During the COVID-19 Pandemic many of us have had to work from home to protect us and our colleagues from the virus. Working from home comes with a whole new range of its own challenges that you wouldn’t necessarily have when working at your usual workplace.
Lockdown restrictions resulting in us working from home has also meant we have had to put any social or holiday plans that we may have had planned on hold. For many of us these are the things that we look forward to most and for many, enjoying their time outside of work is a motivator in itself.
Stripping away those things to look forward to and spending all day at home working can significantly affect a person’s motivation at work.
Below are a number of tips to help maintain that motivation, or that can be used to recover motivation if it has been lost.
Stick to a routine
It has been a common occurrence that people have been working longer hours when working from home, not being able to switch off. This can begin to affect your motivation as it may seem that you never have a rest. The opposite is also true, many have found their productivity levels have slowly dropped off as time has gone on. A way to tackle both of these occurrences is to have a work routine and stick to it. Set a start and end time to work so that you know during those times, you are working.
Create a workspace
Don’t set yourself up on your sofa or on the comfy arm chair. Find an area out of the way which you can dedicate to your work space, whether you have a spare room or space on the kitchen table, try to avoid areas such as the sofa, a comfy chair or even bed! This is because you will slowly start to associate these comforts with work, which will take away from your relaxation time. Having your own dedicated space also helps your motivation as you know that when you’re there, you’re at work.
Structure your work day
Much like any day at work, have a structure to your day. Have goals you want to achieve and commit a time slot to do so. By doing this you can manage your workload well, and also if you give yourself reasonable time allocations to complete tasks it will motivate you to ensure you work to that deadline.
Avoid distractions
Avoid distractions as much as possible. If you’re sat at the dining room table and people in the house are always distracting you, try to find a quieter spot to setup your work space. For other things like mobile phones etc. leave them in the other room if you find yourself picking it up more than you should. Whenever you know a new email comes in, you don’t need to check it right away, finish what you’re doing first. It can be hard to get back into the swing of a task when you’re constantly being distracted, this will also slow your productivity.
Practice the “10 minute rule”
Procrastination is also a common thing when working from home. Perhaps you have a big or arduous task to do and you keep putting it off. Try using the 10 minute rule and tell yourself you will make a start on that task for 10 minutes, this is a nice little trick as you will likely choose to carry on with it once you have made a start.
Look after your general wellbeing
This is an obvious one, working from home many people stay up late, roll out of bed in the morning and log on. This is not good for your routine or your wellbeing. If you’re not getting enough sleep then it’s of no surprise you’re not feeling motivated. Try to stay healthy and active as much as possible, this will help get things going more at work.
Be aware of your emotions
This isn’t such an obvious one. Try and be aware of the emotions you’re feeling around certain tasks. Your lack of motivation may be coming from your anxiety around a particularly challenging or lengthy task. Once you recognise this try to accept and face the fact you’re going to have to face it sooner or later. By doing this it’ll make starting on a task less stressful, but also remind yourself as you go how good you’ll feel once it’s finally done!
More information
If you would like to view the Webinar on ‘Keeping motivated whilst working from home’ this is being delivered live on Thursday 28th January at 12pm, please use the following link to register for this session –
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/5775319377608907279
If you are unable to join the webinar live, a recording of the session can be accessed using the same link above after the webinar has taken place.
If you feel you may need some support, you can contact Care first. Care first is a leading provider of confidential, professional counselling, information and advice services. All employees are eligible to use Care first, our services include; telephone counselling, information services and online support. Call Care first on the Freephone number provided by your organisation and you can speak to a professional in confidence.