Working from home poses a lot of benefits. For starters, you can say goodbye to having to wake up early every morning and putting on your office clothes aren’t a tiny bit comfortable. And you can say hello to working on your pajamas. You’ll be able to work while unpacking all the deliverables that you’ve received from your online shopping.
Don’t get me wrong. There are lots of people who prefer the vibes of an office but even the feeling of being an “office girl” or “office boy” wears out the moment you’ve experienced enough stress in your workplace. All in all, working from home and having total control of your time is still the best setup.
But despite how perfect working from home sounds, it has its pitfalls. There are people who really resonate with remote work up to the point where they don’t even need an adjustment phase for it. But most people aren’t wired that way. This means that their first week working from home would most likely become a nightmare.
We all have bad habits that were never a bottleneck in the office but it can certainly pull you back if you’re working from home. Let’s be more specific. Here are 5 bad habits that you need to get rid of if you want to thrive as a work-from-home employee.
1. Being Too Distracted
People often underestimate the need for complete focus and concentration. And it’s also not that big of a shock since in our day of the internet and social media, there are thousands of new pieces of information that battle to get our attention.
Whether we are working at home or working at an office, we tend to get distracted. But if you’re in an office where you have a manager or supervisor monitoring you, it’s a lot easier to get stuff done.
On the contrary, when you work from home, you’re free to indulge yourself in all kinds of temptations. While it might be fun to be able to do anything you want whenever you want, you have to remember that you are still an employee at the end of the day.
This means that even though you are working from home, you are expected to deliver the same amount of work that you do back when you still work at an office. With that, you need to have a strong focus. For that, we can recommend that you practice daily meditation of 10 minutes per day. It will also be a good idea to stay off social media sites during your hours of work.
2. Not Focusing on Your Health
Working from home sounds easy but according to office workers who recently had to shift their lifestyle due to the COVID-19 pandemic, working from home is actually a lot more difficult than most of us think.
This is because you need to adjust to your new lifestyle. If you don’t set boundaries with how you work, you’ll end up having to work beyond office hours and you won’t have time to take care of yourself.
This can result in a decline in your immune system. When that happens, you’ll get sick or your brain won’t be able to process information as efficiently as it used to. Therefore, you won’t be productive.
You have to set appropriate working times that you can commit to. And when you do create your schedule, make sure to religiously follow through.
Most importantly, don’t allow yourself to miss breakfast or any other meal. Just because you are working from home, does not mean that you no longer need to give yourself proper nutrition. Your body uses as much energy as it does when you work in an office.
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3. Becoming Too Informal
When you are working from home, you will have the tendency to forget that you are speaking to an associate or even an authority figure.
What I would do is to dedicate a space that you can consider a home office. Only use that space when you are working. You can also take a bath first thing in the morning and wear some semi-formal clothes to remind yourself that even though you are at home, you are still in the middle of work.
Becoming too accustomed with the remote work atmosphere can lead to work inefficiencies or a potential termination if you go overboard.
4. Letting Work and Personal Spaces Overlap
Even the office workaholic has his limits. If you are shifting from an office to a work-from-home setup, you can expect to experience your limits quite regularly during the first couple of weeks.
To prevent that from getting the best of you, we recommend that you prep up your home before your new work setup begins.
This means you have to separate your bedroom from your home office or work area. If there’s a spare room that you can use as an office, that would really be a good idea.
If not, you can still use your room but make sure to use a divider so that there is a separation from workspace to resting space.
It wouldn’t be a bad idea to buy an actual office or even executive chair since you will need to sit for a full 8 hours still, like the way you do when you are in the office. You also need to set up your own table. Make sure that your work area has all the things you need like electric sockets.
You want to separate your bed from your office space. Otherwise, even though you are already about to fall asleep, it will feel like you are still at work. You won’t be able to forget about whatever remaining tasks you have left to do. In other words, you wake up the next day and you’d feel tired. If you have to work from home for a couple of months to a year, all the tiredness will get to you and you will become inefficient.
5. Being A Work Addict
Home is just too much of a comfortable place. With that, it’s no wonder that a lot of people become complacent to the point where it just becomes a part of their daily routine.
This may sound like a good thing but it will result in inefficiencies in the long haul. One still needs to have a work-life balance.
Make sure to have the proper discipline to only work during your work hours. Once your shift has ended, do something for yourself. Go to a spa, watch TV, eat your favorite snack, or better yet, get to bed early.
Final Takeaway
As mentioned, there are lots of pitfalls that come with working from home but the great thing about it is that it opens our eyes to the bad habits that we have that are inevitably leading to small inefficiencies. We have the opportunity to get rid of these bad habits. That way, regardless of our work setup, we will be able to meet our full potential and make the kind of contributions that we’ve always wanted to do.
