It’s not deja vu. They’re everywhere. No matter where you work, there always seems to be a few familiar characters hanging around.
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The Work From Home Freelancer was created by who spends her days drawing and screenprinting at her home in Denton, Texas.
The way we work from home is pretty new, but the house as a workplace is not. Telecommuting was first proposed in 1973 by former NASA engineer Jack Nilles, who thought of it primarily as an alternative to transportation. When he penned his case-study The Telecommunications-Transportation Tradeoff, American cities were booming. The 1950s and 60s had popularized the car. The 70s made it ubiquitous. However, the 1974 OPEC crisis led to increasing gas prices. Reliance on cars started to concern some people.
In the present day, avoiding commutes is still cited as a reason people work from home. Cities are getting more expensive. People are moving further away from their jobs in . Increased traffic congestion stretches short distances into long commutes. But the way we work has also changed. Freelance and contract work is on the rise, and the internet has made it easier than ever to work from where ever there’s access.
But, as always, there is a trade-off.
The issues of working from home
I think a lot about working from home. All of us at Toggl do; we’re a fully remote company. A number of us were freelancers before Toggl. For most, working from home is not an entirely new concept.
Working from home is fantastic, many of which I’m sure you could guess, even if you don’t work from home. But there are some not so great things. Every 6 months, we do a workplace-wide survey to check up and see how people feel about the company and their work. On every survey, at least some people report feeling lonely or isolated.
Every 6 months, we do a workplace-wide survey to check up and see how people feel about the company and their work. On every survey, at least some people report feeling lonely or isolated.
It makes sense. As distracting as offices can be, the distraction can sometimes be good for your mental health. Spending face-to-face time with other people is good for you. Offices automatically enforce face-to-face time.
Healthy freelancer lifestyle
As a freelancer or remote worker, you are wholly reliant on yourself to schedule most your human interaction. If you’re also responsible for bringing in jobs, planning your work day and motivating yourself to get the work done, any additional responsibilities can be draining. On the freelance scale of priorities, earning money and its associated activities is number 1. Having a healthy lifestyle often falls near the bottom.
One’s ability to spend time with other people and pursue a healthy lifestyle is dependent on many factors. Listing them would be beyond the scope of this post. But their benefits are universal. Taking small steps towards caring for your mental well being is all we can ask. Our suggestion is to start working these little things into a routine.
We are . If you search ‘how to be a better freelancer’ or ‘how to get work done from home,’ I will almost guarantee that every list or article mentions routine. Taking care of yourself needs to be a part of yours.
Like I said, start small! Make a list of things you can do for yourself which could help improve your mental health. Maybe your lack of social interaction is hurting your mood. Perhaps you’re just spending too much time at your house.
Once you identify a bigger issue, you can break it down into smaller bits, then add those bits to a checklist.
For example, if you’re struggling with a lack of social interaction, maybe the first goal could be finding a group of freelancers you can work with or even just talk to. The research of discovering a group can be your small, achievable first step. Set aside a chunk of your day to knocking that off your checklist. Set a timer! You can then repeat this method of breaking down the big tasks into smaller bits until you’ve found the social support that’s right for you.
No matter your problem, breaking down your goals into small achievable tasks is a great way to make daunting goals doable. Plus if you continue doing this every day, you’ll form a habit. So what are you waiting for? It’s time to take care of yourself.
What comes to mind when you hear the word startup?
It’s the beginning of a new year and resolutions season is here. If your goals include improving your work life, you may wanna give these tips from famous robots a look.
From time-to-time, we all like to have a little good-humored fun. If you spend your time with a developer, you might be tempted to mess with them.
Looking for great books to help advance your career? Do you want help transforming into a productivity machine? Well then look further my friend, because these books will probably not help. But if you want a little bad advice, look no further…
This comic was created by Elizabeth Pich, half of the talent behind for the Toggl Team. Often, we wear ourselves thin for our jobs, giving it all at the expense of our health and joy. It’s hard to . It’s hard to . We attribute this frustration to having the wrong job or not doing what we love, but stressors can wear you down even if you have your dream job.
Stressors can wear you down even if you have your dream job.
It doesn’t matter what you do. Take time to do something different that makes you smile. It could be art classes or therapy or cooking a beautiful meal. Maybe you don’t know what that thing is yet. But what a treat! You get to try lots of things to find out precisely what makes you happy. Maybe trying new things is your thing! So take a break and make some nice memories.
