The Joys of Working From Home

The Joys of Working From Home – By Christine Woodham

A large percentage of the world is working from home right now, and I’d imagine most of those people are hating it. However, I’m a part of a small minority of people who actually enjoy working from home. Whilst I’m much happier in my own company and luckily not finding isolation as hard as other people, it’s important to remember that long periods of time spent alone, could be detrimental to you.

So, I have come up with a few of my joys of working from home, and some of the not so great consequences of working from home for good measure.

My productivity skyrockets

This doesn’t mean I don’t work as hard when I’m in the office – I just find it easier to concentrate without the hustle and bustle of office life.

I find myself flying through my to do list and finally finishing projects that had been ongoing for some time and when I’m back in the office I’m in a better place mentally and feel more in control of my workload.

More time in the day

Taking back that hour of commuting time makes all the difference to the day. You can start making dinner earlier, have more time to do household chores – or in my case – more time to watch Netflix…

More importantly for me, you don’t have to get up so early. The commute from the bedroom to your laptop takes less than 30 seconds. Bliss.

Time to recharge

It’s no secret to people that know me, that I am an introvert, and if you haven’t figured that out by this point in the blog – are you really paying attention?!

Being around people all day, 5 days a week is mentally exhausting. Spending some time alone to recharge results in me coming back to work refreshed and ready to go.

For me, there are many advantages to working from home, however, the three that I have listed can quickly become double edged swords if you fail to manage yourself.

You can become lazy

Find yourself rolling out of bed at 08:55, just to sit in front of your laptop in your pajamas? We’ve all done it and the latter can be quite distracting without you realising. For me, it helps to get up at the normal time (allow yourself to a little bit of a lie in), get dressed and start the day as you would if you were in the office.

I find by not following my usual routine, it can be hard to find the motivation to get on with my day because I’m not in the right mindset.

Work/home boundaries become blurred

Living and working in the same environment can be a challenge for me. In the past, those boundaries have been broken and resulted in me working longer hours and becoming burnt out.

I like to try and work in a room with no distractions, somewhere I can just close the door and forget about work outside of the 9-5. That way, I’m not replying to emails at 10pm on a Friday night…

Your mental health can take a beating

Being alone for a long period of time does no one any good – even for introverts. At the moment, the days all seem to be rolling into one and we are confined to our own four walls.

If you can, keep in touch with colleagues over the phone or Zoom/Skype on a daily basis to talk about how you’re feeling – this isn’t something I’m very good at, but when you’re feeling low the relief you get from telling people how you REALLY feel is quite something. Remember, it’s ok to not be ok.

Photo Credit: Anna Minkina