4 Reasons Why Working From Home Positively Affects Your Lifestyle
It becomes a no-brainer once you do it for a month
My anxious little chihuahua loves remote work.
No, she doesn’t have a job, though I think she could’ve been a professional shortstop in her prime. My dog likes the “work from home” lifestyle because she has a lap to lie on for eight hours every day.
I could probably stop here. What other reason do you need to choose the remote lifestyle than your dog’s approval?
In all seriousness, the pros outweigh the cons. Remote work is the reason I’m able to move to another state and not stress about finding a job.
Besides that, here’s why I’m convinced remote work is the best way to work.
1. It’s easier to live a health-conscious lifestyle
I spend 30–90 minutes per day doing some form of exercise.
I’m not going to the gym to blast my ears with heavy metal and snort pre-workout to impress other gym bros. I work out because it makes me feel good, plain and simple. And on my off days, I go on walks: easy-peasy.
When I worked practically full time, I got lazy. I was too burnt out to make it to the gym consistently. And when I did make it, my workouts were never at 100%. It takes a ton of energy to lift weights after a nine-hour day.
On the other hand, 70–80% of a healthy lifestyle revolves around food. The issue with specific jobs is your eating schedule gets thrown out of sync.
I used to down a protein shake with a bagel at 6 AM but got hungry again in the middle of the workday. Since I couldn’t eat in front of my students, I’d deal with an hour of hunger before lunchtime.
I was good about bringing my meals with me, but others weren’t as consistent. Eating out is tempting. Eating out usually brings more calories into your body, and as most office jobs are sedentary, you’re getting more calories than you burn. This leads to weight gain and a plethora of mental pains that come with it.
Remote work is a simple fix to the equation. When you’re at home, you have access to your food at all times, and the best way to control your diet is to keep the no-no foods out of your house.
2. You’re more effective at home
Workers are 13% more productive at home than in the office.
It’s simple: there are more distractions in an office full of people. You can’t focus on one task for more than 20 minutes without someone interrupting you either on accident or on purpose.
Deep work is done at home without anything to distract you. Sure, the mailman shows up once a day, and your anxious chihuahua must yell and at them to “protect” you, but you can plan for that. They show up at the same time every day.
Flow states are easier to accomplish at home. After breakfast, when I’ve eaten and I’m at my peak state of energy for the day, I love putting on my headphones, turning on music, and diving into my work.
It’s fun, relaxing, and all the pressures of being face to face with other people silently competing with you are gone.
To thrive in this environment, acting on the lost art of asking questions goes a long way. I’ve learned that when I work with clients, it’s best to be honest, and ask lots of questions when you don’t know something.
Nobody knows all the answers, so neither should you.
3. Your money goes longer
Life is more than money, but money makes up a healthy percentage of it. With that in mind, one’s relationship with money often needs counseling.
Remote work changed that for me.
I gave up quite a bit to freelance full-time. I don’t have a part-time job and use freelancing as a way to supplement my income anymore. It was too burdening to work part-time for 33 hours a week and come home to do client work.
Though I made the most money I’d ever made, I had to spend more money on clothes and gas than I ever had. Working for clients remotely changed all that.
Less driving = less gas
Less driving = less money spent on car repairs over time
I wear comfy clothes and don’t have to spend money on fancy pants
I eat leftovers instead of takeout for lunch
Sometimes it’s the little things. Small savings add up over time.
4. Speaking of time…
After all, it’s what we’re really after.
I write to buy myself time in the future. My vision for my writing side-hustle inspires me to be the best version of myself every day.
We all want to make $10,000 a month and live stress-free, but it’s important to remember that life is long, and there is plenty of time to figure out how to do it.
Money comes when you least expect it. It flows to you like an idea that wants you to bring it to life. The critical takeaway is to remain open to opportunities.
My openness is the only reason I could quit my job and call myself a “freelancer.” I don’t survive off daily Upwork gigs. Clients instead reach out to me, and it’s almost unbelievable.
The takeaway: If you want to work from home, there are 9–5 jobs out there with bosses and a 401K’s. 9–5’s will always be there. But, there is also ample opportunity to work for yourself.
There’s no harm in working a job you don’t love while living with your parents to save up and invest money before moving out to face the world on your own. The best thing you can do for your side hustle is focus on your career.
After I graduated college, it took me four years to feel comfortable enough to move out and pay for all my expenses. But here I am, ready to start adulting for real, and it’s all thanks to the flexibility of remote work.
The bottom line is this: working from home can be any kind of work you want it to be.
It can be recruiting with a company, making sales for a brand, or even freelance writing through platforms and for yourself. They can all be lucrative in their own ways.
Even if you work 9–5, doing it remotely saves you immense amounts of time. Everyone I know who works remotely uses the time they’d waste in the office for productive things like doing the dishes or walking their dog.
What the remote lifestyle loses on meeting people face to face, it gains in trust between you and that you’ll do the job at the same level, if not a higher one.
You trust everyones’ lives are more optimistic.