High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: Make Work Fun Again

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

• Make Work Fun Again: "Gamification takes mundane tasks and adds play elements, like point scoring. For me, crossing off to-do list items gives me a hit of the 'doing' hormone dopamine that’s as strong as a triple shot of espresso."

• To Be Happier at Work, Invest in Relationships: "People whose work is mundane or demanding are just as likely to feel satisfied and fulfilled as those with fun or inspiring jobs if they proactively invest in relationships that nourish them and create a sense of purpose."

• How to Deal With the Pitfalls of Remote Work: "It’s one thing if a remote team member is working late because they took advantage of their job flexibility to take care of something else in the afternoon. But there might be a problem if it happens regularly."

• 36 Insanely Useful Productivity Hacks: "When it comes to getting off to a productive start each day, 57 percent of the (extremely productive) have a morning routine to make this happen."
• 5 Reasons Personal Finance Should Be Taught in School:"People’s attitudes around money can be instrumental in shaping their character, plus promotes the desire to give back."

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: 10 Tips to Make 2019 Your Year

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

• 10 Tips to Make 2019 Your Year:"In the YouEconomy, expertise is your chief commodity. Take an hour this weekend to list out all your areas of expertise, and brainstorm a few ways you can develop each of them further."

• What to do When You're Struggling to Get Motivated: "Instead, the problem usually boils down to confidence. For one reason or another, people don't believe they'll succeed, so they never get started."

• How to Deal with Office Conflict: "Addressing conflicts and working to find mutual goals, together, is the best way to handle clashes and even find ways to collaborate more deeply."

• 5 Books to Read if You Want to Be More Productive: "Sometimes the obvious solution is also the best: Delete the apps from your phone. If everybody did, we’d reduce an incremental creep that makes it harder and harder to resist social pressure."
• 5 Biggest Misconceptions about Remote Work: "the idea of remote work does not appeal to every individual and corporation, partially due to some persisting misconceptions about this kind of work arrangement."

Working from Home: Key Success Factors

Whether you are self-employed or telecommuting, the freedom and flexibility of working from home can be exhilarating, especially after years in an office environment. You’ll delight in the opportunity to think through ideas without interruption, and the flexibility of working around key personal commitments is invaluable. You may also find, though, that there can be some challenges as you make the transition to working from home. For a successful transition, consider the following advice:

Preserve the professional mindset: Get dressed and maintain a set work schedule. Align your work schedule with normal business hours, if applicable based on the job and any agreed-upon working arrangements with employers or clients. Consistent work hours are particularly important if you are telecommuting; you need to be available for the core hours your company will keep.
Be accessible: Make sure you’re accessible to your clients, boss, or coworkers. Use the advantages of technology that make communicating or working with clients from anywhere seamless, such as smart phone and/or dedicated phone land line/message service, fax machine, web conferencing, file hosting service, etc.
Maintain a workspace: Dedicate a specific physical location as your workspace and contain your work to that area so it does not overtake your home. Make sure it is private and that members of the household are aware when that space is off-limits. Have a signal when you are unavailable (e.g. door closed, sign on door).
Keep networking: Networking is a key success factor for any job, but consider it even more vital when working from home. Taking breaks in your day is necessary and combining this with networking is a smart approach. Not only may it lead to your next assignment, but continuing to exchange ideas and get input/feedback from professional colleagues will enhance the quality of your work.