There are two sides to working from home – Here are both

You thought you needed a change and got permission to work from home the entire week? It means saving on travel time, cost and most importantly- working in your pyjamas! Sure, you’ll still have deadlines, but did we mention the part about the pyjamas?!

But have you pondered over the flipside to it? I mean, your soft warm bed is practically beckoning to you as you sit across it. The wifi seems to be working even faster, the memes seem to be getting funnier and the cat eating ice-cream videos are just gold-winners. Plus, you have been putting in all those extra hours this week. Maybe a smidgen of a nap and scroll won’t hurt.

Well there’s the beginning of the civil war between the brain and heart, folks. To confuse you a bit more, we bring to you a list of pros and cons for working from home.

• Super mornings!

Snoozing the alarm for those five extra minutes is absolute bliss and most of us fall prey to those tempting five minutes. When you need to reach office – it means no time for toast, coffee and eye-liner. But when you are working from home, you can snooze the alarm for the entire duration that would ordinarily be your travel- time. You can make a real breakfast for yourself before you sit in front of your laptop and hell, even dance a jig before it to jolt you right out of sleep-o town!

But, in the pretext of elongating your nap, more often than not, you can end up silencing that alarm and wake up three hours later with no recollection of who you are and fifteen missed calls from your boss.

• Social media lives

It is alright to take a quick break in office and check on your Facebook profiles and Twitter handles. But most of the time, your luck runs out on you just then and your manager walks in on you. When you are working from home, you do not have to sneakily look into your profiles like you are intruding someone else’s privacy.

But then again, social media can be really addictive, time consuming and a huge distraction in your work-day. The freedom you have received can be misused by you without you even realising it! You thought you would check Facebook for like five minutes, but then it was 50!

Customised environment

You can definitely customise the environment when it comes to your home. Your soft bed, as mentioned – pyjamas, music, food, amount of lighting and what not. This is sure to increase your productivity and the quality of your output.

Here again is the problem with this - It’s very easy to get lazy in this setting. When you’re at home, your body naturally automates to home-mode, which = no stress, all chill. As a result, you may get lax and shirk off a lot of the work you’re supposed to execute, leading you to a guaranteed fifteen more missed calls from your boss.

• Working alone is no fun.

Let’s face it. Part of what makes work, work- are the people.

Of course the noise, movement and questions can be distracting. You work the way you want, without having to take in someone’s suggestion and going through the pain of changing the entire formula. No one keeps a count on your smoke breaks or your bathroom breaks and everything, you have it all to yourself.

But - It’s always fun to brainstorm with your colleagues for the work that’s due, and it’s even convenient to have your boss a door down, in case you need to be guided. Lunch-time reminds you of break-time when you were a kid, and the vibe around the office is what drives you to do better and be productive. Finally, there is no feeling that compares to coming home, exhausted but massively proud of the productive day you spent at the office.

While some swear by the policy of never, ever taking work back home, there are others who only want to work at home. You need to figure out what is your ideal place to work and make it your little productive area.

(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YourStory)