Common Work-from-Home Challenges and How to Overcome Them

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, technological advancements, and a few other reasons, numerous individuals are now working from the comfort of their homes. While work-from-home can be an interesting phenomenon in many instances, it comes with certain challenges that everyone must deal with.

So, the following are the common work-from-home challenges and how you can overcome them.

Difficulty with differentiating between personal and professional life

While working from home, your home is also your workplace. Unfortunately, this can make it hard for you to differentiate between your personal life and professional life. Resultantly, it will be challenging for you to understand when you need to work, relax, communicate with workmates, take care of yourself, or even attend to your family members.

How to overcome it: To overcome blurred life between your professional life and personal life, you should first create a workspace that is different from other parts of your home. Add all the essential materials that you need for work to this workspace. With this, you will be mentally ready to work when you are in the home office and ready to relax when in the other parts of your home.

Coordination and communication issues

Although there are various technologies in place to make coordination and communication easy for you, you can still struggle because of a lack of physical contact with co-workers or partners. Sometimes, it may even be difficult to be on the same page with other team members. Besides, video calls, phone calls, and emails don’t usually involve the nuances that we enjoy when communicating in-person.

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How to overcome it: Maximize the available technologies to ensure that you stay in touch with your supervisors, partners, co-workers, or employees. Always make sure you are up to date with your tasks and priorities. nTask, Chanty, and Slack are some of the best tools for guaranteeing good communication and coordination among team members.

Bad health habits

If you enjoy the job you do, you may be so consumed by it that you start developing some bad health habits. These bad health habits can include living a sedentary life, neglecting exercises, staying without food for an extended period, or consuming more sugary drinks than before.

How to overcome it: You need to be intentional about dealing with these bad health habits. It is suggested that you keep your fridge away from your sight while working. Instead, you should have a water cooler for getting water to help you stay hydrated. To deal with a sedentary lifestyle, take a walk, and do exercises regularly. Also, get an air hockey or foosball table to exercise your body and mind before, during, and after work.

Distractions

If you live with your spouse, kids, and/or pets, you are bound to be distracted from work regularly. Even your TV, books, etc. can distract you and reduce your productivity level.

How to overcome it: Having a separate home office or workspace can come in handy to deal with distractions. You should also get rid of anything that can distract you in your home office so that you can focus on work. Similarly, wearing noise-canceling headphones and setting rules for your kids can help deal with this challenge.

Overall, you cannot avoid some work-from-home challenges. However, if you are prepared for them, you can overcome them and maximize your productivity level.