Wondering What Happened to Your Motivation? Reclaim it Here With These Secrets!

Working from home is full of perks–a short commute, greater flexibility, and more time to spend with family. But, it can also be challenging to maintain motivation from a home office. There will be times when you struggle and your motivation wanes. Over the years, I’ve learned three keys to staying motivated while working from home–expectations, habits, and connections. Here are my best tips in each category.

Scale Your Expectations

When you start thinking about working from home, it’s easy to have unrealistic expectations for your experience. You may have a vision of fulfilling all your professional goals, giving your children unlimited time and attention, cooking gourmet meals every night, and managing an efficient and lovely home like a pro all the time. The reality is likely totally different. That mismatch can lead to disappointment and diminishing motivation. There are a few keys to combating this scenario:

  • Set and pursue goals for your professional and personal life. As part of this, identify milestones to keep you going. Celebrate the completion of big projects at work or in your personal life, like getting kids back to school for a new term or planning a big family event.  Use a broad definition of success when considering your wins and finding accomplishments worth celebrating.
  • Remember why you are working from home. This can help ground you when you are struggling. Write your initial work-from-home objectives down and review them. Remember the feelings that led you to pursue home-based work and catalog them. Then, include all the benefits–expected and unexpected–that have popped up since you decided to work from home. Review this list when you need a motivation boost.
  • Revisit your expectations. As you think back on the journey that led you home, try to remember your expectations for the experience. Rescaling your expectations to more fully match reality can help you find the motivation to keep going.

Develop Good Habits 

When you commute and go to the office, it creates a ritual. You get dressed, drop off the kids, get coffee, and arrive at the office ready for a few minutes of small talk before getting to work. At the end of the day, you bid your coworkers good night and head home to relax. 

When you work at home, you may shuffle between your computer and the kitchen. You might fold laundry on conference calls and meet family needs as you pursue work deadlines. Working like this every day is exhausting, leading to a hit to your motivation. The solution is to create a new set of rituals to help you start and end your workday. Here’s how:

  • Create and follow a work schedule for each day. The plan can vary based on what’s happening in your life on any given day. But, identify your work hours in advance and share the schedule with your family, so they know when you are at work. Honor the schedule, so you set natural limits on your workday. As you think about your schedule, include some time to take care of yourself. Exercise and fresh air do wonders for your state of mind and level of motivation.
  • Work in a dedicated space. It doesn’t need to be a fancy home office. Just pick a place where you can consistently work with a little privacy and quiet. Add a few personal items to your desk to make it feel more like your workspace. 
  • Get dressed and ready for work. No need to dress up (unless you want to!), but the act of changing into work clothes and getting ready can help you feel more prepared to work.
  • Create an end-of-the-day ritual, such as tidying up your desk or making a to-do list for the next day, to help you transition from work back to home life. Take a few minutes to reflect on your accomplishments before your short commute back to the main part of your house.

Stay Connected

When you work in an office, you see your coworkers every day, and impromptu conversations occur regularly. (Sometimes so regularly that it’s tough to get actual work done.) When working from home, it’s easy to feel disconnected from your coworkers or other professionals. Find ways to connect with your colleagues via phone or video conference. Send invitations for virtual coffee dates, so you have dedicated time to catch up. When you do meet, business is sure to come up. But make time for some small talk at the top of the call. This will help you know your colleagues better and help you stay connected.

Also, connecting to others outside your immediate work situation can help you feel less isolated in your home office.  

  • Join professional organizations. When you join an industry-related professional group, you’ll get the chance to network with others in your field and, in many cases, have the option to attend educational webinars and conferences. This is a great way to stay connected, learn more about the industry, and expand the circle of people you know with similar professional interests.
  • Engage with local organizations. Joining a local civic or professional organization is a great way to get connected with people locally. You’ll likely have opportunities to volunteer and meet other work-from-home professionals who can become friends and possible future colleagues.
  • Read relevant trade publications and blogs to stay on top of trends in your industry. Seeing bigger picture news can help you feel more connected to your profession beyond your current role and inspire you to consider new angles for your work and opportunities in your professional life.

These are my top tips. I’d love to hear how you stay motivated while working from home. Please send me your ideas.

 

 

Want More Great Work from Home Tips?

* indicates required


User Type


Continue Reading

4 Tips for a Healthy Home Based 2016

It’s that time of year – resolutions and goals are everywhere! We commit to being the best versions of ourselves in the new year, and one of the items on almost everyone’s list is the health category.

We can always strive to improve our health, and when working from home, health needs to take priority. It becomes easy to sit all day, eat all of the unhealthy foods in the house, and just generally lose sight of a healthy lifestyle.

Take breaks

When you take a break, the result is really dual-purpose – mental and physical. Taking a break gives your brain a break, and you can turn it into a physical break by taking a short walk, getting some fresh air, or doing a brief workout video.

Even if you’re extremely busy, make it a deliberate point to take short breaks throughout the day – 5-10 minutes is all you need to break up the work day!

Schedule fitness

At the top of all resolution lists is fitness! Just as you schedule important tasks to complete, conference calls, and daily to do items, scheduling fitness can really keep you healthy when you work from home.

Know yourself! If you like to get things out of the way, a morning workout might be your best bet. If you need a few cups of coffee to get moving, maybe an afternoon or evening workout suits you better. It’s not important when you do it, but that you schedule it and get it done.  Not only does fitness keep your body healthy, it actually makes you more productive and effective in your home based job.

Mental fitness

Mental health and fitness begins with balance. When you’re working from home everyday, it becomes easy to stay isolated.  Schedule coffee dates and meetings out if you can, and don’t be afraid to throw in small social meetings as well.

Working from home is very different from a traditional office environment, and it’s important to keep a healthy social life.  Maintain contact with friends and family throughout your week, and be sure that you’re venturing out of the house regularly.

Keep it positive

A healthy mind and body is nothing without a positive attitude. Health begins with your attitude, and the more that you can maintain a positive one, the more you’ll be able to accomplish. Think of your positivity as the fuel to your new, healthier lifestyle!

When you combine physical, mental, and an attitude of fitness, you’ll be well on your way to a happier, healthier new year! It’s more important that you factor in healthy habits when working from home, as there is much more opportunity to sit around and eat poorly.  Adopt these simple habits and see a change in your effectiveness and health in 2016.

Continue Reading