How to Stop Procrastination While Working from Home

My Top 5 Tips for Working from Home.

The world is currently consumed with endless information about the Coronavirus. It is a time of uncertainty and it's hard to know when exactly things will go back to normal again. I'm currently doing my Masters Degree, and like many others now have to work from home to complete my degree. I have never worked at home before really, and it's safe to say that the struggle is real! I, like many other students, find some sort of strange comfort doing my assignments in the Library. It is something I definitely took for granted along with the ability to go to college and meet my classmates in person to discuss group projects. It has only been four days of self-isolation but as an extrovert, I do feel like I am going slightly crazy without human contact outside of my family.

Over the next few days, I have decided to keep my mind at ease I will be going through some topics which could in turn help someone else. (It also gives my mind something to do that isn't college work!!)

Today I am going to talk about a few things that have been helping me to stop procrastinate and get work done!!

1 - Make a clear workspace at home.

This is more important than I realised. My very first day working at home I just sat in bed with my laptop all day and trust me, it was the worst idea ever! Not only was I distracted by literally everything in my room, but being in bed made me a little bit too relaxed. I fell asleep twice and by the time it came around to bedtime I was wide awake and I was completely restless. So my advice is find yourself any other space! Even if it is just your kitchen table, work from there and keep your sleeping space separate from your workspace.

2 - Get into a Routine

Get yourself get into a proper routine. Plan a time to start work and and a time you want to finish at. Work your usual college/office hours. Tell yourself you will work from 9am to 6pm and after that leave the rest of the work until the next day. If you even want to be more flexible during the day assign your work hours to what times you feel you can get the best quality work done - your 'peak' times. Having some form of routine will help you to stay focused and motivated.

3 - Allow yourself to take a break.

I cannot stress this enough! Working from home for the first two days gave me a really blurry view of what was work and what was a break. I found myself consistently on my laptop for hours and at the end of it my brain just felt like mush. Give yourself breaks, go for a walk (working from home doesn't mean you can't go for a walk!!!), have a break while eating, have a coffee break, etc. Having suitable breaks to clear your head will prevent you from crashing and help you to focus more. Pomodoro is an excellent app I have been using on my laptop, which lets me know when to take a break from work.

4 - Turn off your Phone.

This ones self explanatory! It just takes one notification which can lead to hours of scrolling. Use your phone as a reward for your breaks/end of work day.

5 - Set Smaller/More Realistic Goals.

You are not going to be able to write an entire thesis today. Set yourself 200 words today. Continue this over the next few weeks and eventually it will be completed. Setting realistic expectations will prevent stress and it will stop procrastination as it makes a project less overwhelming.



Thank you for taking the time to read thought my blog post, and I really do hope some of these tips can help someone else out. Working from home is a lot more difficult than people realise, and procrastination is so easy to do! Hopefully once all of this chaos from the Coronavirus passes we can all get back into our normal routines soon!