As long as you’re diligent about keeping your home and work life separate, you’ll have no trouble staying productive and professionally fulfilled. But if you let those worlds overlap too much, you’d better be prepared for some pretty long nights at the office.
Working from home has become the new normal for many people, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic swept the globe. Many busy professionals love the comfort and convenience of working from a home office, but it can be a rough transition. You have to set clear boundaries, otherwise your home and work life can become indistinguishable from one another—and there’s nothing worse than living at the office.
1. Dress for the Job
Your employer might not care how you dress when working from home, but your subconscious cares. Some telecommuters have anecdotally reported a boost in productivity when making the switch from sweats to professional attire, and it makes sense. If you roll out of bed and work in your pajamas or sweatpants, you’ve eliminated any distinction between your home and work life.
By dressing as you would at the office (or at least a casual office), you’re making a small commitment to your professional endeavors. A study published in Human Resource Development Quarterly even found that people who make an effort to dress for the job perceive themselves as more authoritative and competent.
2. Set Up a Designated Workspace
One study found that up to 80% of New York City young professionals work from bed. This is another all-too-common mistake. You don’t want your brain to associate your bed—or even your bedroom—with work. If you can set aside a room in your home as a dedicated office, that’s the best way to go.
Even if you don’t have the space for a full home office, choose a location in the home that will be specifically designated as your workspace. When you walk away from that space, you’ll no longer feel like you’re at work, and that’s the goal. Even Harvard Business Review warns that it can be dangerous to commingle your cozy home spaces with your workspaces. When you do it, they all start to feel like workspaces.
3. Keep a Strict Schedule
When you work in an office, you know when it’s time to go home. Sure, you might have to work late sometimes, but in general, you can count on a reasonably consistent schedule. But when you work from home, things aren’t so cut-and-dry. If you’re like many work-from-home professionals (especially independent contractors), you might just start working whenever you’re ready and then stop whenever you can’t take anymore.
This approach is problematic for many reasons. When you don’t have structure in your schedule, it’s easy to fall behind on projects. Time loses all meaning, as do the days of the week. You no longer look forward to the weekend because you’re probably just going to use that time to get caught up on your latest project anyway.
To avoid this problem, you need to stick to a strict schedule—even if you’re not required to do so. Start working at the same time every morning. Stop working at the same time every evening (as a general rule).
4. Stay Focused
When working from home, you’re constantly surrounded by distractions. The toilet needs to be scrubbed. The mail just arrived. Ellen is interviewing Harrison Ford today…
Yes, the distractions go on forever, but when you work from home, it’s critical that you stay focused and set those distractions aside. This can take some practice and training, and it’s just one more reason why a designated home office can be an asset. Get in the habit of focusing exclusively on work tasks during your designated work hours, and attend to everything else when the work is done.
5. Communicate Your Boundaries to Cohabitants
When you work from home, you quickly learn that not everyone understands what you’re dealing with. Your significant other might pop into the office and ask you to help them with the odd favor. Your friend might ask you for a ride to the airport in the middle of the afternoon.
Unfortunately, there still exists an unfair perception that work-from-home professionals are free to do as they please. Not everyone will understand why you’re trying to maintain a strict schedule or why you can’t simply shuffle your hours around on a whim. You need to set clear boundaries and communicate those boundaries to people. You may be at home, but you’re still very much at work.
As long as you’re diligent about keeping your home and work life separate, you’ll have no trouble staying productive and professionally fulfilled. But if you let those worlds overlap too much, you’d better be prepared for some pretty long nights at the office.
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