Working from home can be quite challenging, especially when it comes to keeping ourselves motivated. There are a lot of videos, quotes, blogs and posts that share tips and advice about how to build and sustain self-motivation when working from home. I’m going to share five simple and effective ways to sustain motivation when working from home.
Starting The Day Early
I know that as Online Freelancers/Entrepreneurs, especially when we’re just starting our business, we can work some crazy hours. As a result, we try to sleep when we can, even if it is at odd hours. However, I’ve found that constantly rising before the sun gives a burst of energy and a clearer focus to tackle the tasks of the day. In those moments when I sleep in, I’m usually more lethargic and low on energy or drive to be productive.
Constant Visual Reminders
Whether we post up vision boards, words of affirmation, inspirational quotes or our goals, these constant reminders can be quite an effective motivational boost. I have found that having these visual images and words divert negative thoughts, builds optimism to accomplish my goals and recharges my focus to keep working.
Take Timely Breaks
It is too easy to get pulled into the drive to keep working, even when we’re tired. Though our determination is good, it can become a problem when it leads to “burn-out”. “Burn-out” occurs when we have overworked ourselves and our bodies to the point of great exhaustion, or even sickness. Hence, try to schedule brief breaks (5 -10 minutes), in between tasks, to clear your head, eat or even to get a quick stretch.
Avoid Distractions
We have all done this, aimlessly scrolling through social media, binge-watching funny videos or even spending large chunks of our time on tasks that are not urgent when we have important work to do. To avoid these distractions, we can do the following:
- Make our workspace a phone-free zone, turn off our internet or mute all notifications during our work time.
- Ignore the temptation to use our brief breaks to do tasks like browsing online, checking emails or making phone calls that can lead to lengthy conversations.
- Close our door or use our earphones/headphones to listen to relaxing and focusing music. This will reduce the interference of sounds in the home.
- Dedicate a specific space, with a comfortable chair and sturdy desk/surface on which we do our work. Make this workspace conducive for our productivity, whilst being set apart from the daily happenings in the home.
Know Your Motivators and Tap Into Them
We have to know what motivates us. Each individual differs, and so we should take the time to list all of the people, videos, sounds, songs, quotes, goals, memories and even the types of environments that boost our motivation. Once we are aware of our sources of motivation, we can intentionally choose to recreate spaces, focus on thoughts and tune into audios and videos that give us that inspirational boost we need to get the job done.
Self-motivation must become a habit. The more often we do things that build up our drive, the better we become at sustaining it. Working from home can make sustaining our motivation a challenge, but it is not impossible. Try out these simple ways that I have used to motivate myself and let me know if they were effective for you well.
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