Lockdown Lessons Learned: Motivation when Working from Home

If a management team ever ran an employee engagement survey between 2010-2019 it was highly likely that “working from home” was one of the most sought after benefits by office employees. It is rather tragic that most workers experience of working from home came very abruptly with the coronavirus. In many respects it is a counterfeit working from home experience, because without the choice of home working or not, it can at times feel very restrictive and claustrophobic.

However, it will not always be like this and it is likely that many organisations will retain an element of home working after the current crisis. To make the most of home working an important ability to have is how to motivate yourself!

Create a workplace/Review your workplace.

Setting up your home workplace is such an important part of what makes you happy. Try and make it as professional as possible and comfortable. Where possible try and use one of the less used parts of your home so that you can separate it from the rest of your home life. Beyond that I have found it useful to schedule a monthly tidy up/review of my workspace, just like our desks at work these can become messy and untidy and that can be demotivating. A monthly spring clean of the area can make a massive difference. Don’t be afraid to move your workspace around your home as well if you can.

Use your phone and tech to limit distractions.

Plenty of studies into concentration have concluded that it can take anywhere between 10-23 minutes to concentrate on a task. In fact, a survey in 2018 found that 51.8% of office workers were frequently interrupted each day, in his book Overload! Jonathan Spira estimated that interruptions of workers days might cost the US economy $1 trillion per year in lost productivity. Working from home should free us from these interruptions and give us a productivity boost? Yes, but only if we plan for it. If you are looking to focus its important to see tech as your ally, use the do not disturb function on your phone and block out focus time in your calendar to reduce the chance of interruptions. You will find you get work done quicker and to a better standard.

Do your worst/most difficult task first!

Nothing is a bigger motivation killer than a creeping awareness that you are deliberately avoiding a hard task. It will play on your mind and reduce the quality of your other work. An often used quote on the subject comes from Mark Twain “If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it is your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first”. In a nutshell its best to avoid procrastination, do that difficult task first and enjoy the rest of your day. Its better to do something than live with the fear of it.

Have a plan to look after yourself!

Building effective routines for your wellbeing are tremendously important, whether its giving yourself the time to cook from fresh/scratch cook a meal or lunch through to some sort of daily exercise. The key here is to schedule it across the week. Many people that transition to home working get an initial free time dividend compared to their office work lifestyle that disappears when you stop scheduling your life and managing your free time. Plan to make the most of your day!

Have an accountability plan.

As a manager I always have a belief in the positive power of meetings to make things happen. Not so much within the meetings themselves, but that the prospect of a meeting would encourage people to complete action points that were assigned to them ahead of the meeting. One of the challenges of working from home is that we can feel removed from the usual accountability of our office jobs. We all manage accountability differently, but it is important to find a way to make yourself accountable. Whether through a to do list, calendar reminders or even find a colleague to be your accountability buddy – find a way to make yourself accountable.

Closing Thoughts

I hope you have found the above ideas useful; I’d be really interested to hear what lessons other people have learned about motivation when working from home!