The fact that you are doing a job at home or trying to accomplish a task should not make you serious to the point you miss out on the fun that abounds in life on a daily basis, and for that reason, I am writing this article to show you how to enjoy working from home.
Even though loneliness and boredom are some of the disadvantages of working from home, you should aim to diffuse everything that may bring about them and the only way to do so is to stay joyful when you are working from home.
One of my favorite adages as a remote worker is “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” and now that Jack is old he cannot even move outside again because he had overworked his life.
Though some may say “Don’t mix work with pleasure’, I totally disagree with this kind because if they know what motivation there is when you enjoy working from home, they would always be accomplishing their tasks and delivering their work on time with ease.
The key to efficiently completing a task lies in how you can keep motivated when you are executing those tasks. And as being happy is one of the ways to do so, you must ensure you do those things that will help you stay in the right frame of mind to be able to work from home efficiently.
I know what works for Mr. A might not work for Mr. B because there are people who are naturally serious and to them, fun should seldom have its time.
Now the biggest understanding we should have about how to enjoy working from home is that you could perform these actions intermittently or even while you are working. The key however is to find the time that is right as well as what works best for you.
Without further ado, let’s jump straight to this article, shall we?
How to enjoy working from home.
To enjoy working from home, you must aim to carry out certain activities that are bound to help you escape the loneliness and boredom that might arise when you work from home. An example of these activities is Playing with your kids, friends, families, and pets.
Below is an outline of all the activities that can help you enjoy working from home:
- Pray.
- Meditate.
- Always be healthy and fit.
- Stretch often.
- Take breaks, especially when you feel stressed or bored.
- Play with your kids, families, friends, and pets.
- Listen to your favorite music or watch videos.
- Play computer games.
- Always plan before you start to execute.
- Initiate social chats.
- Connect and commune with your teammates or other remote workers.
- Find a balance between your personal and professional life.
- Have water, snacks, and non-alcoholic drinks in your workspace.
- Invite your lover over.
- Have a new job or task in the waiting.
- Visualize the success of your task right from the beginning.
1. Pray.
As a spiritual person, I believe so much that everything we are able to do here on earth is according to the grace given to us by the Creator. And for that reason, I always ensure I commit every project I embark on into His hands and ask Him to help me complete it successfully.
Joy was created by God and given to us humans with the intention of uplifting our spirits anytime the pressures of life seem to weigh on us.
There are so many ways of connecting with God and it cuts across all the religions we have on earth, but prayer is the main way spotted across so many religions.
Prayer is the art of verbally communicating with the divine, and it usually involves thanksgiving and requests.
So as a remote worker always ensure you pray before you set out on any job or task.
2. Meditate.
Meditation is the process of practicing how to focus and concentrate for the purpose of wading off every kind of stress in the human mind.
And as a remote worker, working alone all the time might make you want to feel lonely and bored, and when that occurs you can use meditation to get over it and in the end become joyful.
3. Always be healthy and fit.
Ill health is usually associated with so many symptoms like mental stress, fatigue, sleepiness, headache, fever, etc and these things are capable of putting a remote worker in a bad mood.
And for that reason, you must always practice healthy and fitness habits like:
- Eat good food.
- Go for medical check-ups from time to time.
- Take medications if you feel any indication of a forthcoming illness.
- Exercise often.
- Sleep well etc.
When you are healthy and fit, there is no way sadness will become a part of you.
4. Stretch often.
Whenever you are working at home, ensure you take out some moments to stretch a bit because regular stretching will help to increase the range of motion in your joints, improve the circulation of blood in your veins, and posture as well as eliminate every muscle tension throughout your whole body.
This will alleviate every form of stress that might make you feel bad while at work and keep your mind joyful all the time.
5. Take breaks, especially when you feel stressed or bored.
Always ensure you schedule breaks that will take you away from your workspace to engage in other activities that will keep you in high spirits because working too much is bound to lead you to stress which might make you feel sad.
Sometimes taking breaks does not mean you should shut down your system and take a walk outside as you can even move away a bit from your working space to drink some water, and take some snacks and non-alcoholic drinks that will help you stay in the right frame of mind.
So whenever it seems you want to feel lonely and bored while working from home, always ensure you take some breaks.
6. Play with your kids, families, friends, and pets.
The sense of people and your pets being around your working space might incite some feelings of joy and keep you away from being stressed, bored, or sad.
