Positive side of "Work From Home"

"Right state of mind is an extremely important trigger to support, sustain and scale up remote work or WFH."

In this COVID-19 pandemic situation, companies all over the world allow their employees to work from home.

Initially many employers were facing problems while giving employees access to all the tools they’d need to work from home. But after everyone settled in, what quickly became apparent to many office-based teams is that employees could be productive and focused when not in the office—in many cases, even more so. Employers everywhere began to understand that remote work really works.

As this WFH is a part of our life now, I thought to start a series of WFH related blogs that might be helpful to other employees as well as the candidate who is going to be a part of corporate life.

In this blog, I am going to tell you the positive side of working from home that I observed over the last 1.5 years.

1. Better Work-Life balance

A lot of work that can be done remotely nowadays can also be done on a flexible schedule. For example, if you’re a developer or a content creator, you can most likely do your coding or writing whenever it suits you as long as you meet your deadlines. You can still put in your nine hours without starting at 9 AM.

You can take breaks at any moment, feel no rush to hang up on your family members when they call and eat lunch at any weird time you want. Whether it’s dropping kids off at school, running some errands, doing workouts in the morning, these tasks (and more!) are all easier to balance when you work from home.

If you need to work in specific hours, still you should make sure to get a break. In this break even if this is for 10 minutes you can use this time to do something which is not possible in the office, like playing a tune on your guitar, taking a refreshing power nap. This will make you more refreshed than you would after 10 minutes at your desk surfing any social media account.

2. Location independence

When you are working from home that doesn't mean you have to work sitting inside your home. You can take care of your job while traveling, enjoying the great outdoors (thanks to long laptop battery life and tethering to your phone), or even chilling out on a beach. I remember my few friends were working from locations like Goa, Gokarna, Dharamshala, etc. for few days in this pandemic.

3. Saving money

Of course, you’ll see an immediate difference in your bank account when you are working from home. There are few following areas that actually make this difference.

• You won't have to spend money on your day to day travelling to and from the office.
• You won’t have to force yourself into a formal dress and polished shoes anymore.
• No more separate wardrobes for work and for the rest of your life.
• You can also save on food costs since you’ll easily be able to make lunch or coffee at the home.
• The big difference is made when it comes to your rent part, this single part will save around 30k-1Lac expense annually.

These savings add up and put more money back into your pocket. This statement reminds me of the "Rich Dad Poor Dad" book :-)

4. Forget crowds and traffic

My average one-way commuting time was 30 min—that’s nearly an hour each day spent getting to and from work, and it really adds up. Some commuters face much longer commute times depending on their location.

More than 30 minutes of daily one-way commuting is associated with increased levels of stress and anxiety, and research shows that commuting 10 miles to work each day is associated with health issues like:

• Higher cholesterol
• Elevated blood sugar
• Increased risk of depression

Saving this commute time helps you to support your mental and physical health. The time savings can allow you to focus on priorities outside of work, like getting extra sleep in the morning, spending more time with family, getting in a workout, or eating a healthy breakfast.

5. You can make your own office

Work from home setup doesn’t mean you have to fill a corner of your living room with a clunky desk, a huge monitor, and an ugly rolling chair. You can fit your office wherever it fits in your life. I turned our terrace room into my office from where I can easily get healthy sunlight in the morning and can also enjoy the sunset in the evening.

6. You Can Keep in Touch More Effectively

As you don’t have everyone physically around you all the time, you become much more aware of the importance of keeping in touch. Now instead of walking around multiple times into your office to talk about the project with your colleague, you know that you need to write him/her or at least have a video chat conversation. So, either in the process of composing your message or planning the meeting, you’ll refine your thoughts and questions and end up saving time for both of you when you do have that discussion.

7. Increased Productivity and Performance

Working from home usually leads to fewer interruptions, fewer office politics, a quieter noise level, and less (or more efficient) meetings. Add in the lack of a commute, and remote workers typically have more time and fewer distractions, which leads to increased productivity—a huge benefit of working from home for both employees and employers alike.

8. Freedom to wear whatever we want

There are no restrictions to wear formal shoes, shirts, and pants. You get to wear those sweatpants from college with the letters peeling off or the three-fourth and track pants which I assume everyone is most comfortable in.

9. You can stay more focused

With some willpower and a steady routine, you’ll soon learn to avoid being distracted by the TV or any other distractions. And, in fact, you should find yourself getting more done when you work remotely. That’s because you can control your working situation much more—you don’t have to worry about co-workers stopping by to “just ask a quick question” (and took 20 minutes...), an unnecessary time waste when you grab a cup of coffee.

10. More time with loved ones

The biggest benefit of WFH from my perspective is - I can give more time or personally meet my family as well as friends which was previously happening only 1-2 times in a month. Take care of a sick significant other at home, be ready for your kids earlier in the day, meet your school friends, or simply get some quiet time to yourself!

That's it for this blog. Hope you guys also found a few of these points similar in your lifestyle. Thank you for reading!!