10 Fun Ideas You Can Try While Working from Home
Feeling bored at home is only natural when you’ve just started working from home. Whether you’re a Freelancer or you’ve recently switched to remote work, maintaining a high level of productivity is important. If you are used to an on-location work environment, working from home surrounded by your kids and family 24/7 can make it challenging to stay focused. Physical distance can turn into an emotional distance, so it’s important to create a comfortable team culture that virtual workers can rely on. The team here at YI has gathered some unique and fun ideas you can try to boost your productivity and stay engaged while completing your work and meeting deadlines effectively. Take a look you won’t regret it:
- Treat your home office desk as if it was your actual office. Bring that office environment feeling to your home office. Make sure you have a typical view around your desk, place photos of your office’s surrounding area to remind you of the times you spent staring out the window at work.
- Write your to-do list on a house chores board. Add a ‘star’ every time you finish one of your tasks or meet a deadline.
- Put your printer far away from your desk. You’d be surprised how all those steps will add up. Use a tracker to keep count of your walking and exercise. Walking can increase your brain power, so if you’re stuck on a project, you might be able to come up with a great idea while on your way to or from your printer.
- Dress-up for the job you have. Simple but impactful. Dressing for work can trick your mind into staying productive during office hours.
- Re-arrange space around your home. Repurpose the area around your home to set up a gym (use a currently empty room), or create a little cafe (It could be your kitchen), and so on. You can assign your kids to make the signs. Fun time with family but also helpful to declutter your mind about ‘being trapped at home’.
- Use a smart camera around your house. You can’t be in two or more locations at the same time! Use a smart home cam to stay alert of what’s happening around your home while you are working from your home office. YI Home Indoor and Outdoor cameras are easy to set up and work with screen-based Alexa devices to be always-on-display monitors to check on your kids in the other room or greeting guests at your front door from a remote location.
- Plan virtual team building sessions. There’s a lot of fun games out there that mimic a co-located office environment. Regular communication with remote workers is a must, why not do something fun while working together.
- Add motivational posters around your work area. It doesn’t matter if working from home is a temporary situation or permanent, there’s no harm in adding some motivational posters that will prevent you ‘slacking’ while working.
- Plan your virtual chit-chat with your team. Remember when you used to gather around the watercooler or cafeteria to chit-chat with your co-workers in the office? Well, you can recreate that experience within a designated location like your kitchen or backyard. Make sure everyone is in a similar environment before starting to chit-chat.
- Prepare some healthy and nutritious rewards. It’s very tempting to order fast food in while you’re working. Create small healthy snacks instead, to treat yourself each time you finish a task. These little snacks will keep your brain going and help you stay productive.