Working from home can be a bit like an adventure for many people at first and has many benefits. For example, the UK provides many tax relief opportunities for its stay-at-home employees. However, some people may struggle to adapt to a work-from-home environment and need a little help.
Our team found many high-quality work-from-home hacks that can improve your career, including these 20 tips to help you. Each will help you tackle distinct elements of your job in fun and engaging ways.
Important Points of These Work-From-Home Hacks
The work-from-home hacks that we found focus heavily on multiple aspects of your work behavior. Each can help boost one or more factors associated with your job and make working from home simpler and more effective. Here are the main points you will learn from these work-from-home hacks.
How to Stay on Task
Working from home makes it easy to feel distracted by television, phone calls, and even family members. Many tips below will help you learn how to avoid these problematic behavior patterns and make staying on task easier. They’ll help you with time management if you have kids at home while you work.
Avoiding Work/Life Imbalance
While working from home might seem like a dream, many people notice a severe work/life imbalance that may affect their overall success and happiness.
These simple work-from-home hacks will help you balance your life more effectively and avoid these concerns. They’ll also help you focus more effectively on what matters the most in your life and career.
Staying Happy With Your Job
Lastly, these work-from-home hacks can help you create a work-from-home routine that enables you to stay happy at your job. You won’t feel overworked or poorly appreciated if you try these tips. You’ll also avoid serious work-related fatigue if you don’t balance your life properly. We’ll highlight how these tips help you ensure you get the best overall results.
20 Work-From-Home Hacks
These 20 work-from-home hacks were the best our team could find and can help you improve your chore time management abilities and overall work productivity. We’ll briefly discuss each tip and provide some context for why it may help you, giving you the details to pick the work-from-home hacks that make the most sense.
1. Choose Whether to Work Alone
Do you prefer working alone to maximize your productivity?
Or would you like someone at home with you working?
Knowing which environment works for you is important to improve your overall work effectiveness. Loneliness, i.e., a lack of connection with co-workers, may cause some complications. So make sure you stay in touch with people at work.
2. Create a Specific Workplace
One of work from home hacks recommended by remote employment specialists is to have a dedicated workplace or office for at-home employees. A dedicated office helps isolate you from the rest of the home and puts you in a more work-oriented mindset. Just as importantly, it helps to minimize work/life imbalances by letting you focus more quickly on your work tasks without worrying about time conflicts.
3. Handle Your Toughest Tasks First
Schedule your most challenging tasks earlier in the day, when you’re freshest. If you put them off until later when you’ve already handled several tasks and feel tired, you might struggle to finish them. Doing them first lets you do your hardest things right away, make the rest of your daily relatively easier, and focus more on basic maintenance. This technique, also called “eating the frog, ” is a great way to schedule your day.
4. Present Yourself As If You’re Working
We’ve all seen the ads joking about people working from home in their pajamas and underwear. While it might be tempting to try this at first, you should still dress up as if you’re going to the office.
Doing so puts you into a routine that mirrors your office and also helps give you the work-oriented mindset that you may need to stay focused on your tasks.
5. Know How to Time Your Day
Everybody has different times when they work best based on their ultradian rhythms. Perhaps you work better in the morning and can get a lot done from 5 to 9 before your office opens. Maybe you feel more comfortable working later at night when other people are ready for bed. Whatever option you choose, ensure that you work according to your body’s needs.
6. Workout When You Can
Working out is always a good idea but is particularly important for people working from home. Regular exercise helps improve your blood flow and focus, and energy levels. It also helps minimize weight-gain risks you might otherwise experience working from home. Workouts also boost bone and muscle health and enhance strength and stability. One of the best ways to spend your day off productively!
7. Use a Standing Desk
A standing desk is a great option for many people if they struggle to work out during their workday or need a change of pace. You can adjust this desk whenever you want to stand up and stretch.
Doing so can help get your blood flowing a little bit more and also strengthen your arms and legs. It also minimizes sitting-related health risks, such as heart-related problems that may affect your life.
8. Sit Next to a Window
Spending time outdoors has been shown to provide physical and mental health benefits. Even sitting next to a window can help by making it easier to get sunlight and some outdoor exposure. Putting up plants throughout your home office may also help by increasing oxygen production and helping your brain get the fuel it needs to thrive and tackle the toughest tasks of the day.
