How to remain motivated when working remotely
Working remotely is a dream for many, and here are some opinions to support this theory. You don’t have to leave your house and deal with rush hour traffic or the overall hassle of a commute. Additionally, working from home allows you more flexibility throughout your day and in most cases provides you with the opportunity to work free from interruptions. You see this as an escape from the random office chit chat. Let’s face it, you were thinking it, so we said it.
However, the pendulum swings both ways. For those of you who may be more extroverted and rely on social engagement or interactions to push through your day, working from home can be an absolute nightmare. You spend most of your day unfocused and feeling bored. If you find yourself on this end of the pendulum (swinging with very little back and forth), you’ll definitely want to keep reading.
Here are seven healthy tips (as always tried and true) that can help keep you motivated while working remotely:
It all starts with creating a solid routine and building on healthy habits. Treat your “work from home day” like you would treat a day in the office. We’ve talked about how you can create healthy habits before in a previous article: Work from home and protect your mental health. If you haven’t read it yet, we highly encourage you to take a look.
Organize your day - set a plan in place at the end of each work day for how you would like your next day to go.
Start your day off with some type of exercise. Exercise equals movement (stimulation) and can be in the form of a walk, a light run, or a gym session. It doesn’t matter what you do, just do something to get your body moving and make a habit of doing this everyday.
Get dressed up for work. Perhaps, it’s time to leave the “Lulu’s” in the closet until after work hours or until the weekend. Wear the same thing you would wear if you were going to the office and be consistent. Dress up everyday as doing this can help to get you into “work mode.”
Take your breaks and decompress. Set a block in your calendar for lunch so you don't over schedule yourself and work through your breaks. During lunch, go for a walk, head to the gym (here’s that reference to exercise again), run an errand, or do a quick grocery shop, if you have this flexibility. We also highly recommend doing a mindful meditation or breathing session. Studies have shown by some very important people and by some very famous yogis that, participating in a meditation practice can improve memory retention, boost your attention span, and increase your productivity levels. Most importantly, a meditation session, even if it’s for 5-10 mins can help to level you out if you having a hectic day. This is an absolute win-win.
Listen to something stimulating. If you have time in between meetings and you're just doing "admin stuff" I recommend listening to podcasts. Having a podcast on in the background can keep you awake especially if you’re listening to a really exciting topic. Pick something that is intellectually stimulating.
Reach out and touch someone. Well, not exactly in the way this is written, but this is where we are coming from: schedule virtual "coffee meetings" with your colleagues once a week and do a rotation with different individuals. This will give you something to look forward to and can help to break up your day/week. It’s also just a really nice way to get to know other people. Remote work can become a lonely place so it's important to maintain touch points with your team. Don’t lose sight of your connections.
It’s so important to lean into the tips mentioned above. Consistently feeling unmotivated at work can affect everything around you. It can affect your work or productivity, your relationships with others (inside and outside of work), how you show up in your day life, your stress level, your confidence, and your overall mental health. So, the next time you are feeling like your mind is about to wonder and you are starting to question why you are sitting in front of your desk, trying to write the same email for about 40 mins, get up and go for a walk. Or even better, do a quick meditation session. Trust us, it will help you tremendously.
