When you say ‘work at home’ or ‘remote working,’ people may think about it as being convenient- no traffic jams, no late hours. Who would not want that kind of setting? Indeed, the comfort of working from home is what many people have wanted.
The fact that you get to spend your time with your families, can do the household chores during slack time, can cook your favorite food whenever you want to is very convenient. Though some would still prefer the office setting, many would choose to work from home. However, behind these advantages of working from home, there are the challenges that you might also face that may affect not only your job but also your personal life.
9 Biggest Work From Home Challenges & Tips to Overcome Them
Here, let’s talk about the 9 biggest work from home challenges remote workers face and some tips on how to overcome them.
1) Poor Time Management
Given that there’s no need to walk or travel to work should save much of your time, shouldn’t it? Yet, managing your time and schedule can still be a problem when you work from home. Often, you may feel confident of finishing a task on the target date without realizing that you are not catching up because you keep on procrastinating. The idea that the bed is just a few steps away can urge you to lie down, rest, and set aside the tasks which lead to being unproductive. You may also tend not to get hold of the time because of spending your time with Netflix, Facebook, Instagram, etc.
Tips to Overcome this work from home challenge:
- Install time tracking software: Installing time tracking software would allow you to monitor your working hours and break time. In that way, you will know if you are working above or below your average working hours.
- Make a ‘To-do list’: You can plan your day or make a schedule ahead of time and list down the things you need to accomplish each day. It is also better to set your priority tasks and the least urgent tasks. It will prevent you from multitasking which is often the reason for extended work hours.
- Keep your workplace away from the bed: Being very close to your bed can make you feel sleepy and slouchy. You will more likely feel demotivated towards your work. Try to change your scenery or transfer to another place in the house where you will feel more energetic.
2) Less social life
When you work from home, especially, when you are alone, you may feel isolated, unable to interact with another human, unlike in the office setting where you get to meet other people and speak with your workmates, exchange thoughts with them or talk about fun things.
Tips to Overcome this work from home challenge:
- Meet up with friends: Asking your friends for lunch or doing the things you used to do together can avoid social isolation. Remote workers tend to feel comfortable just staying at home and forgets about their social life. So, go out with friends in your free time.
- Go out when you can: Meeting and seeing other people is also a kind of socialization. Instead of being alone always or seeing the same people at home, it’s also good to meet and talk with other people outside.
- Do your hobbies during day-offs: Your life should not revolve around your job. Do your hobbies and the things that make you happy during your off. It is ideal for your mental wellness.
3) Overworking
In the workplace, it’s easier to be aware of when to call it a day since you would see everybody else logging out, preparing to go home. On the other hand, in working remotely, sometimes you forget to stop and log off at the end of the shift for the sake of completing all your tasks- check emails, respond to messages, finish pending tasks, etc. . Also, knowing that the job is just within your reach, you are sometimes tempted to do it even outside working hours without realizing that you are already overworking. The awful thing is that the extra hours. are not compensated.
Tips to Overcome this work from home challenge:
- Set timers: Your alarm clock can be your best friend at work. Setting a time will remind you when to stop and take a break to avoid overworking. Remember, overworking can make you feel exhausted and demotivated for the next day of work.
- Log out from work-related programs/apps outside working hours: You might also take care of emails, doing follow-ups outside working hours. To avoid that, it’s best to log out from all work-related programs from your phone or laptop so you will not able to see anything that would make you do work.
- Finish the task within working hours: Start doing your task on time so you can also finish it on time. Be always aware of the time and when it’s time to log off, everything should be finished. If for some reason, you are unable to complete them, then leave them for tomorrow. You can start working early on the following day instead of draining all your energy on that day.
4) Separating work from personal life
This could be one of the hardest work from home challenges on the list. The fact that your home is your personal life, it’s not easy to separate it from work. Ideally, your home should be the place where you relax after a long tiring day from work. Yet, if you work at home, you are more likely to do household chores and personal things, play and take care of the kids, feed and playing with your pets, talking to a friend, and many more. Furthermore, personal problems can occur and it will make you emotionally and mentally occupied and would not be able to function properly at work.
Tips to Overcome this work from home challenge:
- Set aside personal things during work time: Personal things can include, family matters, personal problems, and personal agendas. You can attend to them after work.
- Focus on your tasks: Set a goal that focuses on your task. Think about doing your tasks on time. You might even accomplish them early which would give you time for personal things.
- Take care of personal things before starting your work: You need to be physically and mentally ready before doing your work. If there are personal things that are needed to be taken care of, better do them before you start your work. Example: feeding your pets, making personal phone calls, play with kids, etc.
