It happens to most of us. You start working from home thinking this is going to be a breeze and you’ll keep working hard.
At first, you do. You work hard, you’re well organized, you’re meeting your goals, and you’ve got a decent routine going. Life couldn’t be better in the comfort of your own home.
But then things aren’t so rosy anymore. You start to slow things down and somehow distractions increase. You’re no longer working as hard or as smart as you used to, and your work begins to suffer for it. You realize what’s going on – or rather what’s not going on – and you want to stop it.
You want to get back to your previous levels of consistency and dedication.
And that’s how you end up here, reading this article and looking for answers to your problem.
Well, worry no more. Here are three likely reasons why you’re not maintaining a strong work ethic. This article also provides tips on what you can do about it and get back to successfully working from home.
You Lose Sight of Your Initial Reason
In many cases, what affects your work ethic is a loss of your initial motivation, your ‘why’. You start to forget why you decided to work from home in the first place.
You wanted to be an online worker for a reason, right? People who want an online career have a very clear reason for choosing this path.
It might be because you have a small family and want to be able to work from home. Or perhaps you have health issues that prevent you from working a 9-5 day in a high-stress environment. Or maybe you simply can’t afford to commute to and from a city every single day.
There are many unique and personal reasons why you decide to be an online worker.
At the same time, work can get tough for various reasons as well. These include:
- Having to undertake new and more complex tasks than you’re used to.
- Life getting in the way with emergencies and personal matters you have to prioritize.
- Having shorter deadlines within which you must deliver results.
- Being physically incapable of doing what you do best.
These circumstances and many more can make you lose focus. It’s therefore important to know your initial goal and have a way to never forget it. Knowing your goal, and having it clear in your mind helps you maintain a healthy approach to work. You can achieve this by:
- Writing it on a whiteboard and keeping the board clearly visible in your work area.
- Setting reminders of your goal on your laptop or smartphone on a daily basis.
- Regularly considering the alternatives and realizing that you’re already in the ideal situation.
To maintain a strong work ethic and keep sight of your goal, you need to develop the right habits. The Small Revolution school helps you with this and much more. You can learn everything you need to succeed remotely through its in-depth courses.
Enroll in the Successful Behaviors and Habits course today to learn how to maintain your work ethic.
You Work Until You Burnout
While it’s important to remain focused and keep a certain level of consistency, you can overdo it. Sometimes, if you’re not careful and you forget about yourself, you can burnout. This, in turn, affects your work ethic, slowing you down and leaving you confused and exhausted.
You work and work without taking your mental and physical health into consideration. You become so focused on your remote work that you neglect what enables you to perform it.
When you burnout, try as you may, you can’t work like you usually do. You push yourself, but nothing gives. You think that by carrying on working you’ll get back to normal, but that’s just not true.
It’s important to remember that you’re not a machine and you’re not expected to work like one. You’re a human being who needs a clear mind and a healthy body to work optimally.
One of the keys to a strong work ethic is maintaining a healthy balance between work and life. It’s important to give yourself a moment to breathe once in a while and clear your mind. You can’t keep your high levels of consistency with headaches and fatigue.
To maintain a healthy balance, consider:
- Giving yourself daily moments when you take a short break, excluding lunchtime.
- Keeping strict hours of when your workday ends. There’s no point tiring yourself through the evening.
- Spending quality time with your loved ones before and after work.
- Taking a walk during the day and enjoying the natural beauty around you.
- Taking deep breaths when you start to feel overwhelmed.
- Exercising or dancing to some of your favorite songs on a daily basis.
- Rewarding yourself when you complete a task by enjoying your favorite snack, show, or song.
- Communicating with other people online or through phone calls regularly.
- Sleeping when you feel tired. Sleep is the body’s way of rebooting and checking that everything is functioning well.
Working harder isn’t always the answer for a strong work ethic. Sometimes, you just need to work smarter and make time for yourself. The work will be there, just be sure that you’re ready and able to be there as well.
You Lack Inspiration
To maintain a strong work ethic, you also need to be inspired to carry on working. Lack of inspiration can have you:
- Neglecting work and telling yourself you’ll do it later.
- Simply doing the bare minimum.
- Wondering what else you could be doing.
- Easily getting distracted by everything and anything.
- Doing everything on your to-do list for the day except the actual online work.
- Producing disappoint results.
Luckily, there’s no shortage of inspiration on the internet. The web is filled with quality content that can get you going when you’re not galvanized. You can:
- Read articles about other online workers’ experiences and what keeps them going.
- Find TED Talks on inspiration.
- Stream music from a playlist that energizes you.
- Print or write down inspirational quotes and pin them on a wall.
- Ask friends, family, and colleagues for their sources of inspiration.
- Follow inspiring people like Jay Shetty.
- Watch YouTube videos with inspirational monologues from movie scenes and celebrities.
And if that’s still not enough to maintain the fire you initially had, remember these simple facts:
- Doing the hard parts today means you get to do the easy work tomorrow.
- Pushing tasks till the ever-illusive ‘tomorrow’ means you wasted precious time. And wasted time means lost earnings from your remote work.
Ensure that you have a positive outlook on life so that you can get positive results in your work.
In Summary
You might not have as strong a work ethic as you did before, but you can get it back. You can:
- Remember why you chose this path and never forget it after losing sight of your vision.
- Learn how to balance work and life so that you produce the best results.
- Find inspiration all around you when you’re feeling like you can’t carry on.
Developing and maintaining a happy, healthy, and hardworking ethic is an integral part of work and life. It’s something that will help you achieve your goal in the best possible way.
Remember that being the best requires you to be strong. No matter how challenging things get, having a winning ethic will pave the way for success.
