When you started working from home, you were blazing through all your tasks and felt like an all-powerful work machine! You’ve been unmotivated in the last few months and kept asking, “why am I feeling lazy working from home?”
Having no motivation to work from home is a common problem and is often tied to poor time management. Remote workers and entrepreneurs working from home may need to improve their time management and follow other tips to avoid feeling unmotivated.
3 Reasons Why You are Feeling Unmotivated While Working From Home
If you have no motivation to work, many things could be happening here. You might be dissatisfied with your job or feel burned out from working too hard. You wouldn’t be the first remote worker to feel unmotivated working from home, and you won’t be the last. Read through the following three sections to learn more about why you might feel the way you do.
Reason 1: You’re Burned Out From Working Too Hard
Have you been working too hard lately to stay on task at work? Maybe you enjoy taking on extra work or have had a good time making overtime hours. In this situation, too much work can be a serious problem that can lead to serious burnout and may cause laziness.
When you feel burned out, you likely suffer from anxiety that makes working difficult and problems with paying attention that can be very hard to manage. Burnout is a common problem for remote workers who don’t take enough time for themselves daily.
Reason 2: You Have Poor Work-Home Life Balance
You may have difficulty keeping your life balanced between work and home. You may feel exhausted from working too hard or not getting enough personal time with your friends and family. This problem can sap your motivation and make work seem like a chore.
Perfecting your work-life balance is a challenging prospect that requires understanding how much work to put in every day and when to take breaks. Thankfully, it is possible to avoid unbalanced workloads, burnout, and fatigue that may affect your motivation.
Reason 3: You’re Not Scheduling Your Days Effectively
Proper time management is more important than many people realize. If you’re not properly managing your time, you’re probably not staying on task and losing motivation to complete your activities. For example, you might try to tackle hard tasks later in the day when you’re too tired.
This mistake can cause fatigue at the end of the day, which may make it hard for you to try to tackle these duties. As a result, it is important to try various time management methods to improve your work-from-home schedule. Doing so requires a careful assessment of your daily tasks.
12 Tips to Stay Motivated While Working From Home
If you have no motivation, your productivity working from home is going to be terrible. Following 12 steps will bring you back to your former glory as a remote worker. They’ll not only help you better understand why you feel unmotivated working from home but can improve your overall work effectiveness.
1. Set Clear Work-Life Boundaries
It is important to set clear work-life boundaries when you work from home. Doing so is critical because it can minimize problems with overwork that may cause you to feel no motivation to work from home. These boundaries can include clear beginning and ending times every day and time to work on your personal needs, such as handling daily chores. Some people don’t have a set routine like this, pushing them out of balance and causing fatigue and anxiety.
2. Know When to Take Breaks
It can be tempting never to take breaks when you work from home. After all, you might finish early and have more fun with your day, right? While understandable, this approach is a serious mistake. Breaks help your brain refresh and make it easier to tackle your day-to-day tasks. Schedule your breaks properly to give yourself time to refresh your mind and focus on your duties later. Pushing yourself to the limit each day will wear you out and affect your work quality because you’ll focus on how fast you can get done rather than your work.
3. Improve Your Time Management Techniques
If your time management is poor, you might want to try the Pomodoro Technique (working 25 minutes and taking 5-minute breaks), which is great because it forces you to take breaks. Eat the Frog gets you to tackle important tasks on time without procrastinating, while the Time Management Matrix helps you weigh your tasks by importance and urgency. Use whatever method makes the most sense for you or combine these options differently: I prefer combining Eat the Frog and Pomodoro Technique.
4. Create Realistic Goals
Try to be honest about your performance goals while working from home to avoid work paralysis. For example, setting unrealistic goals like completing a complete audit in a week can cause anxiety that may make you lazy.
Break down bigger goals into smaller and realistic ones you can handle daily. Doing so can keep you focused and avoid burnout. It also helps you feel more effective and improves your work efficiency.
5. Stay on Task With a Planner
Some people struggle with laziness because they don’t realize everything they must do in a day. Sit down with a work planner and schedule your day effectively. Doing so helps you stay on task by reminding you what you need to do and keeping you motivated. It also helps by breaking down your tasks into easily manageable blocks that don’t wear you out excessively and help you finish your tasks on time more effectively.
6. Know When to Step Away From the Desk
Do you have a bad habit of working long past your traditional ending time? If so, you’re not alone. People working from home often feel you tempted to stay on task for hours longer than normal. This may make you feel unmotivated early in your day or cause poor work focus by overworking your mind and causing fatigue. Set specific beginning and ending times for your days to ensure you don’t feel overworked and burned out.
Furthermore, dressing up as if going to a standard office can also help you feel more motivated by making you feel more professional. Treat your at-home work situation like a proper job to get the best results.
7. Get In Some Exercise
Regular exercise helps your blood flow faster and brings more oxygen to your brain. This helps you to focus more effectively and gives you more energy to tackle your day. Just as importantly, exercise can improve your mental health and ease anxiety and depression symptoms. Get a few 15-minute exercises throughout your day to keep yourself energetic and excited about your work day and engage with your tasks.
8. Create Better Habits Outside of Work
Practicing good work habits is critical for avoiding feeling unmotivated while working. It is also vital to practice better life habits outside of work. Instead of eating out daily or watching television for hours, make healthy meals, go for walks outside, spend time with friends, and engage mentally, such as playing board games. Staying active outside work can enhance your mood and quality of life and make it easier to focus on improving your routine when working from home. Find hobbies that feel natural to your interests and sign up for classes with others to stay active.
9. Know When to Delegate
Are you tired of doing boring daily tasks that somebody else could do for you? These tasks might rob your motivation and make it hard to stay focused. Thankfully, delegating these tasks to other people in your office is possible. Knowing when to get help can allow you to focus on the tasks that truly matter at your job. It can also help you feel more connected to your office and boost your motivation by making you feel more in touch with your employer’s needs.
10. Consider a Health Check
If you feel tired and unable to focus on your work, it might be a good idea to get a health check with your doctor. They can spot underlying problems, including chronic fatigue symptoms or vitamin deficiencies. These issues can sap you of energy and cause laziness that may affect your efficiency. A mental health check is just as important.
11. Reward Yourself
Rewarding yourself occasionally is likely to improve your overall motivation. Don’t think this activity is childish! Getting a reward releases dopamine, improving your mood and making working easier. However, rewarding yourself too often can dull the effect. Instead, reward yourself every week or month during regular examinations of your progress. These checks help you gauge just how well you’re doing in your job and can be rewarding in and of themselves.
12. Know Your Limitations
There’s nothing wrong with having specific personal limitations. Everybody has a boundary or a limit that they shouldn’t cross to avoid serious physical and emotional health problems.
For example, two people could have done the exact same amount of tasks. One would consider their day was great while the other would consider it as unproductive day.
Knowing where your limitations extend can minimize these problems. Be honest with yourself and create guidelines that can improve your physical and emotional health, boost your work focus, and enhance your overall health. Limitations may include an inability to focus on a task longer than half an hour or physical pain when sitting at your desk too long.
Conclusion
Using these powerful tips, you can avoid having no motivation to work from home and become a more effective worker. When you feel unmotivated working from home or ask yourself, “why am I feeling lazy working from home?” you can try these tips to refocus yourself. This way, you can become an effective work with a broad range of personal skills and abilities.