So whenever you are working from home make sure you always have your kids, families, friends, and pets at reach where you can play with them to uplift your spirit.
The only thing you should avoid while doing this is the interruptions and distractions they might bring.
7. Listen to your favorite music or watch videos.
Listening to music, and watching videos like comedy, sports, movies, etc when you are working from home has the tendency of increasing your joy no matter what you are doing.
The problem with listening to music and watching videos while working is that it seems to get our attention divided. However, this problem is not applicable to every remote worker.
But personally, I am always fond of listening to lyrics that are sung in music, and for that reason, if am working and listening to music at the same time, I will tend to lose my ability to concentrate since I will be trying to catch up with the lyrics of the song.
But without the lyrics, there are some different musical styles you can listen to or listen to music that is sung in a language you do not understand.
Instrumental music has been found to be the best fit for people who are working from home.
8. Play computer games.
When it seems you are getting bored or feeling sad while working from home, you can catch your joy by playing computer games. And the best way to play computer games as a remote worker is to disengage from your tasks for a while and get on the game.
What’s the use of sitting there bored staring at the screen trying to refresh your mind when you can just get the work out of your mind for some minutes to enjoy yourself?
Some remote workers have however said that they play games all day while working, and the kind of games they recommend are those games you can look away from and not miss anything important you are doing.
While other remote workers say they have long stopped playing games while working because of their inability to multitask, they will take some time off to have fun with games and return back to the work at hand.
8. Always plan before you start to execute.
One of the things that will kill your joy while working is getting stuck in the midst of your task and not knowing the next step to take.
To overcome this, make sure you always lay out your plans, schedule everything and organize your routines before you get down to execute your job or tasks.
Your schedule should have time for a break, where you can get off your desk and perform some activities that will keep you joyful throughout the working period.
9. Initiate social chats.
If it seems you are feeling lonely and sad while working from home, you can log in to your social accounts and friends who are online to initiate a chat with them.
If they are old friends from way back, you can start a conversation about some fun things that happened way back in time when you guys were much younger.
10. Connect and commune with your teammates or other remote workers.
Always keep in mind that you are not sailing in this work-from-home ship alone, that it is only the cabin that separates each and every one of us.
So whenever it seems as if loneliness is going to get the best of you,, make sure you reach out to your teammates or other remote workers and communicate with them.
You can let them know the tasks you are executing and ask them about their own experiences when boredom seems to get the best of them. Or better still, you can initiate some conversation that is going to incite fun at the end of the day.
11. Find a balance between your personal and professional life.
Some remote workers find it very hard to distinguish between their personal and professional life, which is why their work often take advantage of them in most instances.
The fact that you are working from home does not mean you should get carried away by the things that are going on around the house or neighborhood.
So always have it in mind that you are making a living from your work-from-home job and consider it very vital and separate from the things you do at home.
Wake up early in the morning, do your home chores, eat, and get dressed before you commit yourself to your working space and you will find out that the excitement of having something that puts food on your table will always keep you joyful when you are performing your task from home.
12. Have refreshments in your workspace.
Make sure you always have refreshments like water, non-alcoholic drinks, snacks, etc in your working space. Because staying refreshed while working from home is one of the ways to remain joyful.
13. Invite your lover to come around.
There is a certain chemistry that connects two people who are in love, and such chemistry has the tendency to spark feelings of joy that no one can explain.
So if you are feeling lonely or bored while working at home, you can invite your lover to come around, if both of you are not staying together, but if you are staying together you can just ask him or her to be around for a while in your working space.
And once the feelings of joy are already established, they can go ahead with their own activity.
14. Have a new job or task in the waiting.
The anticipation of getting started with a new job or task will enable you to stay joyful until the completion of the one at hand.
So while working on a certain project, ensure the next project you are executing is already at hand.
15. Visualize the success of your job or tasks right from the beginning.
Being certain that you are going to get successful with the task at hand will keep you joyful throughout, and seeing yourself becoming successful in a goal will help you to look forward to those goals with all amount of joy.
Visualization is the key to practicing success because when you are able to imagine every step of your task going smoothly, you will put your body and mind in the right position to bring take those steps in the real world.
Below are some of the ways to practice visualization:
- Close your eyes and picture the outcome that you desire from your tasks with all your related senses and emotions.
- Write out your desired outcome in a notepad and read it out aloud every morning and evening.
- Draw and describe a mental image of your preferred success.
