One of the biggest advantages of working in marketing can also be one of the biggest disadvantages. With today's technological capabilities, we marketers can pretty much work wherever the Wi-Fi takes us. The capability of working remotely has its obvious advantages, which is very convenient for a person like me who now works from home most days of the week, however there are some definite hurdles that can be hard to overcome. The disadvantages of this luxury come into play when you're working from home and that productive energy cultivated in the office environment is missing or your mid-day errand runs longer than it probably should have. Over the course of my young professional career, I've developed some helpful tips to stay motivated and on-task in a remote-location environment.
Set a strict, reasonable to-do list of tasks you want to get done before the end of the day and don't let yourself finish working until you've checked everything off your to-do list.
Create a designated workspace at home to help separate your work life from your personal life.
If you're feeling tired and unmotivated, get up and walk around your house. Take 15 minutes to jumpstart your brain with physical exercise and then get back to it.
If or when cabin fever sets in working from home, take that opportunity to work from a local coffee shop or food spot with free Wi-Fi. If noise is an issue, local libraries work as well.
Leave personal, non-urgent calls and visits for after-work hours. It's easy for family and friends to assume you're available if you're home, so set a designated work and social time for them.
Make an effort to stay up-to-date on local current events. It's effortless to live in a bubble at your home-office, but staying up-to-date on current events will keep you in the loop with your coworkers.
Continue to push yourself, grow and learn. Referring back to the home-office bubble from #6, don't let the comfort of your remote location make you complacent in your career goals.
So, there you have it! My helpful tips to keep you motivated while working remotely. And appropriately, I wrote this post from my local Starbucks. Happy Home-Working!
