Working from home: pitfalls to avoid and solutions

• April 8, 2024

Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, telework opportunities were far more the exception than the norm.

During this pandemic period, a large part of the population was forced to adapt their work mode to confine themselves at home.

No one can deny this fact: working from home has several advantages that are not found when working in the office.

Among the advantages we seek to find when working from home, we can cite :

• Saving a lot of time and money in transport.
• Make family morning and evening routines simpler.
• Reduce food and coffee expenses by having everything necessary at home.
• Having time to do household chores during the day (such as laundry).
• Enjoy a more comfortable environment that is way more personalized than at the office.

But, during the pandemic, everyone realized that carrying out professional activities entirely at home was not always ideal!

Yes, workers have been able to take profit from numerous benefits, but they have also faced significant challenges that they had not anticipated.

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The first being that… Surprise! (or not), children also found themselves homeschooled. Obviously, we want to share more time with our children, but everything in its own time. Our children are not exactly what one might call ideal colleagues…

What about other distractions… Doggie and kitty were very, even too happy to have us at home and required a lot of attention. I’m sure you will agree, it is almost impossible to resist them.

Also, having a much more flexible framework of telework in terms of schedules, clothing and scheduling can lead us to complacency which is far from beneficial to our productivity!

It is certain that remote working is not suitable for everyone.

What we can also say is that all those who have to work from home can anticipate the pitfalls, identify their own challenges and establish effective solutions.

At ClosedCaptioner.com, we encourage our thousands of freelancers to adopt healthy nomadic work habits, whether at home or elsewhere.

Over the years, we, the administrative team, have learned a lot about good practices to adopt to maximize our performance AND our own satisfaction working from home.

That’s why today we want to share with you some traps to identify, and how to avoid them…

Hold the reins of your agenda

Although most of us are constantly looking for change and spontaneity, routines punctuate our lives.

Our brain is designed in such a way that it develops several automatisms that save us a lot of energy by adopting regular routines.

In addition, it is healthy and motivating to define a beginning and an end to our work period. One can then strive to be effective during the given period and then be free to go about other activities, head free of any professional file.

If you do not establish a clear distinction between your personal and professional life, you risk:

• Stay connected at all times to consult and respond to your professional emails.
• Be caught up in the day by all kinds of distractions (relevant or not) and complete your professional tasks until late in the evening.
• Losing efficiency and having to work more hours (at your expense) to achieve your usual tasks.

Your telework schedule should not be absolutely identical to the traditional 9-5 schedule, but you must apply a framework, tags, benchmarks to better adapt to this work mode.

The suit doesn’t make the man, but…

You can tell by his clothes, right?

How do you feel when you see yourself in the mirror with your hair in battle, dressed in your pajamas from yesterday?

Some may feel like champions in any condition, but to show even a little respect for oneself, let’s take care of ourselves!

Even though we don’t have any presidential or virtual meetings scheduled for the day, we have an appointment with ourselves every day.

Our attire and general condition do not give us our skills, but it will help to adopt and maintain a good positive and efficient mindset.

If you have never done so, you would be amazed at how much a good shower, blow-drying and neat clothes can improve our psychological state by boosting our confidence.

Being physically prepared for the day gives you a more positive and solution-oriented look when a challenge arises.

Don’t stay locked up.

If neglecting our appearance harms our general mental state, isolation can be very damaging.

Even if everyone seeks and enjoys moments of calm and solitude, we remain social beings, since the dawn of time.

For millennia, the survival of our ancestors depended on the protection and support of group life.

This explains why prolonged isolation can make us anxious and put us in a very precarious mental state.

By working from home, you have more free time ahead of you. Take advantage of that to:

• Go for a walk.
• Train at the gym.
• Give a call to your loved ones more often.
• Work from a café, a library or another public space.
• Plan co-working sessions with your colleagues.
• Go out to eat with some friends sometimes.
• Organize a virtual coffee break.

All ideas are good, but don’t stay alone all the time.

Working from home can be a fabulous opportunity, especially when it comes to work-life balance.

It is simply a matter of setting some well-defined guidelines and objectives so that everything goes well.

At ClosedCaptioner.com, the administrative team and freelancers love this way of working.

As we are present on all continents, this way of working is definitely the most suitable for us.

Once you have experienced and mastered the freedom and flexibility afforded by teleworking, it’s hard to go back.

Good luck to all teleworkers!