Working from home is becoming a popular option for many industries. For some marketers, working from home is the dream, but there may be unexpected challenges. Some of these challenges are not apparent before you work a full workday in your own home.

As an agency of remote PPC rockstars, we love working from home for a couple of reasons:

• We are able to hire top-tier talent because we are not limited to a geographic area. This eliminates the need for folks to move somewhere to work with us.
• With team members across the United States, we’re able to service multiple timezones more easily.
• We love not having to sit in traffic just to get to and from the office every day.

Here are our tips for how to work from home and still be professional and successful.

Find a Designated Workspace

All of us at Clix are in agreement about the importance of finding your designated workspace.

If you have the ability to designate one room of your house with a door as an office, that will help with work/life balance. Remote workers can attest to the fact that working from home without a designated area may make you feel like work is following you around the house with no escape. It also helps to eliminate distractions like a pile of laundry or unwashed dishes.

An additional must is a door on your workspace. This will help you to set better boundaries with family and roommates. A door will also (hopefully) prevent potentially awkward situations when you’re on conference calls – like when these kids crashed their dad’s BBC News interview. Closing the door, shutting down or closing your computer and tidying up your workspace at the end of each workday can also help so that you can feel at home and organized.

If you’re limited on space, get creative. Linen closets, unused corners of rooms and nooks can be transformed with a little creativity. Check out the linen closet to office conversion of one of our team members!

Check out this post from Apartment Therapy on how to fit a home office in even the tiniest of places.

It’s also a bonus that if you have a designated workspace, you’re eligible for a tax deduction. Here are the latest guidelines for the year 2017.

Figure Out Your Personality Type

We’d recommend taking a personality test, like this free test from 16 Personalities. This will help you to figure out personality traits such as being an introvert or an extrovert so that you can adjust your work needs accordingly.

If you’re extroverted, you may find yourself missing the interaction that came with working in an office occasionally. Consider meeting a friend for lunch once a month, joining a co-work center or volunteering in off-time as a way to get more socialization.

Take a Break & Get Moving

Working in an office, there are always small interruptions that you may not even realize are there until you work alone. Suddenly, it’s very quiet and very apparent that you need these small brain breaks.

At Clix, our favorite way to take a break is to get moving. Whether that’s doing some YouTube yoga, or taking a walk with our dogs, getting the blood pumping and taking a computer break helps us to focus better.

Commit to a Regular Schedule

One of the best parts of working from home is the ability to be more flexible with your work schedule. But beware, this can quickly turn into feeling like you’re working all of the time. Do some reflecting and think about when you work best during the day. Is it in the morning or the afternoon? This can help you to plan your day so that you’re the most efficient you can be.

Additionally, treat your workday “commute” the same way that you did when working in an office by developing a morning routine. Maybe you don’t need to start your commute until 7:55, but that time should be treated the same way as if you left at 7:15 to commute to your job. Keeping this in mind will help you to be able to “go home” at the end of your workday as well.

Put Pets Away

Here at Clix, we love our furry friends. Unfortunately, sometimes they can be a bit of a distraction. Having a designated area for pets when you need to focus or when you’re on a call will pay dividends.

Get Dressed

If you research how to be successful in this work style, you’ll find a lot of suggestions and research about dressing in office attire while working from home. This may work for some folks, but figure out what works for you.

One thing is likely certain: Working in your pajamas will not set you up for success.

Develop a Relationship With Co-Workers

If you’re working with a team, building a relationship with your co-workers will help you to have more of a “community”, albeit online. Tools like Slack and Skype are great for group chats.

The Clix team has bi-weekly chats where we don’t talk about account work and instead get to know each other outside of work. This really helps us to work better together and helps us to feel apart of a team, instead of like we’re working alone on an island.

In conclusion, working from home is great (the one downside we see is that you can only blame yourself if the office snacks aren’t good), but it is different than a traditional 9-5 office environment. We hope these tips are helpful!

What suggestions and tips do you have for being successful at working from home? We’d love to hear them in the comments below!