Working from home is becoming more and more popular each year. Whether your job now allows you to work from home or you’re looking to start your own business, it’s important that you establish good habits in order to get all your work done. Below are five suggestions you can use to improve how you work from home in 2023.

Set Aside a Dedicated Space

A great place to start is by ensuring you have a dedicated space in which to work. A common problem that many people run into when working from home is that their entire home can become their workspace.

When this happens, your brain has a hard time recognizing that it’s time to work. On top of that, you may get distracted by other things in your home, such as the nearby TV or those dirty dishes in the sink.

Setting aside an entire room, or even just a corner of a room, where you do all your work will help to establish a productive mindset whenever you’re in it.

If you don’t have a suitable place to work from in your home, consider working elsewhere. Just because you’re “working from home” doesn’t mean you actually have to be inside your home. You could head over to your local library or coffee shop if you’ll be more productive there. If you need a more serious place to conduct business, such as hosting meetings, look for a coworking space in your area.

According to The Collection, a coworking space in Los Angeles, a good coworking space can “provide you with the privacy and confidentiality you need for your business, while also giving you access to all of the resources and amenities that come with working in a shared space.”

Set Ground Rules with Your Family or Roommates

Another common challenge for those working from home is the other people who are there with them. Whether you’re living with roommates or your family, it’s important to establish some ground rules with them.

For example, you can ask them to leave you uninterrupted during certain hours or to keep the noise down whenever you have your office door closed because that means you’re on a phone call.

The last thing you want when working from home is your children coming up to you every 10 minutes or your roommate playing their music loudly, as you won’t get anything done.

Implement New Productivity Software

If it’s been a while since you upgraded the software you use, now is a great time to explore some new options.

There are new productivity software options released all the time, along with improvements to existing programs. A simple change in software could lead to significant productivity gains. Get started by thinking about which tasks take you the longest or which are the most tedious.

Then do some searches online for software that might assist you. Check out some free trials and give some new software options test runs to see if any of them can improve your work day. You may find that just using new software leads to more free time or a more efficient business.

Find Time to Leave Your Home

Too many people who work from home find themselves spending their entire days inside. When we work in an office, we at least have a change of scenery throughout the day and some time spent outside during our commutes.

If you forget to incorporate these things into your day, you may find your mental health takes a hit from being in the same place all the time. Find some time each day to leave your home, whether it’s going for a walk, sitting on your balcony, or heading over to your favorite coffee shop for an afternoon pick-me-up.

Stick to a Schedule

Scheduling is another common challenge for people working at home. No matter how hard we may sometimes try, things around our homes can interrupt our workdays. We also lose some of the accountability that comes from having to be in a certain location at a specific time.

However, if you aren’t careful about your schedule, you could find yourself working late into the night in order to catch up on the work you missed. Create a schedule for yourself, much like you would if you were going into the office each day. Then do your best to stick to that schedule, no matter what interruptions may arise at home.

Make Working from Home in 2023 the Best Year Yet

A few simple changes can make a big difference in how you view working from home. If you’re able to stick to a schedule and incorporate some of the better aspects of working outside the home, you’ll likely find that you not only enjoy working from home more but that you also get more done.

We hope these tips were able to provide you with a good starting point and that working from home will be better for you this year.