5 tips to organize your workspace working from home

Once in a while, everyone has dreamt about working from home.

The thought of working without any time restrictions, wearing whatever you desire and enjoying the freedom of making money however you want, whenever you want is just something which inspires every one of us.

While you may think this is fun, keep in mind that even roses have thrones – sometimes, while working from home, it is tough to stay productive as there are a number of distractions lying around. Losing your focus when your pet cat starts rubbing up against your legs, begging you to hold him in your arms happens frequently. Not to forget, you might want to leave your urgent due assignment when your mother calls you do the dishes.

The need of this post sounds evident as there are some simple trends people working from home need to implement in order to stay productive.
Albert Einstein once said, and I quote, “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, then what an empty desk a sign of what?”

Before we look into ways of organizing your home workspace, it is important that you decide for yourself, what is that makes you the most productive? What kind of environment you prefer the most?

There is no wrong or right answer here – however, changing your comfort zone once in a while to see what makes you more successful contains no harm. Having that said, let’s discuss 5 ways to organize your workspace when working from home:

1. Keep Your Personal Space and Workspace Separate

When you blend your personal space with your workspace, it is a vicious cycle which will not allow you to stay productive at all.
Sure, the thought of watching your favourite show on HBO while writing a due assignment for an important client may have some perks, but in reality, it will just lose your focus and tremendously decrease the level of your productivity. When you blend these two different worlds, you might be able to allocate time to either one properly.

According to a study conducted by the Globe and Mail, following were the biggest distractions Canadian business people stated while they worked from home:

i. Family and children wanting attention
ii. Inability to find proper office materials at home
iii. The need of finishing household work and chores
iv. Lack of proper workspace

While working from home, you might have faced either one or more of this yourself. Here is what you can do: mentally or physically, you need make a boundary between your personal space and your workspace. You can allot time slots of how many hours you need to work and how many hours you need to spend in order to finish your new favourite season.

2. Dressed for Success – Needed while Working from Home as well

Sure, the idea of spending our day while sitting in our night suits, eating junk and sipping a cup of coffee while working in front of a laptop sounds very tempting, but we forget – this is not a wise option for body and mind.
What puts your mind in a new, different and effective mindset every day is this: wake up early, eat healthy breakfast and get dressed. You need to dress yourself in a way that you are working in an office job or headed for an important meeting. Clothing holds symbolic importance and affects the way you look at yourself.

If you feel successful and comfortable working in your pyjamas, you must continue working in your pyjamas then – there is no hard and fast rule.

3. Consider Co-work Space

Some days, one gets tired while working from home. Sometimes, it is good that one takes a break from their home, pick up their laptop and go to another place to work. For people who work from home, luckily they have the freedom to work from anywhere they desire.

Consider the idea from working from your favourite coffee shop or a nearby library. It will increase your interest in work and will also give you a break from your life at your home.

According to a study conducted by the Psychology Today, exposure to natural sunlight increases the productivity in work tremendously.

4. Cook Meals in Advance

Whenever you work from home, eating a lot comes within the package. When you live alone, cooking food for yourself takes a lot of time.

In order to avoid taking too much time while working from home, always prep some meals in advance on the Sunday evening. The idea here is to make something which can be frozen and then quickly heated when you are low on time. Sundays are usually off for at-home workers as well. So why waste time cooking when you can do it beforehand?

5. Always know when you have to stop

Working for late, long hours may sound very dedicative towards achieving the goal. However, it is also important that you learn how to take time out for yourself. There is always an off switch for every machine – find out where yours is to put your mind and body to rest.