How To Stay Motivated When Working At Home
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Today we are going to talk about how to stay motivated when working at home, working from home is a dream of many and by working from home I am talking about running our own online business from home.
Now as exciting as it is to know that you finally got a piece of the pie and you can now be your own boss and start calling the shots, there some things you need to consider and keep in mind.
Yes it’s a big thing that you have accomplished and I congratulate you, but you will find days when you are not motivated to work at all and because you are the boss now, it’s very easy to declare every other day a day off or personal national day, for example, I could declare Tuesday a national Rose day, hey I am the boss I can do anything I want I make the rules around here now lol 🙂 But honestly this is a very bad idea.
Organization and time management is Key
The first thing you need to do is to organize your time, you need to set aside some, what I call me time, so you decide when you want to start working and when you want to take your me time, so Let’s say you want your day to start at ten hey we are not doing 9 to 5 anymore we are changing the rules 🙂
So you work from 10 until Let’s say 1 and then you take a 30 minutes break, that’s your me time then 1;30 you get back to work and work until 6 and then it’s time to close your office and attend to other matters.
If your workday starts at ten or whatever time you decide, I am just giving you an example, you have to follow that routine without cheating, The same way you respected your 9 to 5 jobs, you need to show the same if not more to your own business. Hey just because you are the boss now, does not mean that you can show up to work anytime you feel like.
I remember when I was working at a flower exporting company in the quality control department, the owner of the company used to show up to work so early that sometimes he would show up even before my supervisor, well, one day being big mouth as I am lol I asked him, how come you are the owner of the company yet you show up to work almost before everyone, I mean you are the big boss you can sleep and show up whenever you like.
To this he answered in his thick Dutch accent, I am not that big but yes I am the boss( he was kinda big lol) and I must lead by example and if I respect my business, then the business will respect me(not sure what he meant by that) I think maybe he was trying to say that if we the small people see that he takes his business seriously, then we will also respect our work and in return he will make more money, well, he was making lots of money.
So you need to have self-discipline, you need to set goals for your business and you need to work towards those goals, setting goals will keep you motivated, write down the things you need to accomplish before the week starts, and make sure by Friday you have accomplished your tasks for that week.
Just because we work in PJs does not mean we have to be messy looking
Now I know the name of my site is Let’s work in PJs and although the concept is nice it does not mean that you should just be all messy and lazy looking, wake up at the same time every day except weekends of course, and do all the hygiene requirements and change your clothes to something clean and comfortable if it’s PJs let them be cute and clean 🙂 and have an exercise routine that you will follow.
And when you sit on your desk to work, you have started office hours and what this means is that you can not do things online that are not work-related.
The problem with working online is that it’s very easy to get distracted and once you open a new tab on your computer to maybe answer or like a Facebook post from your friend, then your motivation for work is gone and you will find yourself spending work time on social media instead of working on your business so again self-discipline and accountability, you need to hold yourself accountable.
Change of Scenery Might Do You good, get out of the house
If you still can’t find the drive to stay motivated, then its time to either rearrange your working space and make it more pleasant, or get out of the house. the beauty of working online is the fact that you can work from anywhere as long as you are connected to the internet.
So if you are still feeling down and unmotivated, try parking your office into a backpack and head to the beach or to the park, I mean your office consists of a laptop, a pen, and a notepad, a phone, a sandwich and a bottle of water right 🙂
If for some reason you don’t want to get out of the house or maybe you don’t want to go far, then change your working space, go to the balcony, or to the backyard and let that fresh air work its magic.
Don’t burn yourself out
Now as much as I insist that you work hard and you have discipline, and all the good stuff that I have mentioned so far, I also have to mention that there are some people who go overboard and work too hard and what this does is it puts a lot of strain on their bodies and minds, there has to be some kind of balance, don’t take the too relaxed approach when it comes to your business, but then again, don’t work yourself to hospital or worse.
At the beginning of your business, you might have to work many long hours, but after your business is well-established and all is moving forward, you might want to slow things a bit, I know many online entrepreneurs who are working long hours and as I mentioned, in the beginning of your business it is necessary to work long hours and the weekends too, but as time goes by, things will take shape and you will need to cut those hours because your health and well being is important too.
Do not work on weekends unless it’s an emergency or a deadline that you have not met for a client, take the weekends and enjoy time with family and friends or do what you like to do as means of having some fun, all work and no play is not good for your health, so reward yourself and relax on weekends.
Time to realize you can’t do it all
As your business grows and expands, you need to realize when it’s time to get help, when you start getting so many orders that you are having to work all day and half the night to meet the demands, then it’s time to accept that your business is not a baby business anymore, as a matter of fact, it’s a big business and you need to hire some people to help, if you are struggling to create content, then this will be the time to outsource. Its time to hire someone to help you with content creation.
But remember, you must make sure that you evaluate every article to make sure it’s of the highest quality and also to make sure it follows your way of writing and doing things, the last thing you want is the quality of your content to go down. Also, remember not to hand the important parts of your business to other people, you need to be still running things and be in charge of your business.
My conclusion
Working from home is a very good thing and because a lot of things are being done online these days, more people are finding it easier to either find jobs that allow them to work from home, or to start their own business that they can run from home.
When it comes to those who are working for companies, they have people who hold them accountable and they still get the job done almost as if they were working at the office. But for those who are running their own business, they do sometimes lose motivation and it’s easier for them to leave things undone.
Which will impact their business in a negative way, so holding yourself accountable is very important, but if you find it difficult to hold yourself accountable, it’s a good idea to find and join groups of online entrepreneurs who will hold you accountable and also, it’s nice to talk to like-minded people and share business ideas.
