When I first started working from home, I was so excited. The thought of being able to lounge in my pajamas all day, take naps whenever I wanted, and work at my own pace intrigued me.
However, the reality was very different.
I decided to share my personal experience to see if anyone else resonates with me, and to give advice on how to avoid traps that I fell into.
Expectation #1 – I can stay focused
Working from home with my beloved cat. She will be sleeping soundly while I work hard to earn money for her cat food. That’s what I imagined.
Reality #1 – It’s hard to stay focused
It’s really hard to stay focused when you’re not in an office setting. At least that’s the case for me.
There are constant distractions at home – cat sitting on my keyboard, parcels being delivered, someone exercising alongside YouTube videos outside in the living room, etc. All these made it difficult for me to focus at home.
Hence, I had to implement some “rules”:
- No cat in the room when I’m working. Sorry Meow Meow.
- Any parcels delivered during work hours will only be opened after work hours. (Gosh, keeping to this rule is really hard. The temptation is real!)
- Can’t do anything about others exercising so I put on my AirPods Pro and let its active noise cancellation do the job.
Expectation #2 – I can keep myself motivated
I had always regarded working from home as simply a change in work environment. It never came to my mind that self-motivation would be something I need to work from home successfully.
Reality #2 – It’s hard to keep myself motivated
It’s easy to get sidetracked when you’re working from home. If you’re not disciplined enough to work without someone telling you what to do, then this may not be the right environment for you.
You have to be self-motivated in order to work from home effectively. It’s always easy to give yourself a five minutes break when there are no co-workers at home to judge you. That five minutes break that you allow yourself can also easily turn into ten, or even twenty minutes before you realise it.
You might start working on one task and then suddenly realise that two hours have gone by and you’ve accomplished nothing. Sounds familiar?
To help myself stay on track, I have a to-do list template for the week. It looks like this:
This is from Miniso and was gifted by an ex-colleague a few years back. You can find something like this from stationery stores like Popular and Typo. Don’t want to spend money? Simply divide a piece of paper into five columns. Easy peasy!
If I don’t manage to clear my to-do list in the earlier part of the week, I will have to work harder to catch up in the later part of the week. The rule of thumb is to clear everything on your list by the end of the work week so you can start the next week on a fresh slate, without backlog.
Expectation #3 – I can maintain work life balance
One of the most common misconceptions of working from home is that it helps with work life balance. After all, since you’re already working at home, you can easily “switch off” from work mode right?
Reality #3 – It’s hard to maintain work life balance
In contrast, it can be hard to separate work and personal life when you’re working from home.
This can be both good and bad – good because you have more flexibility in your schedule, but bad because you might find yourself working all the time. It actually put a lot of pressure on me because there are no limitations as to how much time I could spend working at home.
What I find helped with maintaining work life balance is to plan out your week. Besides having a to-do list as mentioned previously, having a rough idea of your hourly schedule for the week helps you to:
- Ensure there is enough time to complete each of your tasks, and
- Prioritise if you don’t have enough time.
We wrote an article about work life separation. Read “How To Have Work Life Separation When You Work From Home“.
Expectation #4 – I can work from home comfortably
I thought that since I was at home, I could work comfortably. I thought I could wear my home clothes and not put on makeup. Sounds like a wonderful idea!
Reality #4 – It’s hard to work from home comfortably
In reality, it can be very difficult to work from home comfortably. An office environment is usually designed for work. In the office, you have work desks, chairs, printers, everything that you need for work. At home, you may not have all of that.
Take the work desk for example. Most people who work from home would probably use their dining table as a work desk. This can be very uncomfortable, especially if the dining table is not of the right height or configuration.
You might find yourself constantly getting up and walking around because you don’t have a comfortable place to sit and type for hours. Worse still, you might start getting body aches and pains after a while.
To be comfortable while working, I had to invest in good (or at least decent) work desk and chair. Having a work desk dedicated for working from home might seem extravagant, but it’s definitely worth it!
Read more about the best budget office chairs in Singapore.
Expectation #5 – I can maintain friendships and date nights
When it was still the norm to work in the office, it was easy to schedule meetups with friends over dinner after we knock off from work. It was also easy to book movie dates or plan weekend getaways.
Reality #5 – It’s hard to maintain friendships and date nights
Since I’ve been working from home, it has become a lot harder to maintain friendships and date nights. This is because some of us find it difficult to confirm our schedules as we sometimes end up working overtime.
This is something I don’t have a solution to. The only thing I can think of is to schedule meetups and dates as far in advance as possible, so that all parties have enough time to commit.
Do you have any tips on how to maintain friendships and date nights when working from home? Share them with me please!
In conclusion, working from home has been a great learning experience for me. It can be very rewarding and comfortable for some people, but not so much for others who are not suited for working from home.
Working from home has its advantages, but it’s important to know what you’re getting yourself into. If you don’t adjust your expectations accordingly, then you might find working from home very frustrating.
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