The Ultimate Guide to Working From Home (+ Remote Work Tips)

Working from home is a gift, right up until the cat throws up on your computer. And your neighbor, who you can only assume is building a time machine, starts firing up all sorts of power tools. In those moments, remote work life feels more like a punishment than a miracle.

Remote work poses different risks and benefits. Plus, the popularity of this working style has only grown.

In fact, when I began working remotely as a digital nomad in 2017, there was still professional pushback, skepticism, and a general dismissive attitude toward remote work. Since then, I’ve been remotely working abroad, and I’ve even published a book on the topic.

For me and many others, remote work isn’t a trend; this lifestyle is a long-term choice that allows us to get exactly what we want out of our careers. You may need some help greasing the wheels, but I’m determined to help you feel the same from your remote work lifestyle.

Not everyone transitions into remote work smoothly, and that’s okay. Let’s explore the remote work trends, tips, and techniques that can help you get the most out of your remote work.

Table of Contents

What Remote Work Looks Like Today [Data]

Working remotely can take many different forms, but what does it look like for the “normal” remote worker?

From where remote workers work to how they’re getting dressed and how they interact with their team members, let’s see what the statistics say about remote workers today.

1. Of full-time employees surveyed in 2023, 12.7% are 100% remote (WFH Research).
2. Of full-time employees surveyed in 2023, 28% are in a hybrid remote work arrangement (WFH Research).
3. The number of reported days per week that employers allow their employees to work remotely peaked in 2022 and has declined in 2023 (WFH Research).
4. By 2024, the hybrid work model is expected to rise to 81% (AT&T).
5. Of remote workers surveyed, 98% would recommend remote work to others (Buffer).
6. Remote workers love the flexibility more than anything, with 22% of surveyed workers saying the flexibility in how they spend their time being the greatest benefit (Buffer).

Remote working encompasses people who work from home and also digital nomads who work from Airbnbs or hotels around the world.

Image Source

Sam Mallikarjunan, CEO of AI company OneScreen, tells how he manages to get work done even when people are around.

“If anyone else is going to be at home when you’re working, they just have to be clear that when you’re in your ‘office’ (in my case, my signal to the family is having headphones on), you’re working — even if it looks like and feels like you’re hanging out at home,” Mallikarjunan says.

He adds, “It’s easy to get distracted by the many things that have to be done around the house during the day.”

If working alongside other family members or housemates can’t be avoided, consider investing in home office equipment like noise-canceling headphones or room dividers to minimize distractions.

A dedicated office space can be pivotal in having fewer distractions.

6. Take clear breaks.

It can be so easy to get lost in your work as a telecommuter that you avoid breaks altogether. Don’t let the guilt of working in the building you sleep in prevent you from taking five minutes to relax.

However, rather than just opening YouTube and watching some comfort clips, use your breaks to get away from your desk.

Go for a walk, enjoy fresh air, or spend time with others who might also be in the house. Take breaks near natural light if at all possible for added mental stimulation.

Take Reforge’s Ginny Mineo’s advice. “Breaks, like making and eating lunch, can recharge you to do better work. Don’t assume you need to be working 100% of the time while you’re home to be more productive.”

7. Interact with other humans.

When you start working from home, you’ll likely miss the casual social interactions with colleagues you’re used to throughout the day.

When working from home, you don’t have the small talk and other activities that make each day at the office unique.

So what can you do? Communicate.

Fight boredom and loneliness by frequent communication with other employees. Reach out to them through video chat via apps like Zoom and Slack, a hosted phone system, or however else your company communicates.

Remember: You’re working from home, not the moon. Interacting with other people during the day is allowed, even if they’re not your colleagues. It’s a good idea to see another face during the day when most of your workday is solitary. So, use your breaks to interact with others.

“Go outside and find a human to interact with — ordering your coffee, running an errand, whatever. It keeps you sane,” says HubSpot’s Corey Wainwright.

