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Challenges of Working Remotely

Challenges of Working Remotely and How to Beat Them

For most of us, we’ve been working from home for a while now. And after the initial novelty and set-up phase has passed, the challenges of working remotely start to show and become more apparent.

According to a Buffer State of Remote Work Report in 2019, 22% of remote employees say unplugging after work is their biggest challenge, while 19% of remote employees report loneliness as their biggest challenge.

To avoid being victim to the challenges of working from home during a global pandemic, here are some points to keep in mind,

Discipline yourself

With this sudden stay at home order, for many it warrants staying in your pajamas, eating because you’re bored, drinking too much coffee, slouching in your beanbag to work, not exercising because the gym is closed, not practicing your hobby because you can’t get out, and so many more. Instead, get up on time, do those squats, eat as healthy as possible, change the format of your hobby so you can do it at home, or discover a new one. Keep yourself accountable and occupied so that you don’t overeat, become lethargic, or lose your creativity.

Manage your time

Working from home means you need to create a schedule and work according to it. It also means you need to prioritize your work to be able to meet deadlines. While prioritizing work, it would be beneficial to prioritize personal life as well. Since now you might be suddenly asked to work from home, make sure you prioritize daily, weekly, and monthly depending on the projects you’re working on. You also need to motivate yourself between the distance from your bedroom to your workspace. So whether it is, cooking breakfast, exercising, meditation, a diary, or cleaning, make sure you keep yourself motivated to work efficiently through the day. This also means avoiding the extra episode of your favorite show during lunch time, or an endless rabbit hole of Instagram or Facebook scrolling.

Don’t work too much

Contrary to popular belief, people tend to work more at home than they do at the office. As much as managers fear employees might slack off without being physically managed kept in check, blurring the lines between professional life and personal life results in people working longer hours and not ever fully switching off from ‘work mode’. Setting clear timelines, including meetings, errands, breaks, meals, etc helps. Also setting aside a space to do only work also helps keep work from bleeding into other spaces in your personal life.

Beware of tech glitches

A difficult part of working from home, or anywhere for that matter, but especially during a pandemic, is having your internet or your computer freeze up. If this does happen now, when repair isn’t something you can rely entirely on, keep a plan B ready – like the hotspot feature of your phone. Or keep a backup of the documents, links, accounts, and information you need if you have a tablet to work on until you can rectify your computer.

Set aside the interruptions

One of the biggest challenges of working from home are the distractions. While right now at least your doorbell won’t be constantly ringing, but house chores, cooking, pets, engaging children, phone calls, and so many more things can interrupt your work flow. Finding a way to work efficiently and not allow distractions to pull away your attention is a huge challenge. But letting everyone know your schedule, and asking them to stick to it just as much and yourself, can help you beat the interruptions.

Beat the isolation

Another big problem of having to work from home during a lockdown is probably isolation. No more impromptu office lunches, banter, brainstorm, inside jokes, etc. This can soon become a problem. Especially if you have managed to find yourself in a different time zone than them. To combat this, make sure you communicate with your team regularly. Up your communication skills so that nothing is lost in the relay of discussion. Try using video calls more often than just audio calls and emails. This helps feel like a team at a time like this. Keep to a schedule with your team as well.

This period in all our lives can be a challenging one. But it is possible to mitigate the challenges of working from home. It just takes some planning.

Summary

Q. What is the importance of discipline and time management during this time?

A. With an unexpected order to stay at home indefinitely, it’s important to be disciplined and manage your time because it’s easy to spiral out of control and spend time absorbing bad habits that could not only affect the quality of your work but also the quality of your health.

 

Q. Why are interruptions one of the biggest challenges of working from home?

A. Since this work from home situation is new, it’s initially hard to share your work and home space since neither have any boundaries yet.

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