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What Are The Benefits Or Working From Home?

By Rob Orr / Last updated: Jul 2, 2023

work from home benefits

What are the benefits you get working from home?

The benefits of working from mean that you will have much greater flexibility, greater productivity, the ability to spend more time with family and friends; setting up your home office however you’d like, saving a ton of money among many other awesome benefits.

Working from home has become increasingly popular in recent years and all the more with the whole world being quarantined during the COVID pandemic at one point or another.

Working from home has proven to be incredibly beneficial for the morale of employees, something that freelancers and entrepreneurs have known about for a long time.

But what about work/life balance? Are you going to get sucked into working all the time?

What about boundaries?

And how will it affect your budget?

I’m going to cover it all so you’re fully up to speed on the best reasons why working from home is way to go!

By the way – before we get too far along here, if you want to get more great ideas for your home office and connect with other home office hackers to make your space the best join my free private Facebook group, Home Office Hacks here.

By the way

You Will Be More Productive

Did you know that studies show that you’re actually MORE productive when you’re working from home?

It’s true.

Stanford University conducted a study where they followed 16,000 workers over a period of 9 months and discovered that working from home increased productivity by 13% for remote employees.

Workers also reported being more satisfied with their work and turn-over rate diminished greatly.

And that’s just one study.

There are several others too that show that those who work remotely tend to produce better results for a variety of reasons.

You Will Be More Productive

Better Work Life Balance

You probably already understand the importance of having some sort of boundary between work life and personal life.

Work-life balance is vital to our overall health and well-being across the board.

Work-life balance makes us LESS stressed and more joyful in life.

So it makes sense that if you get better work-life balance by working remotely you should do it.

Remote workers cite better balance as the #1 reason they work remotely according to a study done by Owl Labs.

The autonomy and flexibility that comes as a product of remote work results in greater productivity and makes working from home a no-brainer.

Better Work Life Balance

Less Environmental Impact

We’re called to be good stewards of our environment so it makes sense that we should try to minimize its impact wherever possible.

Working from home is a win-win for both employees and employers because it reduces energy consumption and emissions which I think we can all agree is a good thing.

Here are a couple ways working from home benefits the environment.

First, your office won’t be using all that power for lights and air conditioning if you’re not there!

You’ll likely use less paper and plastic since it’s not uncommon for people to print stuff unnecessarily. (How many times have you – or one of your colleagues – printed off an email because they needed to show it to someone?!?).

You won’t feel the need to print an agenda for everyone for that upcoming meeting, or to print out all those powerpoint slides so everyone has their own copy.

Think of all the cars that aren’t on the road if people are working from home. Not only will we all benefit from less greenhouse emissions, but it can also reduce the load on infrastructure.

Just think of the amount of greenhouse gases that were reduced during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, and then extrapolate that out over time and you can see how beneficial this can be for the environment.

Who doesn’t want cleaner air?

Less Environmental Impact

It’s Dead Simple To Implement

Setting up your work from home work space is so easy. You can literally start today.

All you really need is a computer, internet connection and maybe a printer.

That’s pretty much it for most people.

For others, you may need a few kinds of office supplies, but it’s super easy to get up and going with a home office workspace fast.

The first thing you need to do is set up your computer and ensure that you have reliable internet service.

Then install software like Google Chrome Remote Desktop which allows you to control your desktop remotely. 2) Create A Private Space For Working From Home

Next, create a separate area in your home specifically designated for working from home.

Make sure that everything you use during your day is stored away from your living areas.

Once you’ve created your dedicated workspace, you’ll probably notice that things will begin piling up quickly.

To keep yourself organized, I recommend setting up an online task manager like Todoist which is my personal favorite. It helps you stay focused throughout the day and get tasks done efficiently.

It’s Dead Simple To Implement

You Don’t Waste Time (or money on transportation) On Commuting

Another benefit of working from home is that you save time and money on commuting costs.

Your transportation expenses almost completely vanish.

You don’t have to spend money on gas for your car, or on public transportation and instead can keep it in your pocket.

Instead of wasting time driving back and forth every day, you can spend that commute time relaxing at home or knocking out those last couple items on your to-do list, or cooking dinner, or any variety of other things that you couldn’t do before because you were on the road.

Not only does this give you more quality time with family members, but it saves you tons of cash each month.

You Don’t Waste Time (or money on transportation) On Commuting

Office Politics Are Reduced To Nothing

Do you have cliques at your office?

Distracting co-workers?

Strained relationships?

Another good thing about working from home is that that stuff virtually vanishes because you’re no longer face to face every moment of the day with your office counterparts.

Eliminating all these distractions helps you to focus on what you were hired to do in the first place – produce results.

And it doesn’t matter if you’re a traditional employee, freelancer or entrepreneur by the way.

Remote work creates an environment where productivity and results rise to the top, and the other annoying social-challenging stuff recedes.

Unless you’re needed for a meeting or some other collective gathering, the only person you will interact with is yourself.

Water-cooler gossip can’t happen if there isn’t a water cooler for you to gather around!

Office Politics Are Reduced To Nothing

You Get To Setup Your Workspace However You Want

Hate your cubicle at the office?