8. Prepare meals the night before.

When you’re in your own home, it can be tempting to spend time preparing a nice breakfast and lunch for yourself, chopping and cooking included. Don’t use precious minutes making your food the day of work — cook it the night before.

Preparing food ahead of time ensures you can use your meal times to eat and that you aren’t performing non-work tasks that spend energy better used at your desk.

Digital Marketing Strategist Lindsay Kolowich, adds:

“Cooking at home is time you wouldn’t have spent meal prepping if you’d been in the office that day, and I find the minutes can add up in the end. To mitigate that, I try to cook and prep my meals the night before, just like I would for a day at the office.”

When it comes time to eat, have a genuine away-from-your-laptop lunch break.

9. Pick a definitive finishing time.

You might be under the impression that working from home establishes more work–life balance, but be careful with that assumption.

Working from home can also feel like being at a casino — you can get so caught up in your activity in a relaxing environment, that you lose complete track of time.

“If you work from home full-time (or regularly), it’s really easy to let your work life bleed into your personal life,” says Tyler Littwin, a graphic designer. “Maintaining a boundary is important for both halves of the equation.”

In lieu of coworkers whose packing up and leaving the office reminds you to do the same, set an alarm at the end of the day to indicate your normal workday is coming to an end.

You don’t have to stop at exactly that time, but knowing the work day is technically over can help you start the process of saving your work and calling it quits for the evening.

10. Eat and sleep.

What is the biggest perk to working from home? One of the biggest benefits for some people (me), is complete access to the kitchen.

As soon as I take a break, I automatically drift towards the kitchen for some snacks.

An unhealthy diet can affect productivity and drain energy. When I switched to a healthier diet, it made me function better and get the most from my routine.

So eat well when working from home.

It’s also vital that you keep to a proper sleep schedule. Save binge-watching your favorite shows for the weekend. With the right food to keep energy levels high and sound sleep to refresh your body and mind, you can successfully work from home.

You can find more work-from-home tips in the books listed in this best remote-work books article.

Working From Home Tips

1. Get started early.

When working in an office, your morning commute can help you wake up and feel ready to work by the time you get to your desk. At home, however, the transition from your pillow to your computer can be much more jarring.

Believe it or not, one way to work from home productively is to dive into your to-do list as soon as you wake up.

Simply getting a project started first thing in the morning can be the key to making progress on it gradually throughout the day. Otherwise, you’ll prolong breakfast and let the morning sluggishness wear away your motivation.

Kolowich says, “When I work from home, I wake up, put on a pot of coffee, and start working immediately — much earlier than normal working hours. I only start making breakfast once I’ve hit a wall or need a break. I’m a morning person and find I can get a ton done in the early morning hours, so this works really well for me.”

Take to heart the words of HubSpot Graphic Designer Anna Faber-Hammond, who says, “Get fully ready for the day and pretend you’re actually going to work. Otherwise, you might find yourself back in bed.”

5. Structure your day like you would in the office.

When working from home, you’re your own personal manager and can choose your working hours.

However, without things like an in-person meeting schedule to break up your day, you can easily lose focus or burn out.

To stay on schedule, segment what you’ll do and when for the day. If you have an online calendar, create personal events and reminders that tell you when to shift gears and start on new tasks. Google Calendar makes this easy.

Structuring your day as you would in the office also saves you from work creep. With this structure in place, working from home will not cause your work to invade your personal life.

“Are mornings for writing while you’re in the office? Use the same remote work schedule at home. This structure will help keep you focused and productive,” says Ginny Mineo.

6. Choose a dedicated workspace.

Just because you’re not working at an office doesn’t mean you can’t, well, have an office.

Rather than cooping yourself up in your room or on the couch in the living room — spaces associated with leisure time — dedicate a specific room or surface in your home to working remotely.

No matter the space or location, have an area of the home to work and stay committed to it throughout the day. And, after choosing your dedicated workspace, make the most of it by making it quiet.

