There are a number of articles out there telling me that working from home is bad. Some of the negative effects include distractions, less productivity, being cut off from colleagues and so on. While I tend to agree on the most of the reasons, there’s a caveat to it. You need to be discipline and at the same time, upgrade your communication game to be at a new level if you want to do this. By being discipline and proactive in communications, those risks can easily be solved.
No matter what they say, to me, so far working from home suits me pretty well. I must also say that I prefer things to be balanced too. I mean, it doesn’t have to be full-time in the office or full-time working from home though. Perhaps once a week, or once in 2 weeks in the office can be a good solution as well.
Here’s why I prefer to stay home and be productive.
First of all, it’s the commuting time that I can save. I don’t have to waste two hours of commuting time to the office and come back home. I seriously hate this, big time.
Second, cost savings. To tell you the truth, by not paying for the car park, the fuel, tolls and eating out during lunch, I can save thousands per month. That’s a lot of money for me.
Third, productivity increases multifold. How do I do it? Well, the secret here is to have a dedicated working area and focus on concluding the daily tasks there within the stipulated time set. And respect the working time and focus on the tasks during the period—avoid doing house chores! By focusing on finishing the tasks of the day, I can complete the 8-hour tasks in 4 hours or so. Here is the best part. I can get even more productive if I work remotely at Starbucks somewhere near beaches.
Fourth, I communicate with my colleagues on a daily basis. Yes, we use Microsoft Teams and Google Meet for video calls. But when there are no video calls, at least I make an effort to text them individually just to say hello and have a little chat during breaks. This small but important effort is helping me to stay close to the team members.
Fifth, I can stay close to my loved ones and check on them during breaks. Discipline is key here.
Please, working from home is not for everyone, especially for those who lack discipline. I have experience working with this one individual before and it was a complete disaster. He was a graphic designer, a good one. It is almost impossible to reach him via telephone calls, texts and email. He took more than three days to reply to any text, email or call and was hardly available for meetings. I allowed this situation to last for about a month until it got to my nerve. At last, I asked him to resign and look for another job.