Tired of the annoying person in the next office over?

When you work from home, that’s all eliminated.

You get to set up your workspace for your home office however you want to set it up.

It could be a corner of your bedroom, a spare room, even a garage space.

Whatever works best for you.

If you prefer to sit behind a desk, then get a good one.

If you’d rather stand while you work, then make sure you invest in good adjustable standing desk, and get a desk mat, or comfortable shoes so you won’t end up hurting yourself after hours of standing.

Either way, whatever setup you choose, just make sure it’s conducive to producing great work.

Whether you choose to work in front of a computer screen, a whiteboard, a desk or even a coffee table matters less than having a comfortable space where you feel free to think creatively.

You Get To Setup Your Workspace However You Want

More Family Time

This is probably the most important benefit, at least in my opinion. I’ve picked my daughter up from school (and her mom has taken her to school) every day since she started.

At least until now, where she’s old enough to drive herself.

And I’m here when she gets home from school.

Nothing in my own career has been more important to me than to be present and available to my kid when she’s getting home from school.

We often do homework together in our own home office, and work out math problems on the whiteboard we’ve got, among other things.

If you’re at the office, these kinds of things aren’t possible.

Getting more family time is priceless.

But what if you don’t have kids?

If you don’t have kids, maybe you have pets.

We’re a dog family as you can tell from my Instagram.

Our dogs absolutely LOVE having me at home.

You don’t have to crate your dogs, or leave them unattended, for long work hours while you’re gone if you’re working from home.

For those of you who are pet parents, you know how important that is!

No more unexpected “surprises” left by your critters.

And even if you don’t have family or pets, you’ll still benefit because you now can spend that extra personal time with friends or just doing something you love doing like exercising, or reading.

More Family Time

Lose Less Time At Work Due To Illness

Two things happen when you get sick when it comes to work:

First – you usually don’t feel like being at work. When you’re sick you’re often miserable and just need to be home resting. Sometimes it’s best for you to be near your own bathroom because that exotic dish you had for dinner is now disagreeing with you in a big way.

Second – you run the risk of getting other people sick (Hello COVID).

When you work at home, all these issues are solved.

Working from home means you can take better care of yourself.

That doesn’t mean you should neglect taking care of yourself. But it does mean you can give yourself some much needed rest without worrying about anyone else.

That way, when you’re feeling under the weather, you know you won’t have to worry about going into work sick and making anyone else sick as a result.

Parents – I know you understand this all too well – a sick kid comes to class, and suddenly the whole class has it. That’s exactly what we’re trying to avoid here.

Lose Less Time At Work Due To Illness

No More Office Dress Code

I hate wearing ties and suits.

At one point in my career a suit and tie was required 5 days a week.

If you’re working from home that all changes.

Nowadays, I wear shorts and t-shirts exclusively.

I haven’t worn a suit in years.

This is a huge benefit to working from home.

Don’t feel like taking a shower this morning? That’s ok.

Don’t feel like getting “dressed for success”?

Unless your company has some kind of weird policy where you have to show yourself wearing a shirt and tie on a video call, you don’t have to worry about that when you’re working from home.

And even then, if you DO have to wear a shirt and tie, you can be business up top, and casual on the bottom.

For the most part, there’s no one telling you how to dress, where to sit, whether to use headphones or not, etc. All these decisions are yours alone.

No More Office Dress Code

No Office Distractions

Small talk can be a huge distraction when you’re in the office.

Sure, it’s good for morale sometimes, and team cohesiveness.

But it can wreck productivity and be a huge distraction.

When you work from home, these distractions are eliminated.

There’s nothing but you and your thoughts. And maybe your tunes.

That means you get much better results.

It also eliminates any chance of being distracted by someone else’s phone calls or emails.

How many times has someone leaned over and said, “hey, did you see this?” and totally gets you off track?

Or someone else’s phone rings and they’re having a loud conversation that totally interrupts your flow?

Only the most important things make their way into your day when you’re working from home.

If the boss wants to get everyone together for a quick talk, they have to count the cost of whether or not what they want to talk about is important enough and worth the effort of getting the meeting set up, sending out the Zoom link, and getting everyone together.

Only the most important stuff will make it through all those filters.

No Office Distractions

Flexible Schedule

Working from home gives you flexibility in scheduling.

There may come a time when you need to take advantage of that flexibility by running a quick errand, or talking with your landscape contractor at your home.

Maybe you’ve got kids at school during the day, and you need to answer a homework question.

Maybe you need to knock off a little early one day to handle something.

When you’re working from home you’re going to have the ability to do those things more readily than in a traditional work environment.

The ability to adjust your schedule around those needs makes life easier.

Whether you need to take handle issues with your kids, grab something from the grocery store for dinner, or start the next load of laundry, you’ve got that flexibility when you’re working from home.

Flexible Schedule

It Saves Money

Since there are fewer expenses associated with working from home, you end up saving quite a bit compared to those who commute daily.

If you live close enough to where you work, then there will be no need to pay for parking or gas expenses.

For example, let’s say you commute 2 hours each day.

That means you spend $2 per hour driving which adds up to $48 every week.

