Working from the comfort of your own home is relaxing, soothing and much less stress than commuting to an office—or is it? If you’re on your work-at-home honeymoon period then you are probably over the moon about your new career choice. You can wake up, get a fresh cup of coffee, procrastinate for a bit and then start your work instead of stressing over your car not starting or public transportation being on strike.

Whatever the reasons for you working at home, there are a few troublesome things about being independent that you just can’t ignore. I know I went over some of these a few days ago, but it bears repeating.

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Utilize Home Comforts

There are, of course, many advantages to working at home. For starters, you’ll be closer to your children which is great if you have a young child or a baby to look after. It’s somewhat of a distraction, but it’s better than paying for expensive child carers. You also have easy access to your personal kitchen, meaning you can cook up comforting meals instead of buying junk food, and what about the coffee makers you have at home compared to the work ones? The coffee machines at work are probably nasty and not that great, but from home, you can get a coffee delivery to your doorstep, and have a fresh brew of delicious coffee for that caffeine boost you need to get yourself through the day.  

Distractions

Some people would argue that working from home is far more distracting than working in an office. An office environment is usually filled with machines and people that are all busy at work, so it’s natural for you to follow their example and get to work yourself. You’re also able to communicate with your team, which makes it easier (most of the time) to focus on your work instead of being distracted.

When you’re at home, you’re close to all of your comforts. Your bed is close by if you want a nap, you probably have the television in the room, and you have the freedom to blast loud music while you work.

To remedy the problem of distractions and be more productive at home, try to set up space or a room and designate it as your working zone. Remove all distractions from this area and try to focus on creating a professional looking space for you to motivate yourself to work. Heck, even use an app that disables the internet while you work, if that's what you need.

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Breaking the silence

Let’s face it, working at home is lonely. You’re not going to be working as part of a team unless you utilise some form of messaging with your office, but if you don’t have an office and you work as a freelancer then you probably aren’t going to get much interaction. To combat loneliness, it’s a good idea to plan some events with friends or to go and speak with your neighbors now and then.

Interaction is important so that you don’t go completely insane working in silence. Another great way to break the silence is to play some relaxing music as you work. It should ideally be something repetitive or soothing, but some people work great blasting electronic club music as well—it all depends on your personal preferences.