Work-at-Home Expert Tips: Overcoming Discouragement With Your Work-at-Home Career
If there’s one thing you need to know about working from home, is that there will be busy times and there will be slumps. There will be successes and failures. Sometimes the downsides can make it easy to become discouraged. The trick is to keep plugging away through the slumps, to the successes. Here are some great tips to help you get through the challenges that make you want to quit, so you can reach work-at-home success!
Kyle Brost has these great tips to offer!
1) Recognize that discouragement is natural and is not evidence of failure. Rather it’s evidence that you are pushing yourself…and that in itself is encouraging, because success requires that we push ourselves beyond our comfort zone.
2) Regain control by identifying three key tasks that you know you can complete today and write them down as you complete them. This will make the actions tangible and give you evidence that you achieved something even when feeling discouraged
3) Reach out to others who can motivate you and help problem-solve. If you don’t have someone in your network to do this with, use a TEDTalk, music or inspiring article to uplift and energize you.
Christy Hopkins, human resources staff writer at Fit Small Business has these tips to help out with discouragement!
Working from home has been shown to cause weight gain, loneliness/ depression, and isolation in some people. People who tend to smoke usually smoke more when they work from home. The way to combat these issues when working from home are the following:
- Set a movement alarm- take a 5 minute break every hour to stand, stretch, and walk around.
- Buy a pedometer (or use the free one on our phone)- Aim for to get the recommended 10,000 steps per day, be it indoors on a treadmill or outdoors.
- Stay social- schedule a coffee, lunch or happy hour once per week if possible, just as you would if you worked in an office.
- Buy house plants- House plants filter and clean the air and provide a calming atmosphere.
5. Get a pet- A dog or cat can be very helpful to combating loneliness and depression when working from home if you have the ability to have one.
Geoff Scott, career advisor and resume expert at ResumeCompanion.com has some awesome suggestions:
- Remember why you’re working from home. Some people choose this path because it allows them to have a more involved family life. Others choose it for the flexibility. Whatever your reason, remember and embrace it. We all have different life aspirations, and there is no shame in wanting to work on your own terms.
- Keep building your network. You may be working alone at home, but your social and business connections are more important now than ever. Whether you’re trying to sell your own product or searching out work as a freelance writer, having a broad network is the key to making money, plus your network can help support you when you need it.
- Don’t be afraid to start small. Many freelancers take on jobs that are below their ideal pay-grade to get the ball rolling. Sometimes they even do work for free just to get their name and business published on a website. Even minor victories will help keep morale up, and keep you on track for finding success in your domicile-based career.
Linda F. Williams from Whose Apple Dynamic Coaching and Consulting has these great tips to offer:
- Don’t Isolate. The lack of face-to-face interaction Isolation tends to magnify discouragement. You can gain a better perspective my leaving the work area and having lunch or dinner with someone who encourages you.
- Get Away from it All. Do not ignore breaks, lunch, and quitting time. Getting a way at scheduled intervals helps to keep things in proper perspective. Set an alarm, if you have to, and step away from the work area. The temptation will be to push right past the point of diminishing returns, which benefits nobody. While research supports higher efficiency of telecommuters, this should not be because you are working past the allotted work schedule.
- Divide and Conquer. Create psychological separation from work and home by creating a dedicated space for your home office. There should be privacy and this area should not be located in high traffic areas such as the kitchen or family room. At the end of the day, leave that area and walk back into your home life. Mixing the two will lead to burnout and undue stress, which exacerbates the discouragement you might be experiencing.
Cheryl Bradshaw from Cheryl Bradshaw Books has these final tips to get you back on track!
- Join online support communities where you connect with others who are in the same business you are. Five years ago I started Indie Writers Unite on Facebook for this purpose, and today over 5,000 authors are part of the group.
- Find hobbies outside of the house/get together with friends to clear your head and keep you from getting stuck in a rut by doing the same thing in the same place every day.
- Set goals for yourself and try to keep them. There’s a lot of satisfaction in that. I have a daily/weekly/monthly spreadsheet for keeping track of my word count to keep me focused on achieving my goals.
