I’ve been working from home for over 2 months and most of my work time has been spent at my home office. I got to admit, the idea of working from home sounded so great but sometimes it can get mentally exhausting for multiple reasons:
Most of the time, because I eat, sleep, and work within the same 100 sq feet, I don’t leave my apartment all week. I know that’s a first world problem, but it can be draining being “stuck” in one place for so long.
My dog and my boyfriend (who leaves for work) are sometimes the only people (I know a dog isn’t a person) I interact with face to face. I’m pretty much as introverted as they comfortably come, but even this is a little weird for me.
When I finish my normal 8-5 work, I start working on my own company’s work whether it’s another video project or marketing/sales, or working on videos for my YouTube channel, so I continue to stay in my home office for another 2-4 hours in the evening! Imagine sitting in the same chair for 12 hours (minus lunch and dinner breaks).
With a lack of interaction and change of scenery, my creativity has been going through lots of ebbs and flows and so has my energy.
But working from home has also being pretty awesome because it gives me the flexibility to work in my PJ’s and give my dog more attention, which he definitely needs. Meet my dog and find out more about his need for attention in my last video here.
At Home
Even though working from home doesn’t necessarily mean working from your actual home all the time, I mostly choose to work from my home office because of a few reasons but the main one being I LOVE MY IMAC. You can’t really take a giant iMac on the go with you, but I guess if you really wanted to, you could. But personally, I prefer writing, editing, animating, etc on the bigger screen. So this is the main reason I’ve become a huge homebody.
Over the past 2 months of working at home, I’ve learned a few things that can make it more productive and comfortable.
Having a set schedule like you would at the office. This means starting and ending at the same time everyday, and taking regular scheduled breaks. Otherwise, you can find yourself working past your normal time and forgetting to eat and drink.
Have a clean and organized workspace. As a creative, sometimes my desk can be overflowing with sticky notes, snacks, books, camera equipment, etc and that can really make me feel unproductive and distracted.
If you’re not a solopreneur but work with a team, it’s key to keep the line of communication open. Whenever I have meetings or conversations with my team on projects or anything really, it brings the vision back into focus. Using tools like Zoom or Slack are great for this.
Take breaks away from your desk. I mentioned having set breaks already, but make sure you have those breaks out of your workspace, so you have a small change of scenery even if it’s at home.
Lastly, every morning before officially working, I make myself some iced coffee and it’s made working from home so much better. I’m saving money on going to Starbucks and gives me a little boost to get me out of bed.
Away From Home
The company I work for meets up every 2 weeks on a Wednesday to reconnect since most of us are in the Arizona area. We’ve gone to a co-working space, along with various coffee shops. But, personally, I need a bit more variety in my schedule. I looked into different resources for remote working and this is what I found.
Workfrom.co is a great site to find places to work remotely for free. It can vary from official co-working spaces to nice restaurants that are work friendly. It also tells you what to expect like noise and electric plug ins, along with wifi details.
Wi-Fi Map is an app that helps you connect with Wi-Fi all over the world. It’s essentially a network of people that have shared different Wi-Fi details such as free Wi-Fi and the passwords to other networks for people on the go.
Let me know if you have any other tips for remote working in the comments!