9. Use Ergonomic Furniture
Are you uncomfortable sitting for extended periods while you work and suffering pain? It is important to avoid this problem by getting ergonomic furniture for your office. This furniture supports your posture and minimizes this danger. Ergonomic keyboards and computers can also help support your posture and reduce the pain that could distract your work efforts.
10. Try the Pomodoro Technique
Do you have a hard time staying on task every day? The Pomodoro Technique is a powerful tool that uses 25-minute work periods paired with five-minute breaks. After four of these periods, you take a 15-30 minute break.
These methods break your day into small and manageable tasks and have improved work focus by creating breaks towards which you work every half hour.
11. Beautify Your Office
Beautifying your office may be a surprisingly powerful way of improving your work-from-home habits. This is probably the most fun of all our work-from-home hacks. You can purchase or make artwork and hang it throughout your office. Put up paintings, sculptures, and anything else that makes you feel comfortable. Beautiful art may boost your mood and improve your work-from-home time management.
12. Listen to Music
Are you a music lover who laments being unable to rock out while working? We have great news for you! Playing certain kinds of music at a moderate volume may boost your productivity and help you work more effectively. Calming music is particularly beneficial here, though energetic music may also get you pumped up to tackle harder tasks at the beginning of your long work day.
13. Keep The Air Fresh
Fresh air and good smells can be a powerful way of improving your overall emotional and mental health. Keeping your window open can help add fresh air to your office. You may also use an aromatherapy tool to spread pleasant smells in your office. If, for some reason, you can’t open your window, consider taking a brief walk outside to refresh your lungs and bring some fresh air into your life.
14. Avoid Unnecessary Distractions
Stay away from television, social media interactions, and telephone usage while working from home. These distractions will only make your work less effective. You may want to put your phone in another room, which may further the risk of distraction.
Remember: a single distraction may rob you of over 20 minutes of productivity, so do what you can to stay focused by eliminating distractions.
15. Utilize Temperature Control
You may find that you work better at specific temperatures than others, and working from home allows you to take control of the thermostat finally. The exact temperature most people enjoy will vary based on their needs. For example, some studies suggest that 70-73 degrees Fahrenheit (21-22 degrees Celsius) provides the most comfort.
16. Consider an Office Puppy
Of all the work-from-home hacks we found, this one put the biggest smile on our faces. Buying an office puppy is a great way to improve your work-from-home abilities. Dogs naturally improve your mood and give you something to do when you need a break. Just as importantly, they can make you more accountable by forcing you to pay attention to something other than yourself and finish your tasks on time.
17. Avoid Unnecessary Clutter
Cluttered offices can be very distracting and cause people to struggle with productivity. Some may feel stressed, anxious, or depressed if their desks are too messy. Keep your desk clean by storing paperwork in files, putting unneeded items away, and cleaning your desk daily.
Doing so can help you avoid these emotional struggles, stay on task with your duties, and avoid falling behind in unfortunate ways.
18. Set Short Deadlines
Short deadlines are a good way of creating a sense of urgency in your day that may help you stay on task. For example, you might give yourself an hour to complete a task and break it up using the Pomodoro Technique to focus on specific tasks. Segmenting your day in this way can help you stay on task and even make something of a game of your day. Gamification like this is a great way to stay on task by making your work more of a fun and engaging experience.
19. Reward Yourself for Task Completion
Don’t be afraid to reward yourself when you finish an important task. That’s the great thing about working from home: you can take the time to relax and get a brief reward. Even a healthy snack from the fridge can be a great reward for many people. You can also take a break and watch a few minutes of your favorite show or work on your book during one of your breaks to stay on task with its completion.
20. Take Care of Your Body
Don’t work too hard that you end up exhausted at the end of every day. Go to bed at the same time every night, eat healthy meals, take breaks when needed, and even consider taking naps. A brief 20-minute nap can give you extra mental energy and boost your overall mood. Remember: you work from home and can take advantage of the ability to step away from the desk when needed to refresh your mind and body.
Conclusion
Follow these work-from-home hacks to avoid serious work-related fatigue, feel comfortable at your job, and achieve higher success. Pick and choose which of these tips suits you that, such as finding a co-working buddy with whom you can occasionally collaborate.
Make sure you always confirm any significant changes these tips may include, such as changing your schedule. Communicating with your work team regularly is essential, and discussing these steps gives you a chance to improve your office’s overall operating method.
