The Challenges of Working Remotely & How to Solve Them

There are so many benefits of working remotely! You are able to organize your own working hours. You can work from your bed, in your pyjamas if you feel like it. You can travel whenever and wherever and take your work with you if necessary. You can take coffee or lunch breaks when you feel unfocused, with no bosses around, but… There are also a couple of challenges remote workers might face once in a while so we’ve come up with solutions for some of them.

• HEALTH ISSUES

If you are a remote worker, it probably involves a laptop, a desk and a chair. Not very dynamic and probably requires all-day-long sitting in front of the screen. Your back will soon start hurting and you’ll notice you don’t have that 20/20 vision anymore. Try to prevent this! First of all, make sure you buy a nice chair meant for this type of jobs, so at least at home, you feel comfortable spending many hours finishing your daily tasks. Visit an ophthalmologist and have them recommend a pair of screen protection glasses that will block blue light and make your laptop screen more pleasant for your eyes.

• SELF-DISCIPLINE

Checklists and schedules will help you only if you stick to them strictly. Self-discipline doesn’t happen overnight, but don’t worry – practice makes perfect. Set deadlines for yourself and do your best in order to meet them. If, for example, social media prevents you from focusing on your work, try cold turkey websites that will block them until you finish your task.

• OVERWORKING

An then, there’s the opposite of procrastination and not being able to get your work done. If you want to stay healthy (and happy!), you need to know when to draw a line and say it’s enough. It’s easy to overwork yourself when you’re a remote worker, but before you accept a new project, take a look at your agenda and your schedule. Earning money is great, but so is taking care of your body and soul. If you work 24/7, you won’t have time to enjoy your life and spend the money you’ve earned.

• PEOPLE WHO FORGET YOU’RE ACTUALLY WORKING

We all know that our families are our most important supporters. But, what if they don’t understand that even though you’re physically there, at home, you can’t be distracted by their questions because you need to work? It’s not that they don’t appreciate you. Sometimes it isn’t easy to get used to this concept, being pretty much a new one. Before we had the internet, it was almost impossible to work remotely. Nowadays, most of the people still go to their offices and when you stay at home, your family forgets that you actually need peace and quiet. Think of something that will keep them busy as well while you complete your work.

Do these obstacles sound familiar to you? Every job has its perks and some downsides that sometimes might seem too much, but if you take a deep breath and focus on the positive things that working remotely brings you, you will solve all the challenges in no time!