Managing the Transition from Office Job to Work-at-Home
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When lay-offs and redundancies are on the rise, it generally follows that people trying to make a living from home, working for themselves, or over the Internet are on the increase likewise. So information technology stands to reason that every bit we speak, thousands of people are sitting in their new dwelling office (quite mayhap the living room, or the dining room tabular array) and tearing their pilus out asking: How do work-at-homers actually manage to go anything done when there's a TV in the next room, a coffee car in the kitchen and all sorts of fun stuff to do in the laundry?
If that's you, well, I experience distressing for you. Non because writing for a productivity blog means that I've found the secret to getting everything done earlier anybody else, but because information technology'southward hard, really difficult, to work from domicile, and there's simply then much you can do to make it easier. That'southward what this article'southward about.
Here are some tips to assist yous make the transition from the office job, where the environment is tailored to brand sure you don't do anything except work, to the home part, where every lark y'all could've asked for is present.
Use Your Newfound Mobility
If working from the same cubicle day in and 24-hour interval out was frustrating and claustrophobic, do y'all think it'll be any different in your home office? For your sanity, use your newfound mobility and get out. You can piece of work from a wide variety of places these days, including cafes and fast nutrient joints, non to mention Starbucks which is somewhere in betwixt the two. If yous live in a central location, even improve – y'all tin grab your laptop bag and become some exercise walking to your work location, which brings me to…
Commencement an Exercise Plan
This is, of class, ane of those things you're supposed to be doing regardless of where you piece of work. The matter is, you demand practice even more than when you work at home; you tin can go the whole day without leaving the house much of the fourth dimension. Y'all don't even get the minuscule activity of walking to the machine, and from the car to your cubicle. The sad truth about working from home: you will get fatter than if you were still working in an office, unless y'all take measures to stay healthy.
Exercise is also an of import part of making the transition from the office job to working at dwelling house. If you can become for a jog or a walk in the forenoon earlier you get-go work, you'll find yourself much more clear-headed and motivated to work, which is a huge assist. It can become very hard to get motivated when you spend about of your life in the one building.
Plan for Lunch, Before it Plans for You
If you don't programme for luncheon, and then you might find that tiffin starts making its own plans for your day, or your weight. If you lot haven't planned for a non-intrusive merely relaxing lunch break y'all might detect yourself cooking a gourmet meal that takes ii or iii hours to complete (for the aforementioned reason one might suddenly choose to clean that rangehood that hasn't been touched in months: to become out of working), or yous might discover yourself constantly driving up to the nearest McDonalds or KFC. Eating an unhealthy diet is not something I'd recommend in any circumstances, let lone those were the sole motivator in the business is you.
Low Data Diet
So that particular headline contains one of those annoying buzzphrases, but here's the thing: there are no checks and balances to keep distractions at bay when managers aren't patrolling the cubicles and sysadmins aren't watching your screen without your knowledge. You'll bank check email, Google Reader and fifty-fifty the ghastly Twitter and fritter abroad your precious productive time if you are not careful.
Take a page from Tim Ferriss's book (literally). Check email twice a solar day, at 12:00pm and 4:00pm. As for Google Reader? Don't check it – maybe if you're out of piece of work hours, but not during them. I'chiliad guilty of checking my work-related feeds using Google Reader among my personal feeds. Don't exercise that, it's stupid. As for Twitter? Unless your manager asks you lot to tweet during your work day (yes right, you say, but it has happened to me!) so don't. Even. Think. About. It.
Create Comfort
I read a volume that said y'all shouldn't spend money on your desk-bound or role chair or what have you when you lot're starting a work-calm concern. Forget it. If you're not comfortable, the jabbing of your chair or the over- or under-elevation of your desk-bound will gnaw at your mind and add all the same another layer of distraction to your twenty-four hours. Become nifty furniture, and deck out the room with things that relax you – whether that'due south posters of Cannibal Corpse or a zen garden and one of those trivial mini h2o fountains, that's up to personal taste.
Your role should exist a place you savour entering, not a place that fills you with dread.
Read Books, Watch Movies
Don't forget to entertain yourself. Brand sure you're reading a skillful fiction book at any given time, and don't forget to watch the odd movie, even leave to the cinema and see 1. These sort of recreational activities feed your heed while relaxing it; they're perfect for creative individuals. That said, creatives need to relax without other people's ideas beingness thrown at them sometimes, or when would your ain mind get a chance to tell you nearly the vivid ideas information technology has had lately?
Piece of work Hours and Deadlines
Set piece of work hours: 9am to 5pm, 5am to 1pm, 6pm to 2am, information technology doesn't actually affair when equally long equally y'all can tweak your lifestyle and body clock to suit. The important thing is that you set piece of work hours, both for yourself – you lot only work during these hours – and for others, and then that clients know when they can and can't interrupt you and and so family unit and friends don't break your concentration.
Don't Forget Your Friends & Family
Another common problem for work-at-homers is that we become social hermits. I know information technology happens to me. A few times, I oasis't seen anyone at all because I started then early on and finished and so late – despite living with my married woman, my toddler and my newborn (not the quietest of housemates). Make sure yous spend a couple of hours with your family each twenty-four hour period if you have one, and regularly schedule things with your friends – whether information technology is going out somewhere or just having a beer at your house. The bonus – non that this should be your primary motivation – is that you'll make certain you get your work done in time to meet your other commitments.
Yous might be seeing a design in all this. The thing that volition make your transition the easiest is to have intendance of yourself and treat yourself as you would an expensive car – regularly serviced and in good shape. The irony is that taking care of oneself is usually the first thing to become in those who work where they live. Have care of your health, your mind, and your relationships.
Source: https://www.lifehack.org/articles/featured/managing-the-transition-from-office-job-to-work-at-home.html
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