In the spirit of the famous words from Tim Gunn – “Make it work.” I am sharing my best tips on working from home.
I will officially be working from home for the rest of the month. If you’re in the same boat as me you may be slightly anxious, a bit overwhelmed, and maybe even sad.
Going to work is an escape for some people to interact with their coworkers and friends, to collaborate on projects, and most importantly to get out of the house. Those 8 hours a day you’re at work you’re also not distracted by your pets, kids, or the millions of things that need to be done at home.
Suddenly not being able to go to the place you spend 40 hours a week at, means seriously having to readjust your mindset. Here are my tips from working from home that I have most definitely learned the hard way.
Wear Whatever you want
For me personally, I hate the idea of getting dressed like I’m going to go to work and then sitting in my room all day. This approach is probably smart for people who work from home normally, but for me it is the one thing making my new normal seem “fun”. I do put on fresh “day pajamas” that are acceptable enough to go outside to walk Bendel.
Keep your schedule
If you typically get up to get ready for work at 7:00am continue to do that. Shower, make your coffee, chat with your coworkers abut their night (virtually of course) and start and end your day at the same time you normally would. It’s very easy to actually work much longer hours while at home because of the lack of transportation limitations. You can easily start your day an hour earlier and end it hours later once you start working.
Plan your meals
If you normally pack lunch and snacks, keep doing that. It is so easy to snack all day at home or reach for something easy vs a lunch you would normally have prepared for yourself. Try and keep as much normalcy as possible for yourself.
Take breaks
This ties into keeping your schedule. My best advice is to even loosely schedule your breaks. For me this is a must since a large portion of my job revolves around meetings and project based work. To be clear, when taking a break I don’t mean a quick bathroom break. Take at least 10 minutes. Walk your dog, grab a snack, do a few stretches, have a non work related conversation (even if it’s with your pet).
Eliminate Distractions
It is so easy to get distracted at home by our phones, tv’s and other family members. Eliminating some of these may be impossible as kids and pets can be unpredictable. If you have other family members also working from home try to coordinate your schedules for whose turn it is to take care of things.
In regard to the phone, the real answer: put it down. There are tons of ways you can eliminate your screen scrolling time within your iphone settings; however, my best advice is to set a timer for reasonable chunks of time not to check your phone. I.e. a 45 minutes, an hour etc. You can even set a certain ringtone for calls you cannot miss so that you know to only pick up the phone for those reasons.
Schedule Team Huddles & Create a Group Chat
If your job normally entails collaboration and communication with your team, you may experience huge communication gaps due to the lack of impromptu in person huddles and communication. I work on a project at work with fellow coworkers all in different states. We have a team huddle every day, as well as a group chat to keep the line of communication open and set the priorities for the day.
I would love to hear everyone’s tips from working from home, & I wish you all the best of luck! March will certainly be one for the books.
