I feel that work from home is really a great idea. But sometimes it leads me to a kind of boredom as well. So I started exploring some ways out of this challenge.
How does one cure work from home boredom? 7 ways to cure boredom:
- Take frequent breaks
- Socialize with real people
- Change your work area
- Structure your day well
- Make your work interactive
- Get some exercise
The work from home job you landed is a dream one with great accruements and perks. You cannot let your loneliness and ensuing boredom slow down your productivity and make it seem like a drag. It is better to look at options that will help you to renew and sustain interest and enthusiasm. A happy you will be more creative and productive, thus ensuring the best results for all parties concerned.
Addressing Boredom Arising From Working from Home
- Break it up
One tends to get caught up in the work so much at times that hours go by before you realize it. The demands of work, the pressure of turnaround time, all contributes to it. Before you realize, the tedium of the whole process has you in its grip and the rest of the day seems quite insurmountable.
Make sure you schedule frequent breaks in between. Even if workflow demands, you must gift yourself a small break; walk around, grab a snack, do a small chore around the home, whatever. This breaks the monotony of constantly staring at your computer like a zombie.
- Get real
Take out time to pick up your phone and make a call to talk to a real person, outside of work. This is extremely important. In this day and age, we are forgetting the joys that a personal and real interaction can bring. We are choosing to ignore that humans are essentially social animals. Dullness and loneliness are bound to set in when you have a long workday with nothing but a laptop with you, lacking the warmth of a human presence. Make sure you enjoy a real chat, experience the sensation of hearing a hearty laugh and you will certainly get back to your work with renewed vigor.
- Move your work
How long can you stay rooted to a particular chair or couch? Not only you, but even your chair also needs a break from you at times. Most people work with laptops these days, which means you are mobile with no hassle of entangled cords and wires to limit you to a seat. Just get up and carry your laptop to a different place, NOW.
A serene park that you like, a corner in some favorite library, or simply to a different room- a change in venue works great to give your mind a dose of freshness. Whether it is a new picture you are looking at, a new color scheme, or a tree in bloom every time you look up from your laptop, you are sure to feel good about it. With your mind in this state, work becomes that much less of routine.
- Plan your day
Again the emphasis here is on getting to meet some real people socially. All it needs on your part is to be a bit thoughtful about your schedule. Plan some days in a manner that part of your chores can couple up as a movie break or simply a cup of coffee with friends. This is of utmost importance so that your work does not become humdrum.
Friends bring in fun and fresh insights. You must indulge in talks that encompass common interests and strictly no work. One must make sure though that the time spent with them does not eat into your work time in a way that you feel the pressure of turnaround time and are left struggling to meet deadlines.
Doing Some More ‘People’ Thing to Address Work from Home Boredom
- Workspace sharing
The online world has its own advantages too when it comes to connecting with people that you otherwise have no way of knowing. You are sure to come across people in the same locality who are also working from home. One needs to get in touch with such people to explore the possibility of sharing workspace, thus alleviating the monotony and loneliness of working all alone for hours. This ensures you have another person to turn to, literally, when you feel that sameness of work is beginning to weigh you down. A few words, a bite, some gossip, and you both can return to work again.
- Interact with peers
Keep talking or chatting over social media with your boss and co-workers and build a rapport with them so that not all talk is work-related. This way you can get to know their families and they do the same about you.
Break up the banality of work by having a quick catch-up chat with your co-workers at times. You are working with humans after all. Upon initiating a casual friendly dialog, one might discover an entirely different person from what they appear to be in their work life. Such interactions over short bursts can be extremely rewarding for all concerned.
Doing Nothing to Become More Productive
- Get physical
Constantly sitting hunched over your laptop is not only unhealthy in all aspects; it also affects your productivity negatively. When you take a break at intervals, make sure you stretch yourself, look afar and blink hard, twist and turn your body, turn your wrists around, do circular movements of the thumbs, and walk a considerable number of steps around your home to get the circulation going. You are sure to come across newer and more effective forms of staying fit on a sedentary job, over time.
See also: Why an Exercise Routine is Important When Working from Home
- Browse meaninglessly
Although the focus is on getting you to take a break from staring at the harsh and unforgiving glare of electronic screens for long periods of time, it is sometimes a good idea to just browse without any agenda. Just looking at current affairs, fashion, latest trends, a movie review, a flash sale, or some sports news does well to help beat the dreariness that can set in while working from home. For some moments, you go into a different world altogether.
There is, however, a caveat here that you need to keep in mind. The online world is very addictive and throws up tempting avenues to explore at every click of the mouse. Before you know it, you have possibly gone deep into a completely unrelated topic, unmindful of the time that has passed. Just make sure you set yourself a time limit for browsing to avoid such occurrences.
- Potter around your home
There has to be a number of jobs that lie around the house for those of you who are working from home. These need to get done through the day. As soon as you sense boredom setting in, it is advisable to take a break and use it to address these pending jobs.
- Small things pile up like folding the laundry, arranging your child’s playroom, watering some of your favorite plants, rustling up ingredients to cook a long-planned dish for dinner, etc.
- Maybe you have a pet hobby of your own, like painting or some handicraft that is a stress buster for you.
- One can also listen to a favorite song, maybe jiggle along too; this helps immensely. If nothing else, put on some soothing music, set the alarm for say 15 minutes, close your eyes and soak in the vibes. This works like a miracle and is extremely therapeutic.
Even a short time spent in these activities not only scuttles down your ‘to-do around house’ list but helps with killing the monotony of work.
Some Common Queries
Is working from home a good choice?
Current trends in workspace show that an increasing number of people are opting to work from home. Whether that choice works for them or not is quite relative. There are negatives as well as positives. While working on one’s own can easily lead to feelings of loneliness and isolation, there are many positives as well. The flexibility of work hours, an informal setting, being around for kids, all of these help re-shift focus towards the pluses of working from home.
Are remunerations assured?
This is a very common misgiving in the minds of people on the lookout for work from home jobs. Established companies in this field have a proven track record of standing by their commitment towards timely payment. There have been problems occasionally with newer ventures, although nothing can or should be generalized. It would be wiser to ask around and check online for feedback before committing oneself.
How tough is the transition back to on-site after working from home?
Once you get used to the home routine, it can be tough to settle back into the formal setup of office. Working in casuals, having a bite at will, or indulging in a small nap in between work are habits you have to kick off at the earliest. However, there is nothing that a little discipline will not help achieve.