How To Keep Motivated When Working From Home If you’ve recently started working from home, then I’m sure you’ve had times when you didn’t feel like working. It’s a lot easier to slack off and not work when you’re at home than it is when you actually have to go to an office and are being held accountable. There’s no one looking over your shoulder all day so you can sit on Facebook playing games and accomplish nothing. I’ve got a few tips that will help you keep motivated and get your work done.
Get dressed every day. Just because you can work in you pajamas (or in nothing at all if you really wanted to!) doesn’t mean that you should. Studies have shown that by getting up and putting on “work clothes” that your brain becomes more focused on actually working. It gets you in the same mind frame that you’re in when you had to go to the office every day.
Try breaking up your work day into smaller pieces. If you want to work eight hours every day, you don’t have to work eight straight hours. You can work four hours in the morning, two in the afternoon, and then two in the evening. This will help keep you from getting burnt out during the day. Remember how exhausting it was coming home from working eight hours? By splitting the day up, you’re able to lessen the stress on your mind.
Make sure you’re working in a designated work spot. Don’t use that area for anything other than work. Don’t play video games there, don’t eat there, don’t sleep there. It’s very easy to get distracted when you’re working in a spot that you normally use for other activities. But if you’re in your “office” then your mind will get used to knowing that space is for work. Doctors often recommend that people who are having trouble sleeping only use their beds for sleep. Don’t watch TV there, don’t eat there, etc. This is because your mind associates certain areas with certain activities. The same can be applied to your workspace.
The next advice is going to vary based on your personal abilities. Some people can’t work in the quiet. But instead of turning on the TV, turn on some upbeat music without lyrics. If the music doesn’t have lyrics it’ll be harder for you to get distracted by it. It’ll give you energy and without distracting you. But if you’re the type of person who gets distracted by noises, turn off any music or TV you have on. You don’t want those distractions keeping you from getting your work done. Like I said, this will depend on what type of person you are. Some people work well with background noise, others don’t.
Working from home is something a lot of people dream of. But what most people don’t realize is how hard it is to stay motivated when you don’t have a boss breathing down your neck. Hopefully if you were having trouble staying motivated this advice will help bring back that motivation to work.
