How to organise yourself when working remotely

In today’s world, working from home, or telecommuting, has become like working in an office. Moreover, in some cases, the number of workers from home exceeds those who spend their time travelling and sitting in their trousers in the office. But such work is not so easy, although it has its advantages. You have to organise your work process in a certain way to be productive. The following tips can help.

1. Make space for a ‘home office’.

Ideally it would be better to have an office at home, but not everyone has one. In that case, it is sufficient to simply divide the space into a working and sleeping area. For example, in the working sector there should be a table at which the task will be performed. Working with a laptop on the bed is not a good idea.

2. Adhering to a dress code

Even if the idea of dressing like you’re going to the office but just walking two metres across the room and sitting at your desk seems absurd, you should still stick to it. The fact is that dressing at home is relaxing and productivity levels will be extremely low. It is not necessary to wear a business suit, it is enough that the clothes differ from those worn at home. And you should not forget about your hair.

3. Allocating hours for work

The main advantage of freelancing is the opportunity to work out your own schedule. Larks can do everything in the morning, owls are productive in the evening or at night. So you should determine the periods of greatest concentration and work moods, and devote them to tasks without distractions. Preferably, the schedule should be designed to be followed at all times rather than changing every weekday.

4. Avoiding distractions in the home

It is a mistake to think that if you work from home, you can do chores at the same time. A certain amount of time should be set aside for work, just as for household chores. There is no need to mix it up or get distracted. In fact, you have to act like you do in an office, where there is no washing machine nearby.

5. Warn your housemates

Negotiating with people you share a house with so that they don’t get distracted from their work and are not constantly tugging at you is difficult. But you can. All you have to do is tell them your office hours and make it clear that you are not available for work at that time, as if you were in the office.

6. Eliminating social media for work hours

Due to the fact that there is little communication at home with the same colleagues at work, there is often a distraction to social media. You want to socialise, to discuss something, as you do in the office. But if in the office you can go out for a smoke break and afterwards return to your workplace, it is much harder to get away from social networks. That is why it is better to exclude the use of messengers, even to the extent of disabling notifications, during busy periods.

7. Arranging breaks

Working on a standby is not a good idea. Firstly, after the “working day” there will be no energy left at all. Secondly, productivity with fatigue drops and trying to force yourself to do all the tasks through “can’t” will not lead to the desired result. Therefore it is necessary to take breaks in order to regenerate your resource.

8. Adequate assessment of your own strengths

For many freelancers, their income depends on the number of orders, projects or clients. In the pursuit of a larger amount, a person can take on an excessive amount of work. If you go completely into it with his head, it is not far to permanent stress, and there and depression will pull up. This is why you should take the amount of work that you can do with the time and energy you have available.