How to work
from home

Comfort of the home

Is home office environment actually allows us to be more productive? In the office office, your coworkers drop by your desk, engage you in conversation, and invite you to lunch. At the home office, however, it's easy for you to become your own worst enemy. Because when you're not surrounded by coworkers, you're free to drop those pesky inhibitions. At the home office, no one's watching. You don't necessarily feel that same peer pressure or communal obligation to get stuff done. But still working from home is awesome, don’t take it wrong. We all enjoy it! And that is why we do have some tips on how to work from home for you and not overdo it.

TIPS ON HOW TO WORK FROM HOME

1. get started early
   For some of us commuting to work helped us to wake up and feel ready for work in the morning. At home the transition from your bed to your computer can be much more problematic. But getting a work started first thing in the morning can be the key to making progress.

2. pretend like you are at the office
   When you are working from home, do all the things you would do to prepare for an office. Because the mental association you make between work and office can make you more productive. Set your alarm, make a cup of coffee. Separate a toolbar for work in your internet browser. Get ready and pretend like you are actually at the office.

3. structure your day
   When it come to remote working, you are your own personal manager. It can be hard to stay on schedule and quick to lose focus. You can create events in your calendar and reminders that tell you when to shift to different work, and when to stop work.

4. choose a work space
   Just because you are going to the office it doesn’t mean you cannot make your own office at home. Rather than staying in the bed all day, dedicate a specific place in your home - a certain desk, chair. Make if your home office to keep a better focus.

5. avoid social media
   Social media is designed to make it easy for you to open it and hard to close it. So the best option is to not even open them during the work hours. If necessary you can open a private/incognito browser to avoid suggestions from social media.

6. commit to doing more
   Tasks always take longer than you think they will. You will get done less than you set out to do. When you overcommit on what you will finish that day, even if you get urge to go do something else, you know you have already committed a certain amount of work to the tasks.

7. work when you’re the most productive
   No one is productive from the morning to evening. So when it comes to working from home it is important to know when you are the most productive and plan your schedule around it. You can save the most difficult and hard tasks for that period of time.

8. use the right technology to stay connected
   Using the right platform to communicate might help you focus on your work, make it easy to check in with your co-workers, and see how is your work contributing to the big picture. That is why we love using WorkVector for our work from home.

9. make your playlist
   Music has a certain calming effect. For some of us listening to music is a must during working, it makes you more relax and work seems to be fun. Matching a playlist to task type can be very helpful.

10. communicate expectations with anyone who will be home with you
    You might be working from home but you can still have some company. Let know your family, friends, roommates, pets to respect your space during work hours. Just because you are staying at home while working does not mean you are home. You are at you office.

11. take clear breaks
    It can be easy to get distracted and have longer breaks than working time. Rather than opening Instagram or YouTube and watch some videos, use your breaks to get away from your computer. Go for walk, sit on the balcony, spend time with people who are staying at home as well. These kind of breaks can recharge you more than you think.

12. pick a definitive finishing time each day
    Working from home can trap you sometimes, you get so caught up in your tasks that you lose track of time. Set an alarm to indicate the upcoming end of the day. You don’t have stop exactly when the alarm goes off, but it will help you to start calling it the day.

Working from home hadn’t been a standard but thank to the pandemic things changed and we have discovered we can work from home. On spring 2020, the shift to remote work appeared to be the one of the few bright spots in the whole chaos. It was a time when remote work seemed like a magical solution to all the problems. With fewer people commuting, there was less traffic, employees could move further from their jobs to cheaper homes. And some of the analyses showed that workers were just as productive at home, and we had more time to spend with our families. Remote work appeared to be a win-win.

But as the time passed some of us started to struggle and the shine came off remote work. There has still been a glorious freedom in being able to work from the comfort of our homes, but some surveys have found that workers kept up the pace by putting in more hours on the job, including weekends. When the line between home and work blurred, people tended to work more rather than less which is leading to burnout. So we hope that our tips will help you avoid these inconveniences and that working from home will be a bonus for you.