On top of that, you pay for parking, tolls, etc…

Now imagine saving all that money and still making the same amount of income. That would mean you’d end up paying less than half of what you were previously.

And if you have young kids, just think of the money you can save on after-school child care! That alone can save hundreds of dollars every month.

It Saves Money

Food & Health

One of the things I enjoy most about working from home is having access to my own kitchen and refrigerator.

I love being able to grab a quick snack, or cook something healthy for lunch without worrying about worrying about  being gone from the office for too long.

One good alternative is to prep your lunches ahead of time and store them in the fridge.

In addition, it’s easier to eat balanced, nutritious food when you’ve stocked up your kitchen the right way.

No more high-calorie, low-nutrient lunches at restaurants or through the drive-thru as you scramble through your day at the office.

It IS good to get out and go to lunch with your colleagues when you can, of course. But when you’re working from home, it’s easier to stay focused on the task at hand and not find yourself just falling into running to the restaurant around the corner to grab something quick to make you “not hungry” any more.

Stock up your kitchen with healthy snacks and healthy food and you’ll find yourself feeling better and better!

Food & Health

Location Independence

Can you imagine how cool it would be to work from the mountains?

Or if the mountains aren’t your thing, from the beach?

Or from an RV as you travel the country so you can do both the mountains AND the beach?

Remote workers have the ability to work from anywhere in most instances.

What does that mean?

That means that you’re not tethered down to any single location.

Your office space can be the open road!

There are many advantages to this type of lifestyle but one of the biggest ones is freedom.

Freedom to choose where you want to live, freedom to pick where you want to work, freedom to decide whether you want to work full-time or part-time, freedom to set your own hours, freedom to choose your clients, freedom to choose your projects, are all options for those who aren’t committed to a traditional brick & mortar office.

Being a remote employee also gives you flexibility in terms of scheduling. You don’t have to worry about clocking in early or staying late because someone else needs help finishing their project.

You can take off whenever you feel like it if you’re a freelancer or entrepreneur.

And since you’re not tied down by a 9-5 schedule, you may even be able to squeeze some extra vacation days into your calendar.

So why wouldn’t you consider becoming a remote worker?

Location Independence

Better Health & Wellness

The health benefits of working from home are numerous.

For starters, there’s no commute to deal with.

If you spend 30 minutes each morning commuting to work, then you could easily add another hour onto your daily routine before you leave the house.

When you factor in traffic jams, construction delays, accidents, etc., you might end up spending much longer than expected driving to and from work.

Not only will this increase stress levels, but it will also decrease productivity. Working remotely allows you to avoid these issues altogether.

Plus, you won’t need to waste money on gas either.

With telecommuting, you save hundreds of dollars per year on transportation costs alone.

But what about the physical aspects of being a remote worker?

Well, let me tell you…

I’m sure you know already, but I think we should talk about the mental aspect first.

Working from home has its perks. It helps us focus on our tasks without distractions. We can listen to music while we work instead of having to turn it off every time we switch gears. And we can eat whatever we want without worrying about calories or fat content.

We can watch TV shows or movies during breaks too, if that’s your thing.

All of which makes us less stressed and happier overall.

Businesses are increasingly concerted about employee health and wellness. They realize how important it is to keep employees happy and healthy.

They understand that when people are well rested, they perform better at work. When they’re more relaxed, they tend to make fewer mistakes.

It’s good business sense to invest in keeping your staff productive and satisfied.

Better Health & Wellness

You Can Choose Your Own Hours

In many cases, you can set your own schedule and choose your own hours, especially if you’re a freelancer or entrepreneur.

You can work at your own pace and choose when to start and stop.

This means that if you have kids in school then you don’t need to rush into starting work before they go back to class.

If you want to take time off for family events like birthdays, holidays etc., this is also possible.

For example, some people (like me) prefer to start their day early.

Others like to start their day at the crack of noon.

Some people may be able to focus better during certain times of the day while others find they perform better after lunch.

Working from home gives you the opportunity to embrace your most productive working style and continue to provide tons of value to your employer, or your clients if you’re freelancer or entrepreneur.

Next Steps

The truth is, once you start working remotely, you may find it hard to go back to the office.

Working from home gives you many advantages over a traditional brick & mortar office environment.

Want to join others who are creating the most amazing home offices and get more tips, tricks and hacks on how to make your home office the best it can be?

Join my brand new free private Facebook group, Home Office Hacks to connect with other home office hackers to make your space the best!

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Rob Orr

Rob is a graduate of Florida State University and the founder and Senior Editor of HomeOfficeHacks.com, a website dedicated to helping people navigate the unique challenges of working from home. As a remote working veteran with over 10 years of experience, Rob has developed a deep understanding of the strategies and solutions that can help people thrive in this environment. He is a respected expert in the field, renowned for his clear, engaging, and informative content. An award-winning web designer, developer, and digital marketer, Rob is also the owner of a digital media company that publishes a variety of web properties. His dedication, resourcefulness, and creativity have earned him a reputation as a respected leader in the remote work and digital media communities, inspiring others through his work and passion for lifelong learning.

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