A Job is a Job
Another day breaks, you pour out of bed.
Not a minute awake and in creeps the dread.
The dread of the world waiting outside your door
With its deadlines, appointments, its meetings, its chores!
You feel uninspired as you sit in your cube.
A few minutes of joy watching cat clips on YouTube.
When you’re colleagues ask a friendly “How do you do?”
You simply say “Fine”, but you’d like to say “Blue”.
You say to yourself, that’s the way it must be.
There’s duties and schedules, and your kid’s dentist fees.
A job is a job and a job must be done!
There’s no time to sit around and simply have fun!
So you slumpity-slump your way through each day.
And you gripe, and you type, as you labor away.
Now, this will not do. No, this simply won’t do!
Who’s running this show, here? It’s you, my dear, you!
It’s time to start asking what do you want to do?
Plan some time for yourself, two, three hours a day.
Leave your smartphone at home – go out and play.
Why have we stopped playing? How silly, how wrong!
To think growing up means being earnest all day long.
Remember, you liked to go out and dance?
You once played guitar in that weird indie band.
Or painting, whatever did happen to that?
Strange how all of those passions fell flat.
Now, a job is a job, and a job must be done.
But a you is a you, and you must also have fun.
So take a week off, one, or two, six, or eight!
This is your mental health – and that simply can’t wait.
But wait! It’s not easy when money is tight.
That’s true, but you can still take that art course at night.
If risks aren’t your thing, work part-time for a while.
In your new found free time, do things that make you smile.
Sure there’s bosses, and partners, and clients to whoo.
But in the grand scheme of things, you’re working for you.
And if they don’t get it – that self-care must be.
Well then, good riddance, there’s other job-fish in the sea!
Taking care of yourself is the first job of all.
If you don’t work at that, soon you’ll have no job at all.
So, eat a grand meal, sing a song, learn Malay.
Not just once in a while – do these things every day.
Yes, a job is a job and a job must be done.
But taking care of yourself is job Number One
We do comics like this every week, so keep an eye on our or !
Working from home: the most profitable way to avoid weather. While we think working from home can be great, there are a few noticeable differences between office and home work…
This comic was created by James Chapman for the Toggl Team – the people behind
Working from home can be amazing, but it can also be a bottomless pit of distraction. To avoid being sucked into the endless void, it’s important to . Setting boundaries and maintaining a routine are both key. You may find, with the right prep, you’re actually able to accomplish much more at home!
Ah geez, that’s neat! Do you have any more comics?
What a wild, totally random coincidence you asked! We do have even more comics and infographics!
If you’re a frequent traveler, you may want to check out our guide to using lifehacking (aka common sense) to make your . We’ve also used dinosaurs to explain the .
We’ve also done an epic piece about how the . If that sort of thing is your jam, you may also enjoy – a highly realistic, deeply immoral game about life in the gritty startup scene of Silicon Valley.
We’ll also keep doing these comics, so like us on and follow us on if you want these delivered directly to your eyeballs! We also post on if you want to pretend you’re doing work.
If you have any ideas for the next one, or if you think we’ve missed an essential part of working from home, let us know where it says “Comments”.
Feel like you’re not getting enough done? Do minutes, hours, days disappear like they’re Game of Thrones characters at a wedding? The solution? Time management – but it can be tricky to remember.
This comic was created by for the Toggl team – the people behind the world’s no. 1 time tracking app. We’re pretty passionate about time tracking, no matter what device you may be using.
Tracking your time can give a good idea of how well you’re actually working. After all spending time at a desk does not equal productivity (in fact,).
If you spend your work hours away from your desk, you may very well want to track your time with your phone. Turns out we’ve got a nifty app for that. We’ve also just released a great update, so why not just click right down there…
Keeping track of your time , so why not !
Movies are pretty cool but what about more comics?
Well, if you liked this, you might enjoy some of the other pieces we’ve done in the past – like . Or another epic piece about.
You may also enjoy – a highly realistic, deeply immoral game about life in the gritty startup scene of Silicon Valley.
We’ll also keep doing these comics, so keep an eye on our or if you want to catch them early. We also post on , if you want to break up those food photos with a comic or two.
If you have any ideas for the next one, or if you think our movie montages are missing something, drop a line where it says “Comments”.