Since the world-changing events of the pandemic, many of us have had the chance to work from home and continue to climb the corporate ladder. There are also some of us who are still working in the office, but it seems these days most companies are quickly shifting towards having a full staff working from their homes. Whether you are new to working from home or a seasoned experience of it, working from home can be an amazing way to provide a more comfortable and focused way to work.
One of the biggest benefits of working from home is having to avoid the morning traffic on your way to work. You can easily roll out of bed, make some coffee and get to work. A not so realized benefit coming from working from home has been the relief it has had on people’s mental health. People who suffer from social anxiety, stress, depression, and ect tend to have to bury those feelings/attacks while working in an office.
The feeling of relief and comfort being able to control your environment is amazing to anyone who has experienced any kind of work stress.
The thing that most people may overlook when working from home is how well they are managing their time. There are so many distractions when working from home. You may have your kids at home, a rowdy pet, or just noisy things happening outside your home. It can distract even the highly focused worker who tends to never have anything crack their time while they work.
You may be asking yourself how you can make sure that you are managing your time wisely and staying on track. Working from home is a privilege which each of us earns. No one wants to have that privilege abused or taken away from them, especially not after spending so much time and money on building up your work from home office. The best way to avoid this is by making sure you are using your time wisely, but also having full control of your time management.
Time management is a structured way to make sure that you are staying on task but also getting the most out of your eight-hour workday. There are many tools out there that can be of help to you when it comes to time management. Many people tend to use a regular calendar, online calendar, and even alarms.
The best way I have seen people be successful with this is by having a calendar and alerts on the very computer you are working on. Since your focus will be on your work computer, adding a different element or thing to help with that time management may be an unwanted distraction and be hard to get back on track.
With online calendar alerts, you can set your notifications to at least five minutes before your next task so that you have plenty of time to shift to your next task. This is also helpful when it comes to goal setting and accomplishing all your work tasks for the day. Some people may feel that even this might be a distraction. Believe it or not, it is actually quite the opposite. The online calendar and scheduler that you use on your work computer will help your subconscious not only focus on your work but also be aware of the shifting focuses you have for your tasks.
The main reason for this is you know exactly what your day has in store for you but also remind you that breaks are much needed. Breaks are important. Working constantly without a chance to unwind or slow your brain down will cause you to get burned out faster than you normally would. Breaks are also a great way to feel the needs you have for entertainment with social media or playing on your phone as opposed to getting distracted with that while you work.
We all do this. We all tend to glance at our phones while we work. It is much more common than we would like to admit. By far our cell phones and social media tends to be the biggest distraction than listening to music or having a movie/TV show playing in the background. The thing is with social media and our cell phones is that you think you are going to just take a quick minute to look at something and before you know it, you have spent an hour reading comments on an interesting post you found online.
You may feel that doing this every once in a while, won’t have that much of an effect but that distracted time from work tends to add up during the week. Before long, your employer may notice a dip in your production and work will reflect that your focus is elsewhere. This could cause serious damage to how you are perceived at work but even worse, could cause you to lose your job. Nothing online is interesting enough to risk that. This is another great reason why time management and taking a break will do wonders for your work experience while at home.
The biggest takeaway from this is reminding yourself that distractions during work do more harm than good. With working from home being in its early stages, some employers feel it is too much of a risk to provide to their employees. With some employers being on the fence about already having their employees get paid to do their job at home, we should all be mindful of the risk of having that taken away could cause. We could be more at risk of being exposed to the COVID-19 virus and having to deal with all the medical expenses that may have.
Every risk has even bigger consequences, not just for you but also for the people you work with. Working from home is not just proving you have what it takes to do this, but also proving to your employers that you can be just as successful as if you were in the office and sitting in a cubical. Your focus, while you work, should always be a top priority. Take this advice with a grain of salt but be aware of the great things it could do for you while you work from home.