Mallikarjunan says, “Have a place you go specifically to work. It could be a certain table, chair, local coffee shop — some place that’s consistently your ‘workspace.’ It helps you get into the right frame of mind.”

7. Don’t stay at home.

Is your home office just not getting it done for you? Take your work-from-home life a step further and get out of the house.

Coffee shops, libraries, public lounges, coworking spaces, and similar Wi-Fi-enabled spaces can help you simulate the energy of an office so you can stay productive even when you don’t sit in an official workplace.

Content Marketer Corey Wainwright, comments, “I get out of my home to work and go to an establishment with actual tables, chairs, and people. It helps simulate the work environment and removes the distractions I typically have at home, like the urge to finally clean my room, do laundry, or watch TV.”

8. Make it harder to use social media.

Social media is designed to make it easy for us to open and browse quickly. As remote workers, though, this convenience can be detrimental to our remote work productivity.

To counteract your social networks’ ease of use during work hours, remove them from your browser shortcuts and log out of every account on your phone or computer.

You might even consider working primarily in a private (or, if you’re using Chrome, an “Incognito”) browser window.

This ensures you stay signed out of all your accounts, and each web search doesn’t autocomplete the word you’re typing. It’s a guarantee that you won’t be tempted into taking too many social breaks during the day.

Also, many have found it helpful to shut off social media notifications during the hours they work from home.

Alec Biedrzycki, product marketer at AirTable, says, “I remove all social networks from my toolbar bookmarks… you can get sucked in without knowing it, so eliminating the gateway to those networks keeps me on track.”

9. Commit to doing more.

Projects always take longer than you initially think they will. For that reason, you’ll frequently get done less than you set out to do.

So, just as you’re encouraged to overestimate how many work hours you’ll spend doing one thing, you should also overestimate how many things you’ll do during the day.

Even if you come up short of your goal, you’ll still come out of that day with a solid list of tasks filed under ‘complete.’

“On days I’m working from home, I tend to slightly overcommit on what I’ll deliver that day. So even if I get the urge to go do something else, I know I’ve already committed a certain amount of work to my team,” says Corey Wainwright.

10. Work when you’re at your most productive.

Nobody sprints through their work from morning to evening — your motivation will naturally ebb and flow throughout the day.

However, when you’re working from home, it’s all the more important to know when those ebbs and flows will take place and plan your schedule around it.

To capitalize on your most productive periods, save your more challenging tasks for when you know you’ll be in the right headspace for them. Use slower points of the day to knock out the easier logistical tasks on your plate.

Verily Magazine calls these tasks “small acts of success,” and they can help build your momentum for the heavier projects that are waiting for you later on.

Product Designer Brittany Leaning, says about her routine, “For me, the most productive times of the day are usually early in the morning or late at night. I recognize this and try to plan my day accordingly. Also, music that pumps me up doesn’t hurt.”

The responsibility is on you to know when you are most productive and build your work schedule around the periods of maximum productivity.

11. Save calls for the afternoon.

Sometimes, I’m so tired in the morning that I don’t even want to hear my voice — let alone talk to others with it.

You shouldn’t have to give yourself too much time to become productive in the morning, but you can give yourself some extra time before working directly with others.

If you’re struggling to develop a reasonable work schedule for yourself as a telecommuter, start with the solitary tasks in the morning.

Save your phone calls, meetings, Google Hangouts, meetings, video calls, and other collaborative work for when you’ve officially “woken up.”

Senior Marketing Director James Gilbert advises that you “Take advantage of morning hours to crank through meaty projects without distractions, and save any calls or virtual meetings for the afternoon.”

12. Focus on one distraction.

There’s an expression out there that says, “If you want something done, ask a busy person.”

The bizarre but true rule of productivity is that the busier you are, the more you’ll do.

It’s like Newton’s law of inertia: If you’re in motion, you’ll stay in motion. If you’re at rest, you’ll stay at rest. And busy people are in fast enough motion that they have the momentum to complete anything that comes across their desks.

