How to Stay Motivated Working From Home
The increase in the number of people working from home has been consistently on the rise in recent years. The recent pandemic put that shift into high gear, resulting in many companies exploring permanent work from home options as both a way to maintain their business and even cut the costs of additional overhead for office spaces. While working from home has its perks, it can also take some getting used to. Lots of distractions accompany working from a home office that you may not have considered before!
In this article, we’re exploring how to stay motivated working from home. We’ll give you tips and tricks to keep your productivity up while also looking after your health and well being. With a few easy adjustments, we feel certain you’ll find what works best for you!
Finding Out How to Stay Motivated Working From Home
Working from your home office setup can be a great option for many people. Staying motivated working from home can be difficult for some, however. Whether it’s the silence of your home during the day or the many distractions being at home offers (hard to get that report done with the tv on!), learning how to stay motivated working from home is a skill like any other.
To get you started on the right path, consider these tips:
- Create a schedule for your day
- Establish a dedicated workspace
- Minimize potential distractions as needed
- Remember to take breaks and move around
- Practice self-care with home office ergonomics
Creating a Work From Home Schedule
One of the most effective methods for how to stay motivated working from home is creating a work from home schedule. While you may still need to operate within certain hours for your company, it’s easy to really start working a bit later each day when you’re working from home. The need for a structured schedule can be even more important if you’re self-employed, when it’s easy to put off beginning if you’re not feeling super motivated that day.
While there’s nothing wrong with enjoying that morning cup of coffee or starting your day with full body workout exercises to get your daily fitness routine in, sticking to a more structured schedule can help avoid burnout and other negative effects. For example, if you tend to start getting started later in your day, chances are your hours extend further into the evening. This can throw off your sleep/wake cycle, which can lead to other health complications such as insomnia, high blood pressure, and even an increased risk of heart disease.
Learning how to stay motivated working from home by implementing a structured schedule can also assuage fears of decreased productivity. Without a schedule, you may find projects that should’ve taken you 30 minutes are suddenly taking much longer. Sticking to a schedule, however, can not only help you avoid distraction or extended work hours, but actually increase your productivity. A study conducted during 2020 showed that 94% of 800 employees surveyed had reported the same or increased productivity as always after shifting to working remotely!
Establishing a Dedicated Workspace at Home
Learning how to stay motivated working from home can be made simpler by establishing a dedicated workspace, as well. While you may be tempted to work from your bed or while relaxing on the couch, these spots provide more distractions and temptations to get off track. Working from bed, especially, can also lead to ramifications against your sleep patterns, resulting in sleep deprivation that can reduce performance.
If you’ve got an extra bedroom in your home, turning it into a dedicated home office is an ideal situation. For those without the extra room to spare, you can have an effective dedicated workspace from a kitchen table or corner desk in a living room. The important thing is that you’re able to use the space for your work and focus on the task at hand. This makes staying motivated working from home much easier and reduces the number of potential distractions.
Minimizing Working From Home Distractions
Speaking of distractions, next up in our guide to how to stay motivated working from home is finding ways to minimize things that take away from your focus on work. You may find that you struggle to get back on task if you’re constantly distracted by texts, personal phone calls, tv, or any number of other items in your home.
To combat this and make staying motivated working from home easier to do, consider putting your phone on “Do Not Disturb” except when on breaks. Many phones have settings enabling you to allow specific numbers to get through even on this setting, alleviating worry over emergency communications. If you’re working in a space with a television, it is likely best left off outside of breaks or until the end of your workday. That load of laundry that needs to be folded? It can stay where it is until you’re done with your workday, we assure you!
If you’re home with kids during the day, distractions may be harder to eliminate than if you’re home alone. To help with this, establishing rules for what constitutes reasons for interrupting you during work hours can often help reduce the number of distractions throughout the day, as well.
Taking Breaks While Working From Home
When we’re working from home it can be tempting to ignore a lunch break in order to maybe sign off early for the day or to forget about breaks altogether, but those habits are bad precedents to set. Taking breaks to get up and move about not only assists with how to stay motivated working from home but also helps prevent pain from sitting too long.
When you don’t take breaks during the day, you actually lose focus and concentration. Combine this with what happens to your body when you sit all day and you can be doing your health and work a major disservice.
Experts recommend taking a break every 30 to 60 minutes during your work day. The important thing to note, however, is that not all breaks are created equally. An important factor is to use these breaks to get up, move around, and do stretches or exercises. Doing exercises at work (or working from home, in this instance) can have a profound positive impact on your overall well being and work productivity. These exercises can help keep muscles loose and may serve as alternative therapies for neck and back pain relief.
You may also consider different tools that help take care of your body while working from home. For example, incorporating a zero gravity chair into your home office setup may help with back pain, sciatica treatment, improve poor blood circulation, and make comfortable alternatives to traditional office chairs. There are even items to pair with zero gravity chairs while working from home that can make them effective everyday tools for looking after your body while you work. Getting creative and thinking outside the box can also help with how to stay motivated working from home.
Practice Home Office Ergonomics
Ergonomics is typically defined as the study of people in their working environment. It’s object is to study the interaction of humans with their work environment to determine optimal conditions for health and well being. Practicing home office ergonomics is important for how to stay motivated working from home. The better care you take to protect your mind and body, the better your work productivity will be. All of this comes together to create a better overall work from home experience.
The first step in home office ergonomics is having the right equipment. For example, you should have an ergonomic chair in your home office setup. The benefits of having an ergonomic work chair include:
- Neck and back pain relief
- Reducing pressure on the hips
- Improving posture
- Increasing blood circulation
- Increasing productivity at work
Ever felt sore or stiff after a long day working from home? Following ergonomics can improve your posture in a way that may help reduce or eliminate bad sitting habits that cause neck and back pain. The benefits of ergonomics extends beyond just your chair, however. Making sure you have the right desk setup, proper lighting, and body support are all part of home office ergonomics that may make a huge change in how you feel.
Learning how to stay motivated working from home can have a huge impact on your health and productivity. A few simple adjustments in your work from home routine can make all the difference and keep you in the right mindset. We hope our guide has given you some new tips and habits to try that make staying motivated working from home easier than ever.
Zero gravity chairs can be great as part of a home office setup but their uses don’t stop there. For more places in your home for a zero gravity chair and tips on how to use them, check out these resources:
