Thanks to the Internet, Filipinos now have the alternative of working from home in the Philippines. Many people have seen the benefits of this option, especially during the pandemic’s early days. Several companies have allowed their workforce to stay home and work to circumvent the lockdowns. Now, others are considering making that choice as well.
Benefits of Working from Home in the Philippines
Working from home in the Philippines provides benefits you otherwise cannot access if you work from an office.
First, you can save money on transportation costs. You no longer have to ride the jeep or bus to the office. Public transportation also subjects you to the stress of traffic, which, more often than not, makes you late for work. Even the thought of getting late can raise your blood pressure and leave you feeling tired so early in the day.
Because you don’t have to allot time for travel, you’d be better rested since you can sleep for half an hour or more each day. If your in time is 8:30 AM, you could get up at 8 AM and still have a half hour for breakfast. You could also log in early and prepare breakfast before diving into your job.
Lastly, you get to spend more time with your family. Usually, you’d have to commute an hour or two after work to get home. The travel time cuts into your available hours to be with your family, but if you work from home, you can shift from work right away to bonding with your kids after you punch out.
However, a work-from-home setup is not without its drawbacks.
Common Challenges Faced by Work-at-Home Parents and Individuals
The biggest challenge for work-from-home employees is balancing their personal lives and work. Initially, your family may find it unsettling to see you at home but busy at work. For them, especially the kids, seeing you at home means you’re there to spend time with them while leaving your job at the office. For work-at-home parents, this can be a source of stress.
Employees may also be unable to define the lines between work and private life. The ease of settling into their work could cause them to spend more time toiling and less on taking breaks. Some may even become sedentary and fail to exercise at their health’s cost.
Productivity is challenging when working at home because the residence is not originally meant as a workspace. The number of people moving inside the house makes the abode unconducive to work. However, methods exist to overcome that obstacle and make a home office setup work.
Ways to Induce Productivity Even While Working at Home
Below are a few methods you can work on to make yourself more productive while performing your job at home.
Make Your Room Off-Limits While You Work
The bedroom is the most common choice for a workspace for Filipinos working at home. It is private and has fewer distractions. However, that doesn’t mean that it is not prone to disturbances. Family members may periodically come in for specific reasons and disturb you. Even if they don’t, the sounds outside the room and the house could penetrate the space.
Set a rule that everyone should avoid entering the bedroom during your working hours unless they have important business. This may be challenging to implement at first, especially with children. Some adults may also not understand, but consistently sticking to this rule will encourage everyone to follow it after a time.
Introduce Soundproofing Methods
Call center agents who started working from home in the Philippines because of the lockdowns have one common gripe: noise. Although these people work the night shift, they’re still prone to noise pollution from playing children and television sounds. There’s also the errant rooster that decides to crow from 3 AM onwards.
Noise-canceling headsets have helped ensure these noises are not heard on the other side of the line. However, these sounds still distract these agents from their work and add to their stress. They also find sleeping difficult in the morning because people around them are already awake.
If you’re experiencing similar challenges, you should learn how to soundproof your room. Here are two inexpensive techniques that you can try:
- Rubber foam seal strip
The majority of houses in the Philippines use the jalousie window type. Unfortunately, these windows are ineffective at keeping noise from entering even when closed. This is because of the gaps between the window panes through which sound waves can enter. You can seal these by buying rubber foam seal strips from sites like Lazada and Shopee.
- Acoustic foam/curtain
The acoustic curtain is a cloth curtain with a foam layer that absorbs noise from the outside. The foam layer is an inch thick, which reduces noise levels from the outside by roughly 60%. They can also be purchased from e-commerce sites in the Philippines. You may have to cut them to fit your requirements.
There are other means for soundproofing, but they are more expensive.
Schedule a Day Off Every Week
All work and no play can have a toll on your mental health. You may think you’re very productive and earning, but you’ll crash sooner or later. When you do, you’ll be out of circulation for a few days. That will erase whatever productivity you’ve accumulated beforehand. This is your body’s way of getting back at you for overexerting yourself.
Spend a day off with your family if you’re married or with your friends or loved ones if you’re single. Taking time off from work allows your mind to relax. The constant stress of thinking about your work and doing what you must do in the office will tire you mentally and physically. However, when you let it rest for a day or two, your mind will become refreshed and perform better when you return.
A break from work-at-home jobs in the Philippines doesn’t have to be expensive. It could be a movie marathon in your bedroom or a barbecue in front of your house. You could also play board games with your children or friends. You can exercise your mind by practicing a little creativity in planning what to do with your free time.
Install Productivity Tools
You can keep yourself focused on work and balance distractions by installing productivity tools, the most effective of which are the Pomodoro timers. The Pomodoro method lets you concentrate in bursts, giving you a short break before you need to focus on your work again.
These timers let you set how long you want to focus on work before you need to rest. For example, you can set a focus period of 25 minutes, a short break of 5 minutes, and a 15-minute long break. A typical work period would consist of these three 25-minute productivity periods with two 5-minute breaks in between. After the third productivity period, you get to rest for 15 minutes.
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The concept is similar to taking a day off from work. Giving the mind a short rest after a period of work allows it to refresh itself and be more productive once the timer starts ticking again.
Conclusion
Working from home in the Philippines gives you much flexibility, but it has a few drawbacks. However, you can work around these disadvantages and boost your productivity. Once you’ve overcome these obstacles, you can fully reap the benefits of being a work-at-home employee! Deciding to shift from office-based to home-based work requires an investment. You may have to purchase your computer, which needs powerful specifications to function correctly. You can save up for the money required or take out a personal loan in the Philippines to finance your equipment. Alternatively, you can borrow money from one of the top loan apps in the Philippines!
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