Back when it was a rarity, I was lucky enough to spend a major portion of my paid time doing what we now call “working remotely.” Today, this kind of arrangement is far more commonplace.
But while some people describe this situation as “working at home,” others disparage it as much more akin to “living at work.” This gets a laugh from some, but the description accurately underscores the difficulties of modern-day remote work, which include:
- 24/7/365 accessibility, which tends to reduce the conventional barriers between home-life and work-life. The result: pressures to work longer hours and to prioritize work-related duties over the needs and pleasures of family, friends, leisure, and personal time.
- Interference with on-the-job effectiveness due to home-related distractions, including life partners, children, pets, hobbies, a well-stocked kitchen, everyday chores, and all the rest.
- Limitations on work-related productivity due to home-related shortcomings, such as a lack of needed equipment or resources, the absence of a convenient and well-appointed workspace, and the shortage of stimulating work-related interactions and crosstalk.
- Unwanted isolation from friends and family due to unrelenting work-related demands and performance pressures.
For these and other reasons, many people experience great difficulty maintaining a high level of productivity and success while working at home.
Fortunately, there are some techniques that can help you overcome these problems. They include:
Manage Your Mood
When you commute to a dedicated workplace, your mind tends to settle-in and habituate itself toward action the whole time you’re there. But when you work at the same place you live, this habituation is significantly diluted. As a result, you’ll often have more difficulty both “getting into the mood” and maximizing productivity when you work at home.
To remedy this, it’s helpful to:
- Establish a variety of boundaries between home and work, including physical (such as a dedicated work room or work space), chronological (specific, regular hours for work and for non-work), and even ritual (such as: donning a special piece of apparel like Mr. Rogers’s sweater, switching a dedicated light on for work and off for at-home activities, or practicing a start-up and/or close-down routine) to better segregate and psychologically bookend your work efforts.
- Prepare and follow written “instructions” or “checklists” for performing each of your work-related tasks, projects, and goals, which help to reduce the need for self-discipline and also make it easier to start and stick with work-related efforts in the midst of all those home-related distractions.
Watch the Clock
If your work permits, it’s helpful to establish and honor strict time limits on your work-at-home efforts. This is nothing new. People around the world involved with stocks, bonds, options, commodities, and other trading markets, for example, have long scheduled their “work days” around the operating hours of relevant market(s).
In many other industries, trades, and economic sectors, you can follow their lead:
- Develop a clear work paradigm (including planned breaks), organized perhaps by the clock, perhaps by a list of specific job responsibilities, or perhaps by working only in one location and deliberately not thinking about work when you are elsewhere.
- Follow your paradigm as strictly as you can, intentionally refusing to be distracted when you’re “on the job,” and intentionally focusing on other matters when you’re off.
Nurture Both Personal and Work Contacts
In addition to mood management and a clear, strict schedule, you can strengthen the boundaries between work-life and home-life by assiduously maintaining your contacts on both sides of the divide.
This involves taking the time to communicate regularly with work-related colleagues and contacts, discussing various tasks, projects, and goals, asking for and offering help, and generally strengthening feelings of team-membership and shared objectives.
It’s also helpful to exchange ideas and feelings about work-related priorities and pressures. The same as when you work away from home, you should maintain two-way accountability, jointly analyze how well you handled past tasks, projects, and goals, and coordinate with others how best to prepare for upcoming challenges.
Separately but equally, you should make a point of communicating regularly with family, friends, and personal acquaintances. When you do, be sure to share – to the extent that’s appropriate – your personal thoughts, activities, hopes, and desires. Ask them about theirs.
This kind of two-pronged communications effort will go a long way toward reducing feelings of isolation or burn-out, as well as setting and maintaining appropriate boundaries where they belong.
In general, staying aware of and compensating for these and other specific realities of working at home are central to appropriate, healthy, long-term balanced efforts to succeed in both your work and your life.
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