06 Mar Working from home: the ups and downs
Working from home: the ups and downs
Working from home is a glorious idea – especially when we’re imagining it from our position in a cubicle
office that we fought through hours of traffic to get to and now have to combat annoying co-workers!
But while there are plenty of upsides to working from home, it’s not without its own challenges.
Still Lots of Distractions!
Have you seen the working from home meme where the worker is surrounded by all kinds of
distractions? Which one you ask? That’s right – there’s heaps of them. Deliveries, the pull of household
chores, the pull of household conveniences, people thinking they’ll just ‘pop in’ because they know you’ll
be there, the expectation to look after kids (yes, while still working!), the list of possible distractions
goes on and on!
Procrastination and Work Habits
What about the working from home meme that pokes fun at the challenges of procrastination and how
difficult it is to motivate ourselves? Yes, there are heaps of those too! With lots of distractions around,
it’s easy to procrastinate – especially if our work is requiring us to do something challenging or
unpleasant. When we work from home, we miss out on some of the benefits that working in an office
provides – namely accountability. We can be a lot more autonomous with our time but that’s not always
a good thing! Sometimes we need a bit of enforced structure to help us get the important things done.
The contrast is also true though as some people that work from home find it hard to draw lines to define
their working day and end up working all the time. Without the interactions from co-workers, they can
end up becoming somewhat recluse – and perhaps, eccentric!
Flexibility and Saved Time
But hey, when working from home, you can usually wear whatever you like, work wherever you like (in
bed? on the couch? outside?), and you definitely won’t miss the office commute. Saving travel time
alone can actually be a huge benefit and just this alone can make working from home worthwhile. Plus,
the extra flexibility can make it much easier to fit in with your family, or do other things (cheap
lunchtime gym or yoga sessions anyone?).
Working from home has lots of pros and cons but at least you have more control and it’s you who
decides how you structure your day. Yes, there are issues and it’s not as amazing as other people think,
but at least those issues are ones you can work on resolving.
Fiona Adler writes about entrepreneurship at DoTheThings.com and is the founder of Actioned.com – a
productivity tool for individuals and teams.
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