Since March 2020, those of us who are fortunate enough to still have work have probably been working from home. To flatten the curve and avoid making the coronavirus pandemic worse, most businesses – large and small – shut their doors and we all suddenly learned which workers are truly essential.

Hint: It ain’t influencers. All hail the mighty grocery store stocker and the people tirelessly making sure we have access to the internet!

With a sudden, massive acceleration of remote work – something that might have taken another decade to become more mainstream, if it got there at all given corporate pushback – there are lots of folks working from home for the very first time.

And what sounded like a dream back in February – wait, I can go to the kitchen or on a walk whenever I want? – is now, for some, a total nightmare.

Remote Work Isn’t for Everyone

I’ve been singing this tune for years: remote work ain’t for everyone. Some people, including me, thrive on working outside a structured office environment.

Others go all to pieces – they need external structure, a commute, time with coworkers, and everything that comes with a central work location that isn’t their home.

And guess what?

That’s okay.

Everyone works differently! I’m all about finding your best working style and developing routines and systems around that, meant to maximize your own personal productivity, effectiveness, and work-life experience.

And for some folks, that just plain means office life.

Some offices are now reopening – though working in one may look different than it used to, possibly with staggered schedules or swing shifts even for knowledge workers – and so the folks who really don’t want to work remote can start heading back cautiously.

But what if you’re still WFH for the foreseeable future?

Let’s take a look at 5 of the biggest challenges of working from home and what you can do to make them suck less.

5 Biggest Challenges of Working from Home

1. Distractions

This is the biggie. Distractions are everywhere when you’re working from home.

There’s the usual ones that follow you no matter where you work: phone notifications, social media bings and boops, constant emails and Slack messages.

But then there’s the unique distractions that come from working from where you live: the cat walking on your keyboard; kids demanding attention; a partner who doesn’t seem to understand that, yes, you really do need some quiet time to get that spreadsheet done already.

And that’s to say nothing of the laundry piling up, the racket your neighbours are making with a power drill at 2pm, and the fact that your back just went out again from hunching over the kitchen table with your laptop.

How do you beat back distractions when working from home? We’ll dig deeper into this in another blog, but the tl;dr version is: be intentional.

Find a specific place to work and work there every damn day. Set your phone to silent and put it in a drawer where you can’t see it. Tell everyone and anyone you’re not available for certain periods and block them off on your calendar to get work done – think of it as a meeting with yourself to do work.

2. Isolation

Working from home can be pretty lonely. In other times, I would have suggested decamping to a coffee shop or, if you can afford it, joining a coworking space to get some time around other people and away from your living space.

But these are not normal times, and spending all day at a coffee shop just doesn’t feel quite right.

To deal with isolation and loneliness when working from home, you’re gonna have to – you guessed it – get intentional.

Reach out to coworkers on a Slack watercooler channel or (if you’re like me and can’t stand Slack), by email. I’m not the biggest fan of forced interaction and camaraderie, but at the same time, you really are all rowing in the same direction – hopefully – and so you and your team can support each other through this weird situation. Just send a quick ping to let them know you’re around, you’re human, and you have a dog that wants to lick the webcam at your next meeting just to say hi.

Check in with your supervisor, too – both at a human level and as a proactive worker. Instead of making them chase you down for status updates, send a quick bullet-point list twice a week to let them know what you’re working on, where your roadblocks are, and where you’re headed next. It’ll make both your lives easier and keep a sense of connection outside the office.

Oh, and keep up a social life outside work too, eh? Schedule a Zoom happy hour or, now that lockdowns are easing for many, think about putting together a picnic in a local park or meeting at a beer garden for socially distanced drinks.

3. Temptation

Temptations abound when working from home – and I don’t just mean the overpowering urge to take a nap when your bed is right there.

There’s your favourite snacks in the kitchen, the dog begging to go for a walk in the gorgeous summer weather, the siren song of social media, or even a “healthy” temptation like wanting to sneak in a workout.

It’s easy to end up gaining weight, slacking on deadlines, or going without a shower for 5 days just cos the temptation to ignore getting dressed was too strong.

The best way to cope here is to set up a work station that you treat just like your real office. When you’re there, you’re working. You’re in your Zone of Isolation. It’s crappy office coffee and stale crackers all the way, not your favourite Kona single-origin and those really great fancy kettle chips you’ve been hoarding.

But be kind to yourself, too – set breaks throughout the day when you’re not just allowed but required to do the tempting stuff like going for a walk or having some chocolate. By spacing breaks into your day, you can avoid draining your willpower and your energy, giving you the boost you need to be effective throughout your work day.

4. Unhealthy Habits

Just like temptation can be strong when you’re working from home, it can be super-easy to fall into unhealthy habits. Snacking continually, forgetting to exercise…even slouching can become ingrained fast.

Once again, you’ve gotta be intentional.

Set blocks on your schedule, complete with alarms or notifications, to remind you to get up and stretch or to do a YouTube workout. Take a walk on your lunch break – you are taking a lunch break, right? – and make sure that you’re eating something healthy then.

Lock up the snacks or buy fewer next time you’re at the store.

Set both sleep and wake alarms to make sure you’re getting enough rest.

Be good to yourself and make it easy to be good to yourself and you’ll see the difference. I promise.

5. Working Too Much

So this seems a little counterintuitive, but one of the biggest pitfalls of working from home is working too much. Yes, there are distractions and temptations and shiny things galore to pull you away from your spreadsheets and client calls – but there are also very few boundaries to keep you from working until midnight and then starting all over again at 6am.

Without a commute to put a hard line between work and home, letting you switch gears mentally from one role to another, and without an office to psychologically cue you that it’s work time now, and not-work time when you leave, it can be incredibly easy to start working basically 24 hours a day.

And that way, my friends, lies madness. Or at least burnout.

Do yourself a favour: set a hard stop time. This doesn’t have to be 5pm or 6pm or whenever you would have stopped at the office. But it should be several hours before you want to go to sleep, to give you enough time to go be an actual human.

Shut down the computer. Turn off any work notifications on your phone. Set “snooze” or “pause” functions – most email clients these days have them, or you can download an app like RescueTime or Cold Turkey.

I personally love this solution because you can use it to fight both sides of this pernicious lil coin: you can block social media distractions during your work time, and block work sites like Slack when you should be chilling.

Seriously, get you a web blocker.

So there you have it. If you’re a WFH deity and have the wherewithal to withstand temptation and get shit done, good for you! If you’re an office aficionado, hang in there. You’ll get back to your HQ soon enough. Until then, build up your coping strategies, back away from the fridge, and be intentional about what you’re doing and when you’re doing it.

You’ve got this.

Action Steps

• Schedule a “meeting” with yourself to do work tomorrow. Just 25 minutes, followed by a 5-minute break (aka a pomodoro).
• Check in with one coworker just to say hi. Send a quote of the day or a brief update on your dog, who crashed your last Zoom meeting and made them laugh.
• Check in with your supervisor, giving a super-brief bullet-point update of where you stand and what you’re working on next, as well as any current roadblocks. Be proactive.
• Do a 5-minute YouTube workout.
• Download a web blocker for your computer and your phone. Use it to block social media or whatever your top distractions are during your work periods, and block your work resources after your quitting time for the day.
• Set a hard stop for your day tomorrow and take the rest of it off. For realsies. The work will still be there in the morning, unfortunately.