Wednesday 19 October 2016

11 Ways You can Make Working From Home Easy


Many people including professionals are turning to a different style of working. This is only to maintain a healthier balance between work and life. Working from home or freelancing. If working from home in pajamas or any place other than an office sounds fun, it must be fruitful enough.
Success comes when we see and know our goals. We understand the obstacles, are ready to clear uncertainties and self-doubt. Create a positive image, embrace any trials to stay on the path and show it to the world that it is possible.
As a freelancer, here is my secret to be productive, maintain a healthy work-life balance. Moreover, be successful.

Get an early start
You may be transitioning from the ‘9-to-5’ world for a ‘work from home’ routine so wake up early. Get to work right away, this will give you a head start. The other benefits are being hands-on, anticipating issues, and becoming a better planner. Moreover, it will help you squeeze in some time for exercise.

Plan your day ahead
You have 24 hours, make good use of your day by planning.Set calculated goals to stay focused and fruitful.

  • Plan the time you will check and answer emails, make a to-do list for the daily tasks to complete, and manage breaks.
  • When you limit the number of times you check emails, you will limit disturbances. This will ensure productivity and efficiency.
  • When working on a lengthy project, planning the week in advance, creates an improved work environment.
Make sure you dedicate time to a family union at lunch and dinner to achieve a healthy work-life balance. Grab this opportunity to interact and distribute household chores among family members. You can choose to distribute it to your house-help.
Avoid the risk of a lower output, and burning out. Motivate yourself and prepare to put in hard work to complete all the tasks.

Dedicated Work Space
You may want to pretend to drive to work, so set up a work space far away from the bedroom. It could be a silent corner of your house.
If household chores or silence are distracting, you can choose a different location. Choose a local coffee shop with WiFi, as your ‘work-space’. Many people prefer a virtual work environment.

Cut distractions
Distraction can lower your efficiency, especially, when you have access to social media. You may feel the itch to click on the buttons or apps without the intention of creating a distraction. Delete the social network bookmarks on the toolbar.
Let neighbors, friends and family know, you are working from home. Avoid accepting requests to run chores and favors for friends or family. You can achieve higher levels of efficiency; distractions will only hamper work efficiency.

Delegate work
Household chores, pets, toddlers can all be distractions. If you have a house-help, delegate the chores at the beginning of the day. If you have team members, reduce the workload by delegating tasks. You can get them to do initial research or manage your calendar.
Cut distraction by making sure everyone knows, you are working. This will help you to complete the tasks faster. You can even choose a different work-space or a time when these distractions are minimal.

Make the right commitment
You must make the right commitment or choose to over commit. Both the techniques will help you stay focused and deliver the required, but you must know what works. This will keep you away from distractions and avert your urge to do other tasks.

Know your productive hours
We all have certain hours as the most productive ones, use them to the utmost. If you are a night owl (like me), finish most of the work during those hours and plan your day with other activities.
During your work hours, know what triggers efficiency. Sometimes, instead of coffee, music may trigger it. When you are low on the energy, turn up some music to pump you up. Play good music or your favorite playlist to boost your energy level for a particular task. Try different things.
Make use of the time management technique called Pomodoro technique. You can make the most of the 25 minutes; be creative, efficient, and productive and then a five-minute break.
If you are an early bird, work your way through the utmost important projects at that time. You can use afternoons for meetings and calls. As a working mother of a toddler, I need to be super-productive. I utilize the time when my kid is taking a nap, or playing on his own.

Making use of the technology to stay connected
Technology has found ways to enable us to work from home. With help from tools and apps, we can stay connected and productive.
Tools like Google Hangouts, Skype, WebEx come handy in holding meetings. Create to-do lists, along with deadlines. When you have the right tools, you must change your work style; be creative and efficient.
You can even make use of the cloud technology to share work. They have features that enable you to track work progress of assistants and inform yours.

Track your savings
Make use of spreadsheets to detail all the savings and expenses. Include all expenses like fuel, laundry, clothes, lunches, coffees, and others. This will motivate and make you productive when you work from home. You can do this if you work for someone else, or if you run your own business.

Stay in touch with colleagues
Many people feel lonely and detached while working from home. When working from home as well as office, try visiting the office, once or twice a week. The rest of the weekdays you can work from home.
This will help you remain connected to the team, especially while working on a project as a team member.

Escape a humdrum lifestyle
This is a major obstacle. Even though you are working from home to save time and money, move out of the house to get some fresh air. This will keep you active, healthy, productive and motivated.
Make sure you attend events, conferences, training sessions to keep growing. You must update yourself with the latest trends. This will help you put forward fresh ideas and perceptions in meetings as well as in work.

The biggest secret
Work from home lifestyle requires effort to make it work for you, as it is more about ‘You’. Challenges often crush the independent lifestyle and the transition may remain incomplete.
Make use of your SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis. Learn from it and realize them more as opportunities for growth. You will grow stronger to tackle them as they appear.

Hope you found these ways useful. I will be glad to hear from you if you have any other way to make work-from-home life easier. Do share it in the comments section.

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