Working from home undoubtedly has many advantages. However, in order to make it as productive as when you’re physically present in the office, you have to work under proper conditions.

This is not to say that you need to put up a barbed wire fence around yourself, but there’s a number of small tweaks which may significantly help you when you’re working remotely.

Check out: 6 Steps to Make Working from Home Work

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Glossary

• commute (n) – a regular journey of some distance to and from one’s place of work
• sabotage – deliberately destroy, damage, or obstruct (something), especially for political or military advantage
• languish – lose or lack vitality; grow weak
• errand – a short journey undertaken in order to deliver or collect something, especially on someone else’s behalf
• take something on – undertake a task or responsibility, especially a difficult one

Think about it

Answer the questions below.

• What are some most obvious benefits of working from home?
• What does the author say about changing your working routine while working from home?
• What should you do if you want to work remotely but live with your family?
• What attitude should you adapt toward running errands?
• In what way can technology be helpful while working from home?
• What does the author say about “being present?”

Practice makes perfect

Fill in the blank spaces with the phrasal verbs in bold. You may need to change the form of the verb to make it fit in the sentence.

take on   –   be behind on sth  –   throw sb off   –   roll out   –   set sth aside   –   sleep in   –  go by   –   give in

Business owners and managers have their own set of challenges to think through, including how working from home should be ________ across an organization.

It’s very tempting to ________ an extra hour or two, but that can ________ you ________ task for the rest of the day and can be counterproductive to using your work from home day to get more done.

If you have an extra bedroom, ________ that space ________ to get your work done.

Before you know it, a few hours will have ________ and you will ________ totally ________ ______ your day.

Be clear to friends and family that you are still at work, just in a different space. Resist the temptation to ________ when they ask you to run errands you wouldn’t usually do or to ________ responsibilities you wouldn’t be open to if you were working at the office instead.

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