Photo by Mateus Campos Felipe on Unsplash
In the past couple of years, working from home has become the new normal. Whereas once you may have commuted to an office and spent time hanging out with colleagues in the kitchen, now you are more likely to spend rush hour heading from your bedroom to your home office.
Whether you are working from home full time or your job is hybrid, there are unique challenges that come with home-working, especially if you are newer to the world of work. Here, we have collected some tips to help you embrace the change – read on to find out more.
Set up a designated space
You may want to sit in bed to work, and this might be fine occasionally. However, this is not a good solution for long-term working from home. The ideal option is to set up your own home office with an ergonomic chair and desk that will ensure your comfort. This can also help you to feel like you are actually ‘at work’ rather than in your home – and may discourage family members or flatmates from stopping by to chat.
However, if space is tight and you can’t designate an entire room as a workspace, try to get a comfortable chair and have a space where you can pack your work equipment away at the end of each day.
Aim for a good work-life balance
If work-life balance felt elusive even before you were working from home, how can you manage it now? It is so easy to check just one more email or to do basic tasks while watching TV. But this can be one of the key contributing factors of workplace burnout, so try to have clearly delineated work hours, just like you would in an office environment.
Creating a commute can help with setting the boundary between work and leisure time, even if that’s just going for a walk before you start work and after you finish. But don’t forget that a good work-life balance should also include socialising – check in with your colleagues in an informal way as well as in a professional capacity to keep building bonds that would occur more naturally in person. You can find more information about how to achieve a healthy work-life balance with this handy online guide.
Dress for success
It can be tempting to indulge in wearing your comfy clothes at all times when you’re working from home – perhaps you even just throw a smart jumper over your pyjamas for Zoom calls with your colleagues. But actually making an effort for work, even when you’re working from home, can help you to be more productive. Changing your clothes can actually help to change your mindset and signal to your brain that time for relaxing is over.
You don’t have to don a full suit every day, but a smart shirt and jeans or a comfortable dress, as well as taking the time to style your hair a little, will do wonders for your mindset. It can help you to feel more capable and confident, and also support your work-life balance.
There are so many great benefits to working from home, but it does come with its fair share of pitfalls. With these tips, you should be able to achieve a better balance and enjoy a more productive and harmonious professional life – in the comfort of your own home.
