Whether you are carrying on studying or working from home, the change from working in a busy environment to working at home may be challenging to many. To successfully work from home there are a few key points to follow to ensure you have the best home work environment!
Organise Your Working Space
Working in bed may sound nice and cosy, but it is sadly not the way to be productive! Working in bed can confuse yourself and you are far more likely to start to doze off, which is definitely not ideal when your boss tries to call you!
So with that being said, try and find a space dedicated to working. Do you have a spare room in the house? What about your kitchen table? Wherever it is, making sure that you have a suitable table situation with space around you to keep organised is essential to working from home.
If everything seems a bit dull, why not try and make your area more personalised? Add some colour with some houseplants or pictures that you usually keep on your desk.
Schedule Your Day
Schedules are the best way to ensure time management. Without them, I would definitely be all over the place! Of course, working from home does give you far more flexibility, but you do not want to find that you miss the odd task or run out of hours in your day.
It is important to structure your day as if you were at work or having a day at uni. Try to get into the habit of becoming productive at the normal time, so that you can give yourself the evening off. So, why not start off with a list. The list can show you your goals for the day, so you can prioritise them to ensure the most important definitely gets done!
Reward Yourself
Firstly, take breaks! When in an office environment you are bound to take breaks, whether it’s chatting in the bathroom or the odd tea stop, you will definitely have some time away from your desk. So, it is important to move around and take time to chat with others when working.
Even if you find that you are not as productive as when you are in the library or work, don’t be hard on yourself! It is a totally new experience for yourself to suddenly be working at home, so it may not go as smoothly as you want it to. But that is okay! If you are not feeling work, then take some time out and have a break. The most important thing is to have a successful work-life balance!
Stay Connected
It is important to stay updated with work colleagues and try to maintain your normal work. So if you can’t have meetings in person then set up video calls! Sometimes working while on a call with someone can give you a productivity boost as you can ask questions as you go and it will feel as if you are working with someone. It makes living alone far less lonely!
Switch Off!
When the workday is over or you have completed all your uni tasks for the day, then switch off! Closing all your tabs makes sure that you don’t wander over to your emails and see the influx, or even get tempted to reply! Shutting off your laptop and saying bye to your work colleagues for the day helps you ‘leave the office’.
Hopefully, these tips will help your working from home experience a little easier and help you avoid twiddling your fingers all day!
Written by Rebecca Hart, an Online Marketer at StudentJob UK. If you are starting your job search but not sure where to start, then check out StudentJob. Our application tips will help you create an effective CV, cover letter and help you smash interviews!
