I am not quite sure if I qualify as a ‘work from home’ woman but I am a student who also happens to be a Blogger and Instagrammer. So I spend about one to two days a week at University and the rest of the time I work from home. Regardless if I fit this category or not, I think I have done this long enough to give you my personal tips and tricks on how to work from home like a (girl)boss.
Schedule
This is probably one of the most important points I want to make today. Scheduling and planning your days in advance are so vital. Of course, you need to be organized when working in an office or any other job as well. But the difference is that other people, like your boss, are most likely keeping you accountable. But if you work from home, most of the time you are your own boss. So schedule everything in your day beforehand. I love to sit down on Sundays and plan my week ahead. Not only the work things I have to do but also my private life tasks.. like cleaning or getting groceries. And don’t just write a to-do list for each day. Try to also schedule when exactly you are planning to do something. This is a little example:
Monday- 8-9am E-Mails
- 9-12am Uni assignments
- 12am-1pm Lunch
- 1pm-4pm Working on blog posts
- 5pm get groceries
- 7pm gym
Get dressed
I know it’s tempting to live in your dressing gown all day as no one, besides the delivery guy, will see you anyway but trust me.. getting properly dressed for the day makes such a difference to your mindset. Of course, I don’t put on heels or do a full face of makeup on days where I am completely working from home. But putting on a cute and comfortable dress or sometimes even gym clothes and putting on a bit of makeup makes me feel so much better and I bet it will do the same to you.
Snacks
If you work from home you will probably find yourself checking the fridge every other hour just to see if something new magically appeared. This is my go-to procrastination technique and it way too often leads to me having cereal for lunch.. and dinner. So be prepared. Get yourself some healthy snacks and try not to have too many naughty things in the house. One of my go-to snacks are my energy balls. You find the recipe for them here.
Be prepared to explain
‘But, do you really work?’ is a question you will get all the time when you work from home. People probably imagine you laying in your bed all day binging Netflix and I can see where they are coming from. When you work from somewhere which is physically away from your home this becomes the ‘work zone’ and home is the ‘relaxing zone’. The truth is you can get the exact same amount of work done from wherever you decide to work. It’s all about scheduling and planning smart. So don’t get insulted when you hear these questions and just try to see it from their perspective.
Set Boundaries
One thing I am really passionate about is setting boundaries. And I think it’s not necessarily only people who work from home that struggle with this. But it definitely doesn’t help when your work-life happens in the same place as your personal-life. You don’t want to know how many times I got an E-Mail notification at 9pm while watching a movie with my boyfriend and ‘quickly’ responding to it. And there is absolutely no reason why it couldn’t wait until the next morning. So setting boundaries and specific ‘work’ and ‘play’ times is vital. For your own mental health and also for the relationship with people around you.
