I received an email from the wonderful Ms. Mod over at Modest Millionaires asking for any advice I could provide about transitioning to remote work. She is taking the leap soon, which is super exciting! After writing her a (probably too long) response, I realized these suggestions might be able to help others in a similar situation and so the idea for this post was born!
But First, A Caveat
Adjusting to full-time remote work can be a serious change. My situation is a little unique because my partner works from home as well. When I worked outside the house we would walk to work together (his company rents a desk at a co-working space) so he would leave the house to work 3-5 days a week.
Now, since I work from home as well, he very rarely goes into the office, so I have a buddy that isn’t usually present during remote work. That has its own joys and challenges, but I wanted to include that caveat before giving any recommendations. Based on my experiences these last two years and how I act when my partner actually does go into work (and I’m alone for the day) here are my suggestions for how to thrive while working remotely:
1. A Separation Of Work And Life Space: Something that has been very challenging for me while working from home is separating my work and my life. If I’m answering emails on my couch in my pjs and later am on the same couch watching a movie with my partner in the same pjs, my life seems to blur. I forget that I’m not still in that ‘work mindset’. So instead I set up a serious desk for myself that I only go to while working and is separate from my ‘hangout’ spots.
2. Add To Your Social Calendar: Now this is something I didn’t expect. I’m a serious introvert, but despite my introversion, I found myself missing the weird, random chats I would have with my co-workers during the workday. Yes – I missed the small talk. That’s something I never could have seen coming. Now that I work remotely, I don’t have to see basically anyone, but my partner. So I would suggest scheduling time with friends during the week or perhaps scheduling more events than usual on the weekend if you feel the same. This has helped me combat my recluse tendencies as well.
3. Create A Routine: The few days my partner does go into work feel weird to me. Perhaps because it’s not what I’m used to at this point. I don’t know why working with someone else silently in a 1 bedroom apartment is a huge change from working alone, but it is for me. And our desks don’t even face each other! Still somehow it feels a lot different.
On those days, I find myself procrastinating and being distracted more than usual because it feels almost like a weekend day without my partner being there and without our morning routine. Usually we wake up, read a little, make coffee/tea and then sit down to crank through work on opposite sides of the room. When he’s gone, and without that ritual, it seems to disrupt the flow of my day so I’ve started doing that same routine even when he’s not here and that has helped a lot.
4. Enjoy It!: After a while, I’ve almost forgotten what getting up early, rushing to shower and pack lunch before commuting to work feels like. I forget to be properly grateful for this sweet set up. In order to revel in it, I think it’s important to take advantage of the unique opportunities working from home provides.
Whether that means making a quick, fresh lunch for yourself or taking a lunch hour to do your laundry – adding enjoyment to your days and getting random life stuff out of the way helps decrease stress in other aspects of life. This also applies to things like taking a walk during your lunch break or quickly running errands. My work has been very understanding about taking some time for myself (especially since we’re supposed to have SOME time to eat…) so I’ve been taking full advantage (as my workload allows) and it has made my weekends a lot less busy.
Conclusion
So those are my recommendations! In our correspondence, Ms. Mod pointed out that working from home seems like a prequel to FIRE and I couldn’t agree more! It is almost like she’s peeking into my drafts folder 😉 . I can’t confirm if that’s true (yet), but I would imagine shifting from being in an office surrounded by people all day to working from home before disconnecting from work completely (in my case at least) would aid the transition. We’ll see!
How about you? Have you ever worked from home? If not, do you think it’s something that you would enjoy?
These are great tips! I worked from home for about a year and a half in my previous job and loved the work from home environment (apparently not the work itself because I got a higher pay job as soon as I could). During most of my work from home time, my partner was unemployed and home with me all the time. It was really nice having that extra time together. Now that I’m back in an office environment, the number one thing I miss is getting to spend every day with my cat. And now having to talk to people if I don’t want to lol. I’d love to work from home again if an opportunity ever presented itself!
Thank you! And that sounds like a lovely set up. Whenever I tell people we both work from home in a 1 bedroom apartment they always exclaim “but won’t you kill each other?!” I think that says more about their relationship than mine…
I also love having that extra time with him as well as being able to get ‘out’ of work together instead of being in that headspace all the time and having to smile and be positive like when I work in an office. And your cat is the #1 thing? That’s adorable – I love it. Do you have a cat friendly workplace? Anyway to still spend time with them? And yeah talking to people is the worst…Awesome to know you’re open to it! It seems like more remote opportunities are popping up every day!
