Overcoming the negative effects of working remotely

Online freelancers and business owners have known the difficulties of working from home for a long time, and for equally as long, they were the envy of their peers and family. “Working from home must be so wonderful and luxurious!”, said those envious of remote workers. “You can just lounge in your pajamas, and make money for seemingly doing nothing!”

This was how people viewed working from home, pre-pandemic, when only 7% of US employees had access to remote work arrangements.

But now, 64% of US employees are working from home, and people are quickly finding out it’s not so luxurious after all. There’s a myriad of negative effects to deal with while making money magically appear from your home computer.

Long-time freelance workers now have the right to smirk and say “Told you so”, but let’s not rub it in anyone’s faces. There are a variety of tips and techniques long-time remote workers have discovered to deal with the negative effects of working remotely and how to overcome them, which this article will share with you.

1: Distractions from everyone, everything, and yourself

When you’re working in an office, you’re generally working in an office, with minimal distractions. Co-workers might flit by your desk or stop to have a quick conversation, but overall, the office is a place of work.

Working from home, on the other hand, leads to all kinds of unwanted distractions. Some are external, some are self-imposed.

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Let’s look at some common external and self-imposed work distractions.

External distractions:

• Knocks at the door (courier delivery, family, friends, etc.)
• Outside noises such as dog barking.
• Family matters requiring your attention (baby crying, cooking lunch, etc.)
• Household chores piling up (dishes in the sink, trash bin needs to be emptied, dog needs to go outside, etc.)

Multitasking your way through external distractions and work can create enormous amounts of stress, and without healthy stress-relief strategies, the stress itself can become another work distraction.

Self-imposed distractions:

• Browsing social media, YouTube, NetFlix, etc.
• Poor time management skills.
• Procrastination.

Some of these self-imposed distractions can put you in a negative cycle, such as rushing to meet a deadline after procrastination and then feeling “burnt out”, which requires an energy recovery period.

Dealing with external distractions requires some strict rule-setting with your family, friends, and neighbors, while dealing with self-imposed distractions requires strict rule-setting with yourself.

Dealing with external distractions:

• Hang a sign on your door that lets visitors know you’re busy working.
• Buy a good pair of headphones to listen to music and avoid outside noise.
• Hire a babysitter for the children.
• Be firm with your partner and family that work hours mean you are working.

Dealing with self-imposed distractions:

• Resist the temptations to check social media or reply to non-work related messages.
• Consider work productivity and time management strategies like the Pomodoro technique.
• Figure out ways to overcome procrastination. If for example, you have a deadline on Friday, don’t put all the work off until the last minute. Try to chip away at it a little at a time, so there is far less to do during “panic crunch hour”.

2: No work / life balance

For most people, you go to the office and work, then come home and relax to de-stress after a hard workday. You separate your work life from your home life, you don’t need to think about your office cubicle until it’s time to go to work again.

How do you separate work and home life, when your “office” is the couch and your laptop? You might feel compelled to check work emails even when you’re off the clock, simply because your work laptop is there next to you.

According to a survey from Monster, approximately 69% of respondents who are telecommuting said they are experiencing burnout and overwork, due to overwhelming anxiety to feel “productive” while working remotely.

The problem can be compounded by the distraction issues I mentioned earlier, as remote workers feel the need to play “catchup” after distractions drag them down, but it’s certainly not healthy.

Some ways to have a better work/life balance:

• Do not check work emails and messages when you’re off the clock.
• Work only in a remote part of your house. This is “meta-remote”, a remote working environment within your remote work arrangement! If you don’t have enough space, hang up curtains around your workspace so it’s “out of sight, out of mind” when you’re off the clock.
• Go outside more. Take strolls outside before work, during your work breaks, and after work.
• Pursue hobbies that you can focus on when you aren’t working, such as painting, reading, etc.

The most crucial element here is to have distractions from your work when you aren’t working. Because distractions while you’re working are a bad thing, but distractions from work when you aren’t working are a good thing.

3: Loneliness

For remote workers that live alone, the loneliness can feel isolating, perhaps even suffocating. You’re used to socializing with co-workers during the day, and suddenly you’re all alone in your apartment all day.

Introverted personalities may actually love working from home for exactly this reason, but for extroverted personalities that crave social interaction, it can certainly be maddening.

For many people this was largely an issue at the height of the pandemic, especially in countries where going outside may have even been illegal, but many countries have since relaxed social distancing laws.

For those of you on the brink of isolation-induced manic depression, here are some tips:

• Try to work somewhere public, like a coffee shop.
• Have regular video calls with friends and family.
• Make plans to go out after work.
• Use video conference tools to socialize with co-workers.

4: Technology issues

The absolute bane of any remote worker are technology issues. It can be computer viruses, power outages, internet connection disruptions, anything of that sort.

I can’t address every technological issue you might face, so I’ll give you the advice to have a backup laptop, external drives with backups of your files, etc.

However, I will address one of the most common technological issues facing remote workers.

Remote work requires a fast internet connection

The average remote work VPN requires a minimum of 2Mbps (Megabits) for ideal connection speed, but then add teleconference meetings and work file downloads on top of that, and your work-from-home arrangement can easily require a minimum of ~10Mbps internet connection.

Other people in your home might be watching Netflix, playing online games, or downloading large files while you’re working, bringing the WiFi to a grinding crawl. In this situation you may be forced to upgrade the home internet plan to keep everyone happy.

However, you can also try limiting the bandwidth of other devices in the home. Most home routers have internal administrator settings that allow you to limit bandwidth usage per device. Figure out exactly how much bandwidth you need for a stable, fast work connection, and allocate that amount exclusively to yourself in the router settings.

Working from home may not be as ‘luxurious’ as some previously believed, but it’s a great opportunity to develop your project management skills, beginning with managing yourself, to become the best version of yourself you can possibly be.

Erika is a content strategist and producer who believes the power of networking and quality writing. She's an avid reader, writer, and runner.