For me, working from home was a dream come true. When I realized that I could make a living from my house, I was sold on the idea. I have overheard some people say that they couldn’t spend all their time at home. I looked puzzled because my hope is that no one assumes that working from home means that your personal life ends and you can never leave your house again. If you spend all of your time at home and never socialize, you will start to experience a disconnect to the work around you. The symptoms of disconnect will ultimately lead to lack of focus on your job and ultimately burnout. Burnout is more than just not wanting to work anymore. The root cause of it is lost focus. You are not driven to be successful in the role you have because you just don’t have a passion for it anymore. While in the workplace a supervisor or manager can usually redirect you with strategies and tips. But when you are working from home, that resource may not be readily available and you will find yourself on your own trying to maneuver through the emotional rollercoaster with the end point being termination if you don’t realign yourself with the original mission of your job. Let’s talk about how to avoid having this terrible experience.

1. Don’t neglect your personal life. Be sure to take time for you and your family.

2. Create a space in your home specifically for work and exit that space when your work day is done. Don’t visit that space at all during your personal time.

3. Don’t hesitate to take time off from work to enjoy some family time. A nice family trip for the day to visit the park or plan a nice lunch away from home is a great way to establish and maintain a work life balance that will help you keep your sanity.

Keep in mind that while you may be a customer service rep, data processing clerk or whatever job you are doing from home, you are a human and you must take care of all factors related to your mental, physical, and social wellbeing. Keeping these things in mind will pay off in numerous ways and will ensure that you don’t lose productivity because of lost focus.

Good luck to all the work from workers!!!