Just because you work from home, doesn’t mean you can’t get bored or stymied during your work day. If you write copy or have to come up with clever quips for social media, you may also experience a brain freeze or writer’s block. What can you do when these issues arise and pose a challenge to presenting your best work? I’ve answered this question before. However, it seems to be one that keeps popping up. Although many freelancers have the ideal work-from-home situation, many are becoming bored with their surroundings. Here are a few quick pick-me-ups that can help you:
- Change your location. Sometimes you just need to get out of your home office to break the boredom. If you aren’t making calls and don’t need total silence, work
on the deck. Work in a room with a skylight. Work on the grass in the back yard. Just switch it up. - Do what excites you for 10-15min. Do you enjoy dancing or singing? How about chatting with a friend or colleague about your day? Whatever you enjoy (that’s positive), take a bit of time out to do that and you’ll have a renewed sense of purpose and can get back to work.
- Take a walk outside. Getting outside of your own home office or home is just as important as getting out of a work office or cubicle. You will become refreshed by the smell of fresh air and flowers. If you live in New York, just pray for rain! LOL Just kidding, shout out to my friends in the Boogie Down Bronx, love y’all.
- Exercise is a wonderful way to shake off boredom, steam and a few pounds. It’s a great habit to start whenever you’re bored or stressed. Why not call a friend and ask if they’d like to work out with you. You work from home, y’all can do that! 🙂
- Turn on YouTube and listen to your favorite song! I love doing this. I LOVE old school R&B music and was just listening to Bon Bon Vie by TS Monk (1980). I love music so much, I don’t even have a favorite song! Do this and it should definitely take you out of your rut. If you don’t like music, call me so we can get you a good shrink. 🙂
Feel free to add your tips in the comments below.
This is Shilonda Downing, signing out for Virtual Work Team LLC!
Great post Shilonda! My favorite tip is turning on music. I find that I do this when I am in real need of creativity, or to be honest just need to get the juices flowing when working on any project.
One tip that has helped me is to step away for an hour and doing some reading. I tend to read books regarding business, but have been known to sneak in the occasional biography or thriller.
Another tip that I like to use is just taking some time to play with my kids. A child imagination is a wonderful tool that at times when we are playing they give me great ideas. I can come back to any project feeling positive, and usually knock things out of the ball park.
Thank you so much for sharing your pick me ups!
Teri
Thanks, Shilonda, for the post. Working from home tends to make you feel like you need to spend every waking moment drumming up business or managing the business you have. The post reminds us that it is okay to add a bit of balance to the whole affair.
I particularly like the tip about contacting a friend (or family) to chat. I’ve never considered that a possibility, and as a result my relationships are being neglected while I’m trying to make this virtual thing work. Thanks for that reminder.
I try to make sure that I get up and walk around about every hour or so, even if it is only to go get some water. This gets my joints moving, and then it breaks up the tasks I’m doing so that I can kind of reset my brain and be more or less refreshed for the next task.