Three Skills I’ve Honed While Working from Home:

1. Goal-setting

Is your goal at work today to communicate more efficiently with leadership? Is the goal related better with your peers? Are you seeking personal improvement in a specific area? When I work from home, I find it even easier to track and keep personal goals, especially those that pertain to work. I can proudly write my goals, expectations, and outlooks for myself clearly on the board by my desk -- and with no chance of lurking coworkers, I can be candid, vivid, and earnest in my goal-setting. 

2. Organization

Before WFH, I had an easier time compartmentalizing work and home and two separate entities. Work became the place I personally emphasized. When I was there, I wanted to succeed. I would put myself out there, dress nicely, and show myself and others respect whenever I could. Which, what did that leave home to be?

Now that I’m here during the day, my house is now a busy, productive place instead of only existing as an external manifestation of my sense of rest-outside-of-work. It matters to me a lot more now that my house is clean, well-organized, and full of thoughtful, useful spaces. Which has allowed my work space to become super-organized as well -- no longer a desk jammed with all things that could be considered “work”, my home office is a well-refined, carefully-executed retreat that evokes a productive mindset.

3. Self-efficacy

Working from home, it’s a lot easier for me to distinguish what happens to me at work from what I do at work. For some people, work is simply a place you show up to in the morning. But not in the work from home environment. I have to track my goals extra tightly and be able to consistently communicate my progress clearly to stay on track. I work hard because I hold myself to it. That kind of self-moderation is a useful skill in a lot of facets of life, but especially work.