Work-from-home Tips for Professionals & Entrepreneurs

I’ve been working from home for over 14 years now. And honestly, I’ve loved it way more than I ever enjoyed working in a cubicle at any office. I like the flexibility, the ability to meet my deadlines at a self-created pace, working solo and being in my favourite place – my home, while I craft a career I enjoy.

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As much as I’m a die-hard fan of working-from-home, I understand that it’s not the first choice for everyone. So, with the Corona pandemic forcing everyone to huddle at home and work, it might be challenging and confusing for many of you, who prefer the structure, social aspect and discipline of walking into an office every day.

I’m sharing some tips that have worked for me in my work-from-home life and I hope these can help you ease into this too:

1. Create a rhythm or a schedule that factors in work, chores and family time. There are far too many distractions when you’re working from home, and if you don’t have a plan for the day, you may find it slipping from you quicker than you expected.

2. Ditch the pajamas and dress for work. Wear your “outside” clothes. Put on some make-up. Reach out for your favorite pair of earrings. I’ve found that dressing for work helps me focus better and feel sharper as I tackle the day’s to-do’s.

3. Set up a home office space. As tempting as working from the bed or dining table sounds like, believe me when I say that it can get difficult to sustain a motivated work-from-home lifestyle from there. If you have a table where you can park your laptop and work at everyday, or the spare room that you’ve turned into a home office, you’ll see the difference in your productivity.

4. Take a break from the Internet when you’re working on a deadline. It’s very easy to get sucked into the fascinating rabbit hole of Google or Whatsapp or other social media updates. I prefer to turn off the internet on my laptop and phone when I have a pressing deadline. I also use the timer on my phone to chunk up my work time. So, I set it for 25 minutes and do a work sprint, and then take a 5 or 10 minutes of break to get online or stretch.

5. Ask folks at home to give you some uninterrupted time to work in. It may be for just 15 or 30 minutes at a time, but these short bursts of work time without disturbances will make a lot of difference to your work and sanity.

And hey, while you work-from-home, do enjoy it! I hope these tips help you.

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