I hope you have found this article useful in your business, please leave me a comment and tell me what you think or if you have an idea or a tip that helps you stay motivated as you work from home, please share.
Thank you so much for your time
Rose
That’s a very interesting article, and after having worked from home the last decade, I can really relate to many of the main points you cover here.
From my own personal opinion, I’d say that burnout is my worst enemy, and it has been for quite some time now. It’s hard to step away from the PC when you know that all of your success is basically on your own shoulders. I’ve found myself sitting there late at night with a glass of wine to my left…battering away at the keyboard.
The funny thing is – whenever I take regular breaks my overall output and quality of work is much, much better!
Hi, Chris, this is why I say, you should not overwork yourself because when you take a break when you get back to work, you will work even better and more efficiently, you will get even better ideas for your business.
Thank you so much for your comment and please, give yourself some me time, you know what I mean? 🙂
I used to imagine that working from home would be easy. I did not think that I would need motivation to keep working. When I finally got into working from home, I’ve realized that there are days that I do not want to switch on my computer.
I’ve created a schedule for the days I work from home and I am learning to stick to it, no matter the temptation to catch something on Netflix. And true, if you do not respect your work, you will not get the best out of it. Your former boss put it best with the answer he gave you.
I think I’ll also rearrange my working space to increase my motivation. Time for it to look like a decent office space.
Thank you for this inspiring article.
Hi Carol, I am glad to hear that you are staying away from Netflix during work time, that is good. and yes rearranging your working space is a great idea. It prepares your mind for work when you have rearranged the space and make it look like a place for work.
Thank you so much for your comment Carol.
You’ve said it all – being your own boss is not easy sometimes but it’s worth the struggles and the headaches. There are times when I wish things could be done as fast as the microwave that it stresses me. But when I realize it can’t be done as quick as I want, I take a break.
Although I want to stretch myself to meet certain goals, however, I need to stay alive first :). One idea I’m taking with me is changing my environment. Sometimes, I don’t get the motivation to work from home. Seeing my bed a sight away squeezes the juice out of me. Thanks for sharing.
You aid it best DarrAd, you have to be alive of course, as I said in my article, your health is important because what is the point of making all this money if you will not be around to enjoy it? take care of yourself Darr and thank you for your comment.
Hi Rose, I think you just wrote the story of my life lol! Every single word you said resounded with me. When I started working from home, I did used to start in my PJs – literally! Try to get my emails out the way, then take my shower, get dressed and start working on whatever I had planned for the day. I thought I was being efficient, but actually those emails were taking far too long. I had to enforce a system or urgent emails only, as I would have done in an office and ignore all those ones for 20% off shoes with a voucher code! You know what, my productivity increased 🙂
There are two things that do drive me crazy though. One is that as a woman my other work is all around me too, you know, the stuff we usually only come home to after work if we do a regular 9 – 5 in office land. I’m talking about housework! It gnaws at me and I find myself taking a break from work in order to do laundry or clean the bathroom. I try to use this time to mentally plan my next task, so while I am sorting laundry I will be making mental or even physical notes of my next article or piece of research. I just find it so hard to concentrate if there is mess around me!
The second thing that drives me nuts though is people, (and I mean family), thinking that because I am at home I am available. I don’t begrudge taking an hour of my time out to run an errand or accompany someone to an appointment. I don’t mind that people have their parcels delivered to me because they know I’m in. I will listen for an hour to an elderly aunt who is at home lonely and picks up the phone and choosing the person they know will also be at home. I just wish they would appreciate that every hour I use that way impacts on my time with my partner and kids in the evening, just as it would for any other working person. Sorry to rant lol! Just wondered how you deal with these kinds of interruptions? Do you find the same problems? What tips do you have to stay motivated?
OH Ally, I so understand what you mean, I wrote a whole article about this, you can read it here. I hate it when people don’t respect your time, I mean when you are working from home and especially when you are running your own online business, people don’t take you seriously.
You might even find people who will constantly ask you so when are you gonna look for a job? lol
Yet you are working so hard and putting in long hours, but because they don’t see you leave the house in the morning and return in the evening, they think you are not doing anything and that online business is just an excuse to stay at home and be lazy 🙂
and about your question about cleaning and sorting out the house, I think the best thing is to set aside a time to do those things because if you keep interrupting your work to do housework, you will burn yourself out, plus I find if I am interrupted in the middle of lets say writing an article, i lose momentum.
Thank you so much for this lovely comment
The work in home opportunity needs a lot of discipline .
i have discovered that you can attain this by setting goal from the start .
if you begin without a goal you will not have clear direction of what you need to do , how you need to do it , by when it needs to be done and what are the anticipated results .
Working from home is really what it is working and working times that you set for yourself need to be respected if ever you are going to make real results and real income out of working from home .
Good Post .
Hi Rose
I haven’t managed to make the full transition to working from home yet but in my current role I do get to spend about 2 days a week in my home office and I do find that I miss the short discussions you have with colleagues during the day. In the home office, I am predominantly on my own and while that minimizes the distractions and I tend to get more done it can also be quite lonely.
When I hopefully do start working entirely from home do you have any advice on how to deal with the lack of interaction with other people, just curious about your experiences.
Thanks
Hi Dominic, I am actually working on an article about this very subject, you are so right about getting lonely when you work from home, and that’s why I said that one should not work during the weekends because you do need to socialize and have fun with friends and family.
Thank you so much, Dominic, I hope you will bookmark my site so you don’t miss the article where I will cover the topic of loneliness while working from home.
Yes, sir I completely agree with you, setting goals is very important in order to succeed in your business. Yes indeed respecting your business and your work time is very important, thank you so much for this very helpful comment, Wiseman.