9 Tips To Work From Home Like A Pro

WFH, is it a luxury or a privilege? Regardless of what your answer is, we have tips to help you work from home like a pro. I have been working from home for the last 7+ years and there is this misconception that it’s all fun and games but actually requires a lot of discipline. WFH is hard work and without a proper plan in place, you will find yourself worse off than if you worked in an office.

Due to recent events, many people are now required to work from home and many will find it hard because they lack discipline. When you WFH it is easy to get distracted by the TV, people coming and going, housework and the like. It requires a lot more discipline than people realise and I have put together 9 tips to help you work from home like a pro. These are tips that I use day in and out and they work.

9 Tips To Work From Home Like A Pro

When I started working in the corporate sector and had the opportunity to work from home, I could not believe such perks existed. But I quickly realised I was better suited in the office than in the comfort of my own home if I need to get work done. It took a couple of years before I realised that I needed a plan to be able to WFH with ease and get work done.

Working from home has many challenges and if you are not careful, you will find yourself overwhelmed and working more hours than if you went to the office. After 2 years of trial and error, I came up with a formula that worked for my specific needs and might be helpful to others in a similar situation. For those with children or people to care for, it will require adjustments.

1. Follow a Routine

When it comes to WFH, it pays to have a routine in place that you can follow diligently. Whenever I work from home, I make sure I wake up the same time I would have if I was going into the office. As an early riser by nature, this is not hard for me but you might need to adjust this.

Between the hours of 5 am and 7 am, I am busy organising my day, making meals and to-do lists. WFH can be tough if you don’t follow a routine, have a specific time to start work and end your workday.

2. Set Ground Rules

Setting ground rules is so important as WFH brings with it so many distractions that you can not avoid. I have simple ground rules like, no checking my personal phone between the hours of 8 and 12. For the work phone itself, I have no personal apps that I can easily get distracted on.

It is simple rules like that that truly allow me to be productive in my work as I navigate working from home. As a blogger, it is easy for me to get lost down the realms of social media, I allocate 30 minutes every couple of hours to check social media.

3. Schedule Breaks

Scheduling your breaks when WFH is as important as setting ground rules for yourself. I am one of those unfortunate souls that when I get stuck working on an important project, I end up forgetting about eating altogether. This is not a good habit and because of this, I schedule my breaks regularly as I would if I was in the office.

When for me starts at 8 am, every 2 hours from then I schedule a 10-minute screen break and every 4 hours I have a food break. During my work hours, I also schedule a 30 minute where I go outside and get some fresh air. Thankfully, I live in an area where there are many walking trails that I use.

4. Maintain Regular Hours

When you WFH you might think you can work anytime and at your own pace, whilst this is true, it will throw your routine out the window. I maintain regular work hours of 9-5, although I start work at 8 am, this is mostly to plan the rest of the day or even week.

Maintaining regular hours is important because it allows you to follow your normal work schedule. Without having regular work hours you will find yourself working into the night because you did not have a proper routine.

5. Take a Walk

This ties in well with taking scheduled breaks, walking is not only good for you but allows you to move about. I am someone who can sit for hours because I am busy focusing on the work at hand (which never ends). I schedule in my walks every day and I feel out of sorts if I don’t go for a walk.

Going for a walk allows me to connect with nature, see the world outside my computer screen and just breathe. Sometimes all you need is fresh air to get the brain cells working again and kick out boredom.

6. Have a Dedicated Work Space

For the first few years of working from home, I worked from my bed or bedroom floor. After moving into my own apartment, I dedicated a small area in my living room as my workspace. Having this space allowed me to be more productive than seating in bed.

Not everyone will have spaces in their home where they can work, I would recommend either the living room floor or the kitchen table. Each will come with its own challenges but by all means, don’t work from your bed.

7. Socialize With Colleagues

Depending on the type of work you do, it’s always ideal to socialise with your colleagues. For people like me whose colleagues are in different timezones, I socialize with friends who also WFH. I allocate at least an hour of my workday to chat with colleagues or friends.

Working from home can be very lonely, taking a walk is a form of socializing without actively engaging in conversation. Seeing other people taking a walk as you do can be enough for some. Talking to a friend or two for 15 minutes can do wonders for the soul.

8. Follow an End of Day Routine

Whenever I write a WFH routine, I always ensure that it contains an end of day routine. This can be as simple as ticking off all the items you’ve done on your list and writing a new one for tomorrow or shutting down your laptop and clearing up your desk.

Before my workday ends, I always spend time reviewing my to-do list and ticking off items that I have done. I write a new to-do list for the next time ensuring items that I did not complete the day before are at the top of the list. I review minutes and notes I had made during the day, action anything not done yet or plan for the next day.

9. Stay Positive

Depending on the type of person you are, for the first few days or even hours of WFH, you will come to realise its hard work. Not on the physical side of things but rather on the mental side, you need all the help you can get. It is not always to stay positive when WFH, 90% of the time, you are alone with no one to talk to apart from your keyboard.

In the last 7+ years of WFH, I think I have reached a point where I work from home like a pro. In these years, I found a few things that allowed me to stay positive. I listen to music, I scheduled in calls to my family and had positive affirmations around my home. I always watch something fun and comedy because it is good to laugh and get those endorphins out.