8 Key Advantages to Working from Home

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Having the option to work in the comfort of your own home, with your own routine, has become a happy alternative for many people in the last few years. For those starting their own business and those seeking out an alternative model to traditional working, working from home has a lot of benefits. Remote and home working can create vast financial savings for startups looking to avoid rent on physical space, and for those looking at lifestyles involving travel, remote working globally (thanks in no small part to the power of the internet) is perfect.

And in addition to the wonderful flexibility that home working can bring, comes the added bonus of it being a far more sustainable practice. Fewer people commuting, means fewer cars on the streets, a reduction in the use of public transport and, consequently, a significant reduction in the consumption of fossil fuels, along with reduced levels of air and noise pollution – win, win! We’ve collated our favourite benefits and a few disadvantages to home working, so, when things get back to normal – if you have the option of choosing from remote or office-based working, you’ll know where you stand!

Being closer to family
For parents, carers and siblings who live together, remote working gives people far more time to spend with family.

Being in a familiar and comfortable environment
To a large extent, you can define the working environment you setup at home. And the environment that you work in can have a huge impact upon productivity.

Independence to perform daily tasks
Remote working gives you the flexibility to perform daily tasks at your leisure, for the most part.

Less stress with city traffic
If you work in a city and have to commute, then you’ll know the stresses and headaches that can come with it. Whether it’s your journey to work or home at the end of the day, this is something we’re all grateful to avoid!

Better control of food and healthier habits
Let’s be honest – we know that snacking in an office is easy. Those colleagues who bring in brownies (we love them but argh, they ruin the diet) and vending machines, mean it can be hard to stay healthy. Working from home, you’re in total control of what you eat and when to eat.

Flexible working hours
This one depends on what you do, of course. However, for a lot of people, remote working gives you the opportunity to start work at a time that’s best for you and control your working hours far more.

Higher productivity with reduced interruptions
We’ve all been asked to attend meetings, come out of them and wondered what the point of them was. This happens far less with remote working. Those distractions and interruptions that go with office working are also largely avoided by working from home!

Hiring the best talent – regardless of distance
This one is a huge benefit to business owners, startups and entrepreneurs! The ability to hire the best talent, regardless of location, can really unlock incredible opportunities.

The biggest challenge with remote working is, undoubtedly, staying focused and ensuring you’re keeping productive. A combination of discipline, dedication and willpower are required, combined with the use of technology, to ensure you’re staying connected with colleagues.

The Pomodoro Technique
Finding motivation to help you to stay on course with your work schedule, whilst ensuring the work is still enjoyable can be further aided by practices like the ‘pomodoro technique’. This sounds complicated but it’s not really – it’s the practice of dividing your work into blocks of intense concentration and can help you to improve the agility of your brain and ultimately, your output. To put this into action, all you need is to formulate a to-do list and a clock. Make a list of the tasks you need to complete in the day, then simply divide your time into 25-minute segments (these are called ‘Pomodoros’). Work through these periods of time, interruption free where possible and see how it goes.

Remember, remote working can be a big learning curve but with the help of technology, mentoring and connectivity, the transition can be made smoother. If you’re looking to find a mentor who can help you with your career development, or are considering becoming a mentor, why not join PushFar’s mentoring platform free today? Click here to register free today.

This article was guest-written by Letícia Miranda.