How-to Stay Engaged While Working at Home

Are you a social butterfly who likes to work around people? Working from home may be a challenge for you, with its relatively quiet working environment. This environment has become more common in recent years with more and more of the workforce using work-from-home options. Have you ever had trouble staying engaged while typing important documents in your pajamas?  Try these ideas to keep yourself sane:

1. Get an animal. When you have nobody to talk to and feel like you’re spaced out, I can guarantee your dog or cat will gladly listen to you. In addition, your animals will offer you breaks throughout the day. Whether it’s giving them some food or cleaning out a litter box, they could be of help in spacing your day out. Plus, a furry friend brightens up anyone’s day!

1. Change your location. If you can work at a coffee shop, it’s not a horrible idea! This will keep you around people (and the delicious scent of coffee) while knocking out projects. The greatest element of working from home is the ability to mono-task items away from a pushy boss. However, our brains are trained to be around people constantly, and a coffee shop could give you a more at work feel.

1. Beware of desktop gazing. Okay so you’re on Facebook and click one link that leads to another link that leads to five links. You’ve now turned your two-minute break into a 15-minute marathon break. While one of these won’t kill you, people working from home tend to struggle with focus more. Catch yourself, and be sure to calculate your breaks with time limits to avoid slipping out of your zone.

1. Use chat tools. Many workplace environments now equip their staff with tools to chat with one another. With these applications, you can virtually be in the office even when you’re not! This will also help get you off that island when you feel like you need to talk to someone or ask an immediate question. A chat message for non-urgent issues won’t derail your coworkers’ focus as much as random phone calls will.

 Do you work from home or wish you did? Checkout my Facebook for more inspiration