What to Do When You Find It Hard to Work at Home?
You might have already noticed that we live in fast-paced times where changes are inevitable. One of the major parts of those changes is the work style. And it includes working from home, either as a freelancer or remote worker.
Many people decide to choose working from home because it’s convenient and has many advantages over traditional, 9-5 style of work. Yet for some, it’s extremely challenging. Even when circumstances force you to work at home, you can learn how to turn it into a gold mine. It is also more advantageous over traditional work style because it gives you flexibility and autonomy.
However, such style of work involves various obstacles in the form of distractions. Your friends and family may think that since you work at home, you have plenty of time to cook, clean, and do many other chores. It is a very popular misconception. In fact, working at home requires great organizational skills and self-discipline.
And that’s what you should work on when you find it hard to work at home!
5 Easy Ways for Self-Discipline
When you find it hard to work at home, all you have to do is implement simple ways for keeping self-discipline. Even though they may seem challenging in the beginning, when you decide to follow them, your work will become easy, smooth, and efficient.
Take a look at our 5 effortless ways which will help you keep self-discipline at work!
Create your home office
Having your personal space intended strictly for work is what you should begin with when you struggle with keeping self-discipline at home. Why? Because you will find it easier to focus, avoid distractions, and you will have all things within your reach. Statistics show that “the average office employee spends 1.5 hours a day (6 weeks per year) looking for things.”
Try to create your personal home office to boost your productivity and keep you focused. It can be a simple desk somewhere in the corner of a room, it can be an office in a separate room. The choice is yours. It can even be a dark basement, as long as you find comfortable and it helps you stay on track.
Log your time
Time management is one of the crucial aspects of keeping self-discipline at work. Otherwise, you will get stuck in your daily duties. And so, one of the best ways to manage your time, tasks, projects, and budget is to use time tracking software. Let’s see how it can help you on the example of TimeCamp:
- First of all, it automatically tracks all your activities. All you have to do is turn the desktop app and it will follow you in the background without distracting you.
- Extensive but detailed reports show where all your time goes and which tasks you spend most time on.
- You can see which of your activities are productive and non-productive.
- Extensive list of integrations (Trello, Asana, Basecamp, Evernote, and many, many other) allows you to work smoothly with different tools.
- You can keep track not only of your work hours but also of your budget.
Start logging your time with TimeCamp today to always keep self-discipline at work.
Sign up now for free!
Leave your house
When you work at home, it’s very tempting to sit by your desk all day long. But it doesn’t help in keeping self-discipline at all! Quite the opposite. The more time you spend on work without breaks, the less productive you are. Your brain needs a break from work and your office. It’s a way for it and for your body to relax.
Go for a walk, shopping or to the gym. See your friends and socialize. Do anything you want but leave your house. It will help you gain a fresh perspective on work-related problems but also boost your creativity and you will easily come back with new ideas.
Create a daily routine
We all need to work according to a plan or schedule. People who work on a regular basis have it easier. They get up in the morning, go to work, go back from work and leave all issues related to it in the office.
But when you work at home, it’s not that plain. It’s easy to lose yourself in all the work because it’s always with you. The work-life boundary blurs.
That’s why it’s so vital to create your personal work schedule, set goals and stick to them. It will help you in keeping the work-life balance along with self-discipline at work.
Use Technology
Technology is amazing. It helps people in their daily tasks and most of all, at work. Technology is usually associated with equipment such as laptops, smartphones, tablets, and other gadgets. But it’s more than this. Technology is tools, apps, and software. And there is plenty to choose from:
- time tracking software,
- to-do lists, calendars, and planners,
- project management tools,
- productivity apps,
- work management software,
- communication tools.
But remember, technology is there to help us, not slave us. You have to learn how to use it properly, according to its designation.
What Is The Best Way to Keep Self-Discipline at Work?
There is no blueprint in terms of keeping self-discipline as a remote worker or freelancer. There may be as many ways and practices to do it as many minds exists in the world.
If you are a beginner or struggle with productivity, start from those simple ways. They don’t take much effort and can bring amazing results!
But then, don’t stick with only those. Try new things, new tools and apps. Mix different approaches and eventually, you will figure out what works best for you. Give yourself time and you’ll reach the top. Good luck!