While considering the transition to working from home, consider 3 facts that you may have thought were too good to be true:
You Can Work When You’re Most Productive
You can take advantage of the lack of set of hours and ride waves of productivity and creativity, whenever they sweep in. Feeling particularly unmotivated at 3 PM on a Tuesday doesn’t mean you just get nothing done but working remotely allows you to take a break and pick back up in 30 minutes or an hour. Conversely, if you finish watching HBO on a Sunday night and feel the urge to work, you can walk into your office in your sweatpants and get a jumpstart on the week.
When no longer strapped to a specific chair in a specific room for 50 hours a week, you no longer experience those windows of time when you just stare at the clock. You can schedule tasks around when work flows for you. Productivity is most likely to soar.
You Can Work-out in the Middle of the Day
You already know that exercise is good for you and sitting in a seat all day long isn’t. Working remotely usually means that you have days that you are stationary much more than you’d prefer – and since you’ve simply walked from your kitchen to your home office to get “to work” you didn’t even get the exercise of taking the stairs instead of the elevator to get to “the office.”
And all that talk about how you can actually fit working out in when you work from home is true. Studies show that remote workers, on average, get more sleep, eat healthier, and exercise more.
Of course, just because statistics say it’s true doesn’t mean it’s going to happen magically. Just like you have to buckle down and finish that report on time, you also have to discipline yourself to spend that 30 minutes or hour going for a run, or to yoga class, or Crossfit.
Maximize your opportunities by fully embracing work-life integration. You many get your best ideas while sweating it out during a run or at the gym. So you can help your productivity immensely if you take a break midday for exercise. It can inspire fresh ideas and give you a new start for the rest of the day. So grab your Yoga balls, weights, stretch bands, cubis because they will be helpful in keeping your blood pumping and your heart happy.
Choose a few of these 17 stretches for remote workers.
One thing that’ll suffer is the social interactions you used to have in the workplace. You’re not going to be bumping into your co-workers and having spontaneous chats by the coffee machine. However, you can stay connected to get your work done. The best way to ensure that this happens is to plan your meetings in advance and stick to your scheduled events. That way team members stay connected and productive.
You don’t have to eliminate team meetings or one-on-one check-ins that you had when everyone worked together in an office. In fact, the remote workplace sort of levels the playing field for those who were the few remote workers in an office work environment. The effectiveness of remote working makes hiring folks who aren’t near the “home office” easy and therefore broadens your pool of potential talent.
There are lots of tools for staying in close communication. Slack makes it possible to communicate individually, with teams or project group or with the entire company. But if something can’t be resolved there, a call or Google Hangout or Zoom meeting can help work through issues or confusion. Tools like Google Drive make it possible to share documents and work collaboratively all the time.
Working remotely has its challenges and requires some discipline, but the advantages are enormous.
While working from home isn’t right for everyone, it is a tremendous advantage to those who do it. There are some things about working remotely, however, that may not rise to the surface until you’re doing it. These are the things no one tells you about. Also read statistics on the remote workforce.
Sources:
https://www.themuse.com/advice/3-facts-about-working-remotely-that-arent-too-good-to-be-true
https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2017/06/16/working-remotely
https://www.themuse.com/advice/17-desk-stretches-thatll-almost-replace-going-to-the-gym
