The remote work trend has been growing for a while now and it looks like it will continue to be a thing for some time – and with good reason. If you’ve always been an office worker you may be thinking that working by yourself all day at home sounds boring and you’ll never get work done. The truth is that there’s a lot of exciting things about remote work and there are tons of studies showing how they boost productivity.

But we’ll let you decide for yourself with this list of what remote work entails and who knows, you might just decide to leave the office life for good!

You can wear pajamas all day.

Or anything you want! Yes, even your favorite superhero costume. Unless you’ll be having video conferences throughout the day, feel free to get as comfortable or as “dressed to impress” as you want. The beauty of remote work is you can tailor your workday to whatever suits you.

If you feel like you work best when you’re at your most comfortable, by all means wear pajamas or sweats or boxers all day long. If you’re the type who thrives on a little bit of structure, you can dress how you typically do for a day in the office. Wear that cute outfit you thought you didn’t have an excuse for since you’re just at home! When we feel our best, we’re ready to get things done.

You can work at all hours of the day that work best, instead of between 9 and 5.

Typical office hours just don’t work in a work from home setting. Employers are aware that you’ll need to make lunch on top of eating it or that some workers have families, which require you to take longer breaks or be away from your computer multiple times in a day. That’s why they allow you to choose the hours you work in a day, and you can even break them up throughout the day. Most employers with a work-from-home policy allow you to choose the hours you work in a day, and you can break them up throughout the day.

Whether you like working in the day or at night, if you like working straight rather than 2-3 hours at a time, once again the beauty is in being free to make your own choices that work best for you.

You don’t have to deal with the commute.

This is absolutely one of the most desirable things about leaving the office and working from home permanently. Commuting takes a huge chunk of our time, whether you live far from the office or in a place where traffic is terrible. Having that extra time in the day means you can get more sleep, or fit exercise into your daily routine, or it means finishing work earlier so you can spend time with your family or on hobbies, the things that matter to you the most.

Not to mention no more commuting means saving money on gas (which is akin to making gold these days) or on public transport. Commuting can also be stressful and anything that removes stress from our lives means we’re healthier and happier.

You can work from anywhere in the world.

Remote work means your office can be anywhere, as long as you have a working computer and an Internet connection, which at this day and age, pretty much makes the possibilities endless. From somewhere small like your favorite neighborhood café to somewhere you haven’t even been like the beaches of Greece or a lovely café in Paris. That vacation you’ve always wanted to go on? It’s more possible now when you can really work anywhere in the world.

This is a huge benefit of remote work, but it also comes with its own challenges. You have to be able to adapt your schedule and location accordingly, which may mean making sacrifices in order to stay connected with your team and clients. Still, it’s nothing clear communication can’t fix and something you can never experience if you’re working in an office.

You don’t have to pay for a fancy office space.

If you have a desk, chair and computer at home, there’s no reason why you can’t work from home. You don’t need to be tied down to an office space. Again, you can just set up shop wherever there is Wi-Fi and an internet connection.

If you feel like working in an office and having coworkers around you again, you could also invest in a co-working space where other freelancers are located. These spaces offer shared amenities like drinks machines, couches and meeting rooms; they also provide networking opportunities when you want to meet new people or find clients outside your usual circle of friends/family members/colleagues etc.

Your productivity will go up.

Working your own hours and in your preferred environments is a recipe for productivity. How? Well being in control puts us in a better mood, and when our mood is up we work better. To look at the bigger picture, a healthier work attitude and schedule means having to take less sick days in a year.

Being happy with your work also means wanting to stay with your employer for longer, and being retained means you get more training and more opportunities for self-betterment and career growth.

Your carbon footprint goes down.

It can be difficult to contribute to preserving the environment because it could mean giving up things we enjoy doing like eating meat or things that are convenient like driving a car. That’s why it’s especially great that working from home pretty much guarantees you are already doing your part in lessening your carbon footprint.

Statistics show that working from home between one and three days a week already reduces an employee’s carbon footprint by roughly 300 pounds per year. That’s the equivalent of taking 83 cars off the road, or planting over 230 trees! What more when you work from home every day?

Not going in the office doesn’t just eliminate your daily commute. It also eliminates the plastics and waste that come with eating lunch out or drinking numerous cups of coffee in a day. It also eliminates the need for offices to purchase more computers, consumer more energy, and take up more space. Not only does all this help the environment, it helps you and your employer save money. That’s definitely a win-win-win!

Join the remote work force now!

To summarize, as a remote worker, you’re more likely to:

• Get your work done in less time
• Focus on the most important things and spend less time in meetings
• Have more extra free time on your hands
• Spend it doing what makes you happy!

It’s also good for your health, better for the environment, and good for our economy. 

So what are you waiting for? When you join Remote Workmate, we’ll help connect you with thousands of clients who are looking for remote workers and jumpstart your career in the process!