How to Stay Motivated When Working from Home

If there would be a choice, I think almost everyone would want to work from home! You can stay in your PJ’s all day, no need to go anywhere, you can stay with your kids or your cat and just work in the comfort of your home! Right, so idealistic! However, many people don’t see behind the curtain of actual working from home life because it’s not always the easiest, it can get lonely and your tempting bed might stare at you all day long! When you work from home, you need to be disciplined and focus solely on your work during your working hours! Of course, it definitely has some advantages but there are also some disadvantages!

If you are one of the people who find it hard to stay motivated while working from home, here are some tips on how to stay on top of it!

Create your Home Office

Having a desk or dedicated home office space is so important when working from home! No one wants to work on a messy table with unorganized papers or on a sofa where your family members/friends running around! Make a nice, clean space from which you will love to work and where no one is distracting you. Surround yourself with things that motivate you like quotes, your achievements or just decorate the room the way it feels right for you. One of the main things is to be able to close the door and get into your zone with no distractions.

Wake up Early

Self-made billionaire Richard Branson starts his morning routine at 5 am and that sets the tone for his day. Waking up early allows you to start your day earlier and fit in more than just work, like a morning exercise, time with family or anything else that you enjoy doing. You can also start working before your usual time and you are finished earlier, to have some time for yourself later. Plenty of benefits if you wake up early!

Plan your Day Ahead

When working from home, one of the key points is to stay organized and on top of your schedule! Plan your day ahead and break it into detailed time slots. This way you will exactly know which task you need to do when and include the breaks and buffer time, too! Sometimes, certain tasks can take you longer than you expect, and that’s the reason for including the buffer time!

You can go classic and write your to-do list or schedule on the paper or you can ask one of the many productivity software that can keep you organized like for example Asana, Slack or Trello!

Take Regular Breaks

Do you say, of course? Well, it can be harder than you think sometimes. If you get very busy throughout the day, you go over your buffer time but you still have other tasks to do, you are likely to work without a break. We all struggle sometimes to find time for a break. What I would recommend is to divide your tasks into very important and less important. Focus on more important ones and get them done first on a day you planned doing it but keep in mind that sometimes it’s okay not to finish all the tasks on your list. Prioritize and find time for short breaks in between that can help you focus better!

Avoid Distractions

This tip is the hardest to follow. Like it or not, there are always some distractions around whether that’s other people, our phone or the environment we are in.

If it’s a people factor, we should clearly set up some ground rules, so during your working hours, you are only working, no distractions. If it’s the environment issue, you can follow the first tip above talking about creating your home office but if it’s a phone, you have to be strict with it. There are several apps that can help you focus on your work and block all the notifications or even incoming phone calls, so nothing is distracting you. Put your phone aside and turn your sounds off or put it into the airplane mode. This will help you avoid constantly checking your phone and unwanted scrolling through your social media.

BONUS TIP! Online Co-Working

Have you ever heard about online co-working sessions? No, I’m not kidding it actually does exist! You can either join the group of like-minded entrepreneurs and become a part of group co-working or you can just set it up yourself with some of your online entrepreneurs. The main point is to keep each other accountable but also to socialize. It can get lonely to work from home and therefore online co-working is an amazing way to meet some new people, have someone to talk to about your business but also other things and to stay productive during your working process.

How it usually works is that you divide the time into two sections and that’s co-working and breaks. So let’s say you’re all working for 45 minutes on your own projects and then you have 15 minutes break when you can talk about anything! You all motivate, help and support each other! How cool is that?!

So do you still think working from home is only about a very relaxed and comfortable environment and actually not working much? It is in a way, but it’s definitely not the main part of it! You have to stay disciplined and work hard even though you are at home.

And all the above were some main tips I would recommend you to follow that will make your life less stressful! It’s so easy to get distracted while working from home, but these steps can help you stay organized and on the top of your work! Create a great place to work from, avoid distractions, plan your day, and you will feel more productive and motivated!

How do you stay motivated when working from home? Let me know, I would love to hear your tips!