Working from home is one of the best things that can happen to some until they get to experience some of the more difficult aspects of the work-from-home lifestyle. Over the last year and a half, more people than ever are working from home and companies have had to make this adjustment, whether they wanted to or not. Nowadays, many companies made the switch to staying remote and employees are having to adjust on their own to this new style of work.
Remote work may be preferred, but also may not be a lifestyle for some, but these 5 tips will help anyone adjust to the remote workplace!
Let others within your household know the expectations during work hours
Having your own, private workspace will assist with this, but it is important to ensure that your spouse, roommates, and even the pets know to respect your designated workspace during work hours. It may be hard to let the family dog or cat know of these work hours, but it might be best just to keep them out of the room. It is easy to get distracted from home life throughout the day, but keeping this separation will greatly help.
Take Breaks!
This is important. Not getting up from your desk for the entire day can lead to you becoming burnt out. Pulling up a podcast, YouTube video, or social media may seem like a break, but if you’re still at your desk, it is not considered a true break. Take a few minutes to walk around the house and separate from your work. Don’t assume that every waking hour in your home you need to be tied to your computer working. Breaks that disconnect you from your work for a bit can recharge you to do better work.
Pick a Finish Time
Some days require a little more work than others, but you need to pick a general finish time for yourself daily. It is easy to get so caught up within your work to end up losing track of time and working into the night, but by doing that, you create no separation from work and personal life. Deciding on a hard stop time creates a boundary for work and personal life, and it will create a much better work-life balance.
Working in an office, seeing other employees used to be the reminder to check the time and start packing up. Doing things like setting an alarm will provide the same effect and allow you to be able to enjoy your evenings!
Interact with your co-workers
Moving to a work-from-home lifestyle will cause the social setting of a regular office to be missed. Sometimes because of this, you can feel like you’re out alone on an island. To combat this, make time to talk with people within your company! Here at AccountingDepartment.com, we offer off-topic chat rooms and various clubs that meet via video to maintain a social interaction within the company and allow our employees to get to know each other.
Join a remote-friendly company
Simply put, not all companies are equipped to handle remote employees. A management style, technologies, and more are necessary to handle having a remote staff. If you’re looking for a remote job and your current employer will not offer you the option, it may be time to start looking at remote options within your career field. A company like AccountingDepartment.com has been remote since 2004, so I guess you can say we are pretty good at it! While searching for a remote company, look into how long they have offered a remote workforce and reviews about how they handle the style of workplace.