Working from home: How to stay motivated when you don’t have an office.

Working from home can be both a blessing and a curse. Freelancers and very small businesses owners tend to not have an office space, and so the work from home method has to be practiced. While some may find the freedom to work in your pyjamas or to work from a quaint coffee shop enticing, others may feel it hinders their work, bores them, and gives them too much opportunity for distraction. When stuck in a situation like this, it’s important to regularly maintain how and where you’re working in order to avoid distraction and keep yourself motivated.

Keep it varied

Working from home can easily get boring, especially when you are surrounded with distractions. If you stick to a particularly café or environment that you don’t feel stimulated by, you may soon come to resent the place and work becomes difficult. Some workers prefer to mix up their workspace, which is a great option. Set one day to the café down the street, one to your local library and one to your home office. Working from home may hinder you at times but it’s also beneficial in the freedom you can give yourself. Make your lunch however you like, wear whatever you like and work however you like. The freedom for variety that you initiate will help you stay satisfied with what you’re doing.

Stimulate your senses

When you aren’t in strict environment where your work and progress is monitored, it’s hard to feel that need to get stuff done. Particularly if you are working in your house or apartment in a similar area that you usually eat, sleep and relax in.

Try to keep as many senses positively stimulated as possible. This means keeping your workspace clean and presentable, surrounding your environment with music or sounds that calm and motivate you and loading the area with scents you like. A nice candle can be good, one that you use exclusively in the workspace. Manipulating your surroundings to make them pleasing will help your mind associate the area with positive feelings, and thus create the right sense of motivation.

Keep work and play separate

When there are no boundaries to where you can go and what you can do, it is very easy to mix up work and play, and thus cause frustration, distractions and resentments. If you have a coffee shop that you enjoy going to on your days off, don’t go there when you are working. If you find yourself watching movies and relaxing in your lounge-room, keep your computer far away from that area. Switch off your phone while you’re working or turn off any other technology you use for leisure at home. Your workspace should act just like an office area, and not hold distractions.

You can also work your senses into separating spaces. Have your home environment visually different to your work one or create certain aromas so your mind can associate which one is work and which is play. Never let the two areas collide, as that will only make it harder for you to adapt to the routine you lay out.

Unlike a desk job, working from home tends to blur the line between work and leisure. This means you’re forced to work a lot harder than you usually would to create distance between the two. Being able to create a harmony in your workspace is crucial to productivity. So remind yourself of the advantages you have working from home, and indulge in your freedom. Some people are begging to do what you do.