If you are working from home, by now you would have realised that one of the difficult tasks when working from home is keeping oneself motivated. Unlike a conventional job you do not get direction from your boss or colleagues with work or even a reminder of important deadlines due. Most probably there is nobody to verify whether you are at your desk or not. So you’re most likely to do all things other than what you should do at the moment.
Minimize distractions
Unlike when you are at an office there can be many distractions if you work at home. Don’t have a TV near your desk or have food in your office. Never have kids or noisy pets in either. In simple terms make your work area at home resemble your work area at an office so that your family and yourself can feel the difference when you enter to that space.
Vary the work
This is something you can apply to increase the efficiency of any activity you do in your life. Plan your day so that you don’t do any one activity for a long time. For instance if you are a freelance writer working at home, research for a while, write for a while, edit some of your work, make a few phone calls. By varying your day, you will actually get more done in the long run.
Have breaks time to time
It is a well known fact that a person cannot concentrate on something for more than one hour. So after working for sometime, if you simply don’t feel like working anymore, have a break. Get up and take a walk, have a snack or drink some coffee, call a friend or do any other thing which helps you release the stress built up. But most importantly come back to work diligently after the break. What happens in practice is the five minute break extending to hours as a result of lack of self discipline.
Set targets and monitor your progress towards the achievement of it
It is another approach you could follow to ensure you are on track. Further you will be able to see the amount of work you have ahead of you and you will be more likely to do it. In fact be your own boss monitoring your work and rewarding yourself for achievements. You need to conduct this as formally as possible because it then leads to simulation of the office environment.
In fact following one technique alone may not sufficiently motivate you throughout the entire period you work on a given day. So you may use these and others in combination to achieve best results.
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