive and your time will be more organized as you have more control of your schedule.
Not having a workstation #workstation
Just as mentioned above, the line between work and personal life blurs while we are working from home. It was also previously mentioned that this also applies to our workspace or workstation.
To elaborate on that, just as our clothes can affect the way we feel about ourselves and the level of our professionalism, the place where we work can also affect our productivity. You see, our environment can affect our mindset and mood about working as well. When there are many distractions and we are not used to doing work in this area of our home, then we will not get anything done at all.
This is why it's important for us to have a dedicated workspace or workstation at our home to keep us less distracted and more motivated for doing our job from home. This will also keep our work life separated from our personal life. It doesn't always have to be an entire room, (although it is ideal) because you can easily make a separate workspace with a desk and a corner of your home with minimal distractions.
Conclusion
Working from home can enable us to become our most productive selves, but it can also make us so distracted that we barely get anything done. However, it doesn't have to be the latter. We can always be just as productive, if not even more productive while working in our home as us working in our office. To do that, we must rid ourselves of these bad habits and start taking control of our lives and develop better discipline.
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