I love that you turned this into an article as it has been so helpful with my preparation for the big switch! And for the record, your email was not too long ;), it was very insightful and applicable. So thankful for these great tips!
I agree with your reply above that more opportunities will be popping up every day and also think that employers need to start thinking about it more as employees want better flexibility. Our little family will be gaining so much from this switch and so will my employer as I am much more productive at home (for example my dog certainly won’t be interrupt my focus to tell me all about random weather stories like a certain coworker used to :P).
Thanks again :)!
So glad I could help! As for if my email was long, I’ll take your word for it 🙂 . Completely agree employers needs to think about flexibility more. It’s really surprising to me that companies require you to be in an office when you spend most of your time hunting for conference calls to talk to people who are not even in that building! All the wasted time commuting, engaging in idle chit chat so you don’t seem rude – it’s crazy. I’m so glad you’ve been able to be more productive! And oh goodness yes random weather stories, tales of over budget house renovations – it never ends. So glad we could escape that stuff! And thank you for stopping by 🙂 .
Quite a post, the points covered are really good. You should have a space between your work and your personal life. Sometimes due to bad weather I have to work remotely. But there is a huge difference on productivity level if you are sitting in your office with your colleagues and doing the 9 to 5 clock VS sitting in your sofa.
I agree – I actually see a HUGE productivity increase when I’m at home instead of at the office. Do you experience the same? And that’s awesome that you can work remotely when the weather is bad. So happy your employer values you like that – a few of my previous jobs said we better be there…even during a hurricane. Not ideal. Thank you for stopping by!
These are all great tips. I try to work from home one day a week (which is very different to you doing it full time) and it makes a huge difference to how I feel about work.
Even with my limited working from home it does require rules though. Having said which there is an undeniably satisfaction at taking part in a conference call while unloading the dishwasher or putting out the washing at the same time. You are just as engaged as you would be if you were doing that call sitting at your desk at work but you can also do things for yourself.
That’s awesome you’re able to WFH at all! It seems a lot of employers are so weird about that/don’t trust their employees. I sometimes wonder if I would like working from home more if I didn’t do it ALL the time so it’s not my baseline, but a special treat. I’m so happy it made a difference in how you felt about work!
I’ve never been on a conference call while doing something else because they usually involve sharing a screen (so I’m tethered to my computer), but that’s a really great idea. So many calls I’m on end up not being necessary for me to attend. It would be good if something got done in my life during them instead of them being seemingly wasted time. I love your perspective and am going to see how I can integrate it into my life. Thank you for sharing!
I love this! Our situation is a little… interesting… because I work from home most of the time, my husband is a SAHD, and we homeschool my kids. So I love the flexibility of working from home, and being able to take the kids to stuff, etc… but the boundaries tend to blur a lot. We go way too far into the – no separation from work and home life- and then wrestle our way back to *WORK* and *HOME* – and repeat the cycle. It’s a work in progress 😉
Woah yeah I can totally see how the boundaries would blur in that situation. And you would have a hard time getting me out of the house if everything could happen there 🙂 . I might be a recluse in training. How are you tryign to wrestle your way back to having boundaries? I’m curious to see if there’s anything more I could be doing 🙂 . Thank you for stopping by!
Love it! I have been struggling with working alone all day at “home” since transitioning to self-employment. Thanks for the encouragement and tips.
Let me know how it goes! Curious to see if my tips apply to other people as well. Do you have an option to get a desk at a co-working space? I’ve heard that’s a great in between to being in an office with co-workers and being alone at home if you prefer to have people around, but don’t want to be bothered in person in an office setting. Thank you for stopping by!
These are great tips! Eventually I want to transition to working at my blog full time (and although that’s lightyears away, haha), making sure I have a plan in place once I do is so important.
Thank you! So happy they were helpful. And that’s an awesome goal – I look forward to you achieving it!
I’ve worked from home for years and I came across the same challenge of finding it easy to work all the time. I’ve personally found myself much more productive and love the fact that I don’t have to commute!
Have you found any solutions for feeling like working all the time? Not having a commute is so amazing and productivity definitely increases. Love it!
Wow!!
My company was recently acquired by another company which totally encourages remote work. I am slowly getting used to it, although we still have a dedicated office space. It might be soon up for a change.
Unless you have a dedicated workspace setting at home, I feel working from home can be a pain.
I usually have extended monitors at work my office which helps during my coding as I open gazillion windows at the same time. It’s a pain when I have to the same work from home without those monitors.
Otherwise, I do love working from home and the flexibility it gives me.