Unfortunately, it’s hard to find things to help you reach that level of busyness when you’re at home — your motivation can just swing so easily. HubSpot’s principal marketing manager, Pam Vaughan, suggests focusing on something that maintains your rhythm (in her case, it’s her daughter).

She says, “When I work from home, my 20-month-old daughter is home with me, too. It seems counterintuitive, but because I have to manage taking care of her and keeping her happy and entertained while still getting my work done, the pressure helps to keep me focused.”

Vaughan says when her daughter napping or entertaining herself, she goes into super-productive work mode.

“The ‘distraction’ of my daughter (I mean that in the most loving way possible) means I can’t possibly succumb to some of the other common distractions of home,” she says.

13. Plan out what you’ll be working on ahead of time.

Spending time figuring out what you’ll do today can take away from actually doing those things. And, you’ll have planned your task list so recently that you can be tempted to change your schedule on the fly.

It’s important to let your agenda change if you need it to, but it’s equally important to commit to a schedule that outlines every assignment before you begin.

Try solidifying your schedule the day before, making it feel more official when you wake up the next day to get started on it.

“Plan out your week in advance to optimize for the environments you’ll be in,” says Niti Shah.

14. Use technology to stay connected.

Working from home might make you feel cut off from the larger operations happening in your company.

Instant messaging and videoconferencing tools like Slack and Zoom can make it easy to check in with other remote employees and remind you how your work contributes to the big picture.

It’s also vital to invest in the right technology. For instance, a slow router can take the steam right off your enthusiasm to work, so it’s better to invest in a high-performance router.

CMO and former HubSpot employee, Meghan Keaney Anderson, remarks:

“At HubSpot, we use Slack to keep conversations going remotely, Trello to keep us organized around priorities, and Google Hangouts plus Webex to make remote meetings more productive. Getting the right stack of support tools to fit your work style makes a big difference.”

15. Match your music to the task at hand.

During the week, music is the soundtrack to your career (cheesy, but admit it, it’s true).

And, at work, the best playlists are diverse playlists — you can listen to music that matches the energy of the project you’re working on to boost your productivity.

Video game soundtracks are excellent at doing this. In the video game, the lyric-free music is designed to help you focus; it only makes sense that it would help you focus on your work.

Want some other genres to spice up your routine and make you feel focused? Take them from Ginny Mineo, a startup marketer, who offers her work music preferences below.

“When I’m powering through my inbox, I need some intense and catchy rap/R&B (like Nicki Minaj or Miley Cyrus) blasting through my headphones, but when I’m writing, Tom Petty is the trick. Finding what music motivates and focuses me for different tasks (and then sticking to those playlists for those tasks) has completely changed my WFH productivity,” Mineo says.

16. Use laundry as a work timer.

You might have heard that listening to just two or three songs in the shower can help you save water.

And it’s true; hearing a few of your favorite songs start and end, one after another, can remind you how long you’ve been in the bathroom and shorten your wash time.

Why bring this up? Because the same general principle can help you stay on task when working from home. But instead of three songs off your music playlist, run your laundry instead.

Doing your laundry is a built-in timer for your home. So, use the time to start and finish something from your to-do list before changing the load.

Committing to one assignment during the wash cycle and another during the dry process can train you to work smarter on tasks that you might technically have all day to tinker with. And when you know there’s a timer, it makes it hard for distractions to derail your work.

People Ops Manager Emma Brudner, notes:

“I also usually do laundry when I work from home, and I set mini-deadlines for myself corresponding to when I have to go downstairs to switch loads. If I’m working on an article, I tell myself I’ll get to a certain point before the wash cycle ends. Then I set another goal for the dryer.”

Staying Productive While Working From Home

While you might miss the office, working full-time from home can be good for you. For one, you don’t have to worry about commuting every day, and you can better care for your loved ones by being around more often.

The work-from-home tips that we’ve shared can help you make the most of your solo routine. Try out a few, and you might find that you’re just as productive working from home as you are in the office.