5) Distractions
Aside from personal issues, even small distractions may affect your productivity at work such as watching Tv and movies, checking social media accounts, playing online games, making not work-related phone calls, and many more. People tend to do these things to avoid boredom and to keep their minds active. Some distractions are out of our control such as noises, a friend’s visit, hunger, etc. However, these distractions could also take much of your time that you can no longer do your tasks. Aside from that, you may make some mistakes because our focus is divided into many things.
Tips to Overcome this work from home challenge:
- Avoid doing not work-related things: Some people want to watch movies while doing their tasks but they may lose their focus on what they are doing. Setting aside the non-work-related things will not only avoid distractions but would also make you more productive.
- Work in a quiet and peaceful place: When there are so much noise, loud music, and even a crowd, it’s time to change your location. In that way, you will not be distracted and will focus more on your tasks
- Put your phone in ‘Do not Disturb’ mode: Put your phone in ‘Do not Disturb mode’ for a specific time.
- Prepare meals ahead of time: When you work more, you tend to feel hungry. Cooking food, or getting something for you to eat can take time and that may affect your work. Prepare your meals ahead so you can just grab your meal when you feel hungry.
6) Less Support and Supervision
Unlike in the office, you can’t have immediate support when you are working from home. Though we can still communicate through messaging programs or have video conferences online, there can still be barriers that would make it harder to get support right away. Our team leaders may also be busy with something, or may not be in front of the computer at the time you need help. One more thing is they can’t supervise you in real-time and they tend to just give an instruction, you work on it, and would only give feedback of the output.
Tips to Overcome this work from home challenge:
- Keep close communication with your supervisor: You cannot expect your superiors to attend to your concerns right away. However, constant communication with your leader or supervisor will allow you to ask all the things that you needed to know. So the next time you encounter that same problem, you already know the answer.
- Do some research: Be resourceful and do some research about the things that you want to know. We can find everything online.
- Get all the details you needed for the task before working on it: Since superiors often leave the tasks before the start of the shift. it’s better to ask and take note of all the information and details that you needed. In that way, you don’t have to reach out to your superiors every time you encounter something that you don’t know.
7) Lesser Motivation
You don’t wear business and formal attire when you work from home, do you? Since there are no workmates that can physically see us, you wear the most comfortable outfit you have when working- like pajamas. Pajamas are always associated with sleep and they can make you less motivated at work. Another is being too comfortable that you would want to just go to bed and rest. Also, the idea of being alone can make you less motivated unlike when working in the office where you see other people working, and that motivates you to do your work, too. Furthermore, reduced motivation can be a result of too much work from home and less personal life.
Tips to Overcome this work from home challenge:
- Dress for Work: Use the clothes that you usually wear when going to work so you feel motivated and energetic.
- Wake Up Early: Waking up early can boost the mood and creates a more energetic feeling. Aside from that, when you start your work early, you will finish it early, too.
- Reward yourself: Your self needs a reward, too for all of its hard work. Buy something that you really like or pamper yourself in a spa. You will feel motivated of doing your work knowing that you are earning because of it.
8) Less Physical Activity
Remote workers tend to sit for hours while you work from home. You try to focus on what you are doing until you notice pains in the neck and back. You don’t move much unlike in the office where either you stand up and walk towards the other office, walk towards your coworker, or you may be tasked to go outside, those kinds of scenarios. It is very unhealthy especially if you work too much and you don’t do exercise.
Tips to Overcome this work from home challenge:
- Set a break time: Do not forget to take a break. During breaks, you can move around, get water, or just walk inside the house.
- Stand up and stretch every 30 mins: Don’t wait until your back and neck hurt. Your body needs a break too and stretching relaxes the muscles and bones.
- Exercise during your free time: Make time for workouts and exercise for your physical fitness. This would also increase your energy to keep you on the go.
9) Bad Health habits
Some of the remote workers don’t have time to cook, So they grab some chips or order instant foods. This would contribute to the bad health of the body. One more is the lack of sleep and rest. Some would stay up all night to complete something. Yet, health should not be neglected.
Tips to Overcome this work from home challenge:
- Be aware of what you eat: Because of too much work, you may tend to eat anything that could overcome your hunger even unnutritious foods. You can prepare your healthy meals ahead of time. These meals can include fruits and vegetables, milk, meat, etc.
- Do not deprive sleep: Do not overwork to avoid sleep deprivation. When you feel sleepy, then it means that it’s time to sleep. Do not extend.
- Take food supplements: It is essential not only to people who work from home but also to others since it prevents you to get sick. You need to get enough vitamins and minerals in the body to function well.
