The 7 Biggest Challenges Remote Workers Face

Advantages of Remote Work.

No soul-crushing commute. No managers or co-workers hanging over your shoulder. No one stealing your lunch from the office fridge. Remote work is wonderful.

Remote Work: Not All Rainbows and Unicorns.

A recent report from the United Nations International Labour Organization found that while employees are more productive when they work outside of the conventional office, they're also more vulnerable to:

working longer hours a more intense work pace

work-home interference greater stress

Working Too MuchRemote workers are more likely to overwork. If you work for

yourself, you might be in never-ending sales mode, which can be exhausting, says author and coach Jeff Gothelf.

says Conrado Lamas, CMO at Carts Guru.

There is always something to be solved–and when you have an office routine, it’s easier to leave what you do at the workplace.

When you work from home, your office is where you live.

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How to Avoid Overworking

Set appointments on your calendar for the end of the day.

Set up reminders to take breaks.

Create physical boundaries between you and your workspace.

Turn off notifications on your phone and computer.

Be clear with your team on when you’re leaving.

Prioritizing Work

Remote workers need to be self-motivated experts at

time management, because we don’t have others constantly

overlooking our work or managing our time for us.

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How to Make Sure You Get theMost Important Work Done

Limit the number of tasks you plan to do each day.

Eat the frog. Your “frog” is your biggest, most important task, the one you are most likely to procrastinate on.

Manage your energy, not your time.

Install distraction-limiting tools.

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Interruptions: You Have a Family, Pets, and/or a Doorbell

The good news is, when you work from home, you avoid co-workers dropping by your desk and other office interruptions. The bad news is you’ll likely have to deal with other kinds of interruptions and distractions, whether it’s the UPS delivery person needing your signature or in-laws dropping by unannounced. This is doubly true when kids are involved.

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How to deal with interruptions at home

Set up a kind of signalthat lets others knowwhen you’re in focus

mode.

Explain why it’simportant for you toavoid interruptions.

For young kids, gettingchildcare is a must.

Train your kids andsignificant other to be

self-sufficient and occupy themselves.

Keep consistent work hours.

Escape. If all else fails, try working out of a

co-working space, the library, or a coffee shop.

If you don’t have family members home with you when you’re working, you might have the opposite problem: Isolation. Even with internet access and tools like Slack, you might still develop “cabin fever” from being in the same place for too long all by yourself.

Loneliness and Lack of Human Interaction

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How to Not Feel Isolated WhenWorking From Home

Include social breaks inyour schedule.

Try working atco-working spaces or

coffee shops.

Be more intentionalabout joining local groups

or organizations.

Communication Issues andBeing Out of the LoopWhen the bulk of your communication happens via email and the like, it doesn't take much for bad blood to develop unless everyone is making their best effort to the contrary, say Basecamp founders Jason Fried and David Heinemeier. The only real solution is to communicate as much as possible–clarifying anything that could be a misunderstanding–and to be proactive in speaking up.

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Time Zone Differences

Related to being or feeling out of the loop: Those terrible time zones. You might be waking up just when your teammate is going to bed. That means you can’talways rely on your fellow team member to be available to answer a pressing

question or solve any other immediate need. The solution? Fried and Heinemeier recommend teams have a 4-hour overlap. Remote workers need to be flexible

when working with others in different time zones.

Technology Hiccups

Nothing makes a remote worker shake in fear as much as an internet outage. Or, perhaps,

when your computer breaks. For peace of mind–and to avoid delays in your work–have a backup plan. A mobile hotspot device like

a MiFi or a cell phone plan that allows tethering can save you when your internet goes out.

A backup computer–or maybe even a tablet–can get you through the day until you can get your

computer fixed.

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Bad Health Habits

There's no magic pill for this one either. You just have to be moremindful when working from home about your health habits. You

can set reminders for yourself in your calendar or to-do app to eata salad or do some yoga. One app that can really help is Fitbolt,a Chrome extension that regularly reminds you to take a break,

stretch, drink water, and so on.

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To learn more about remote work and productivity, visit

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