Even before the pandemic, more people were deciding to work remotely. Working from home is ideal for better family life or to say goodbye to the commute. Remote work is appealing for lots of good reasons, but it has its challenges, too. You can master it, though, with this realistic guide to working from home.
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Tips For Effectively Working From Home
Whether you work remotely a few days a week or full-time, it’s important you are set up to be productive. Setting up for productivity includes having a workspace with the right technology, a way to handle disruptions, and a schedule that works. Here are a few of the best strategies and tips to be successful as a remote worker.
1. Know The Ground Rules
If you’re still working for a company rather than for yourself, check whether you have to stick to a nine-to-five schedule or whether you can have more flexibility. Are you allowed to work on public WiFi? Which tools will you need, such as Zoom, Slack, or Microsoft Teams for video meetings or group chats?
If you are working for someone else, it’s important that your employer clearly lays out the ground rules and makes sure that you have the right equipment. Some of the equipment you might need includes a reliable laptop, network access, passcodes, and instructions for safe remote login.
Do some trial runs of your set-up, and figure out any problems that might impact your ability to work. If you work for yourself, you might need a lot of these same tools anyway.
2. Set Up A Functional Workspace
Find somewhere to work in the house by trying some different ways to convert a spare room into an office. Not everyone has a home office, but you need to have a private, quiet space to work. If you can, separate your work area from your personal space. Use that space only for work, not other activities.
3. Get The Right Internet Speed
If you have children, their internet habits could slow down your speeds. Sitting as close as you can to the router can help, or you could swap to an ethernet connection. You might need a dongle to do this, as most laptops don’t have ethernet ports anymore. You’ll also need an ethernet cable to connect your computer to the router.
4. Use Phone Apps
If you need to make calls, Google Hangouts, Skype, and Whatsapp all let you call over the internet. These apps can be used globally and are inexpensive. If the person you’re calling is on the same service, it’s free.
5. Minimize Distractions
If you have a loud dog or a noisy neighbor, buy yourself some noise-canceling headphones. If your children are at home and you don’t have childcare available, take turns with childcare with your spouse. This might mean you have to talk to your boss about adjusting your working hours, though.
If you need some activities for kids that are stuck at home, check out this post: 15 Ways to Keep Kids Busy at Home
6. Plan Extra Social Interactions
Some people like working alone, but even the biggest introverts can start to feel lonely after a few weeks. Be prepared for this to happen.
Try to schedule some time to connect with the outside world, at least occasionally. Consider a lunch date, a phone call with a friend, or an exercise class after work.
Tips For Finding Balance While Working At Home
Being your own boss, setting your hours, and working at home has some definite benefits, but it comes with some drawbacks too. Whether you’re telecommuting or self-employed, there are some tips to manage a healthy balance.
7. Stick To Your Work Schedule
Everyone that works from home will deal with some lack of understanding from other people that think working from home isn’t really working. You must set your working hours, stick to them, work during these hours, and not let anyone interfere with that.
Homelife comes with its own distraction that can soon eat up your important working hours and put you behind on important projects. Along with typical interruptions like vendor calls, accidents, or child needs, there are some personal boundaries that will be pushed too.
Your family must understand that you can’t help them during the workday or stop and talk on the phone. Setting these limits can be hard if you have children at home. However, your children seeing you work on something you love can be a positive influence on them for their futures.
8. Beware Workaholic Tendencies
Flexibility and efficiency are two of the biggest reasons that people want to work from home. Additionally, they long for the possibility of shorter hours because you can accomplish more without being interrupted by emails or daily staff meetings.
Sometimes the extra flexibility can be too much of a good thing, though. When your office is always there and you have a deadline looming, it can be hard to leave work alone. Many people that work from home find themselves logging more hours, not fewer, and working at night and on weekends because they struggle to ignore their work.
Many remote workers do manage to keep a five-hour day, but this might not mean that they work less. Hours are usually calculated as ‘billable hours‘. This means that for every hour you spend on a task you charge for, there’s lots of time spent doing admin tasks that you can’t charge for.
9. Don’t Bet On Saving Money
Without a commute, lunches, and the cost of office clothing, you might think working at home will save your budget. However, other costs can come up.
The expense of setting up an office will include laptops, internet services, a printer, cell phones, business cards, web hosting, software, and more. You can’t use your existing equipment for your business if you plan to claim the full cost as a tax write-off. Personal and business purchases must be kept completely separate under tax law.
For example, you can only deduct your home office if you’re a freelancer or a contractor. You can’t deduct non-reimbursed work expenses if you’re an employee, including deducting for a home office. This makes it even more important to try to get any extra costs covered by your company.
Check what is allowed before you try to deduct half of your mortgage or your office rent. There are very strict limits on what can be claimed as a tax deduction on your tax return. You can deduct valid work-related expenses, but only the percentage that is actually used for your work.
If your internet is used by your children and spouse, or even by you for non-work-related reasons, you can’t deduct the whole cost. You can only deduct the estimated portion that is only used for work. The same is true of bills, utilities, and office supplies.
If you’re an independent contractor, you will also need to pay your own social security tax and payroll taxes. This means that a sole proprietor won’t see particularly major cuts on their tax bill.
Working From Home
If you work from home, you already know the perks and the downfalls. People that don’t work from home don’t always understand the details, but you must stick to your schedule anyway. Use these tips to stay focused and to make working from home an enjoyable, efficient experience.
