Are you tired of being told the same work-from-home strategies over and over again?
Yeah? Us too. Everywhere you turn, it’s the same old story — set a schedule, manage your time, and set up a workspace.
However, If you came here for productivity tips, we’ve got you covered because we recently wrote an excellent article on it. You can check it out at this link.
We’re not going to leave you on a cliffhanger in this article, so let’s just start by telling you the one essential thing you need to do to have a better WFH day. Here it is — you do you.
At DotConnect, we’ve connected thousands of people with their dream jobs, and the first piece of advice we always have for our candidates is to be authentically themselves, and there’s an excellent reason for that.
That reason is that you know yourself better than anyone else on the planet, and to get to the root of a productive workday, you need to find things that mesh with you. That’s it. The article’s over — let’s pack it up and head home!
Just kidding!
We can’t just leave you with that piece of advice without following it up with the why behind our thoughts about finding what works for you at work. So, if you want to know why you need to trust yourself at work, why you should stop comparing yourself to others, and why it’s best to find what works for you, you’re in the right place.
Everybody’s Different
It’s a simple truth, but we always seem to ignore it for some reason. Every single person on this earth is unique, and they need to be proud of it!
We don’t know who needs to hear this today, but when you hop onto social media and see your favorite influencer telling you that waking up at five AM to go work out while listening to multiple motivational audiobooks is the secret to why they’re high achievers, take it with a grain of salt.
That may be what works for them, but it’s not necessarily going to be what makes you successful. You may be a night owl, or maybe you don’t enjoy audiobooks. You may not even like reading, and that’s okay!
What matters is that you find what motivates you to be successful, and if you don’t know where to start with that, we highly recommend a journey of self-discovery.
Learn More About Who You Are
We know what you’re thinking. Wait! I thought you said I know myself better than anyone else. And the answer to that is. Yes, we did.
But we have one small question surrounding that idea, and here it is: How well do you actually know yourself?
We’re not saying you need to wander out into the desert on a vision quest — even though we aren’t entirely opposed to the idea — but what we are saying is that you need to find out what makes you tick on a day-to-day basis.
A great place to start is by performing a simple Enneagram test. We know that the Enneagram has become all the rage lately, and there’s an excellent reason behind it. The Enneagram system does a great job of explaining your personality to you, and it gives you a great foundation to build off of when it comes to knowing more about what motivates you.
In the context of working from home, the more you know about your personal motivation, the more enjoyable your remote work experience will be.
Embrace Your Imperfections
This is a challenging idea for everybody to come to grips with, but we’re going to say it for your own good: You aren’t perfect.
And that’s okay. You need to embrace your flaws, especially when working from home.
For example, you don’t always need to push through the distractions if you’re easily distracted. That doesn’t mean you need to abandon work for the entire day and wonder why nothing is finished. However, if your mind starts to wander because the project you’re working on isn’t completely holding your focus, you need to get away from it.
Step away from your work for a while if it isn’t holding your attention, shift to a different task, or just walk out of your office and leave work alone for a bit. It doesn’t matter how you shift your focus — what matters is that it works for you.
Don’t Compare Yourself to Others
Part of embracing your flaws is throwing off the idea that you need to be like someone else. We love the saying, “Comparison is the thief of joy,” because it gets straight to the point.
Trying to be someone else robs your ability to embrace what’s unique about you. And what’s even worse is that you’re not even looking at the whole person when you compare yourself to someone else.
The people you follow on social media with their perfectly organized Instagram work-from-home offices and productivity hacks aren’t showing you the whole picture. We can guarantee that they have those days where they’re distracted, don’t get work done, and skip the gym, but they aren’t going to show that to you.
Don’t discourage yourself by thinking someone else is doing better than you because they’re probably experiencing the same challenges you are — they’re just hiding them.
Find What Works for YOU
The paradox of choice is all around us.
There are hundreds of different ways to do the same thing, and if you let yourself try to explore all of them, you’ll have a breakdown. Trust us, we’ve tried to consider all the options before, and it was terrible.
Before you buy that yoga ball chair or try to turn your organizational system on its head because of the new solution that you “have to try,” take a pause.
Let yourself really consider why you think it could make your work from home experience better, step away from your Amazon cart, and then circle back to the idea later. If it still seems like a good idea after giving it some time, then give it a try.
Evaluate Your Current Routine
Is your current work-from-home routine working for you, or do you feel like you’re barely treading water?
Let’s start with those of you who feel like things are working. For goodness’ sake, leave your routine alone. Don’t listen to the hype when you see a blog titled, 10 Time Management Techniques That Shatter Space and Time. You don’t need to fix something that works for you!
Now, for those of you who feel like you’re barely treading water, we’ve got a simple exercise for you to do. Start by looking at your current WFH situation. Are you physically comfortable in it — yes or no?
If you answered yes, hold tight.
However, if you answered no, take a second to look at why you are uncomfortable. Maybe you set your home office up in a high-traffic area, which has added stress to your day. Or maybe you just haven’t found a desk/chair combo that helps you relax — don’t laugh, it’s totally a thing.
Whatever the reason is, take a second to focus on it and make the necessary adjustments that work for you.
Alright, let’s get to the people who answered “yes” to feeling physically comfortable in their work-from-home situation but still feel like they are barely treading water. Analyze what you’re currently doing to prevent yourself from being overwhelmed.
Sometimes, we forget to set up fail-safes in our daily routine that keep us from being overwhelmed. If you haven’t set up a system to protect yourself from overwork and burnout, you’re following a path in that direction.
DotConnect Can Help You Maximize Your WFH Experience
Before we head out, we want to give you some words of encouragement about remote work. If you’re killing it in the work-from-home game right now, keep it up!
Working from home is hard, but it can be incredibly rewarding when you find the proper routine and time management system for you. However, if working from home isn’t working for you, that’s totally fine. Remote work isn’t for everyone!
At DotConnect, we believe that you need to feel happy, comfortable, and supported in your career. If your current job isn’t meeting those needs, it’s probably time to start looking for somewhere else — and we can make that happen.
We’ve helped companies like Beautycounter, Samsung NEXT, and Zendesk find the right talent and build stronger teams with outstanding people like you. To learn more about the results of working with us, check out our case studies. Our results speak for themselves!
If you’re ready to make a change and work with a talent advisory company that’s dedicated to finding a position where you can flourish, reach out to us. We have the tools you need to build a successful career, and we want to help you grow!