#27 Habits in the remote world

I finally read Atomic Habits by James Clear and of course, it sparked something in me. Hence, this week's newsletter is all about our habits in the future of work, the good, the bad and the must still create. Of course, as with everything in today's working world we need to be intentional, which is why I'll bring those habits to your attention today to reflect and act on. Enjoy!

Circling back: how and why our routine has changed

The pandemic has not only changed where we work or when we work but also how we work. Most rhythms before probably looked something like this:

1) Get up 2) shower 3) get dressed 4) Breakfast and a coffee 5) commute to work 6) work all morning 7) take a lunch break with your colleagues 8) back to work 9) a few coffee breaks and chit chats in the afternoon 10) leave work to go to a gym or workout class 11) go home for dinner.

If we compare that today, things look quite different and not nearly as straight of a line of actions anymore – which is not a bad thing, don't get me wrong. But we repeated working remotely in our own unique way now for months or even years. What does that mean? We've created a new habit, consciously or unconsciously.

What's for sure is that our working styles have changed and they have engrained a new way of comfort in how to get work done. Some habits we might have taken over from the in-office life can be good but also hindering at times. Other habits we just slipped into because we didn't know any better. Then there are those habits that we just were not aware of yet we need to build.

Bad habits we accustomed to at-home

You might have read about notions such as "brining the office to your home" or questions that are seeking answers to how we can replicate the office at home. From a personal stance, I don't believe that is something that should be done asit mainly creates bad habits. Why? Working from home vs. working in the office are two completely different environments. Hence, recreating the same habits at home as in the office won't stir happiness, engagement, or productivity.

Examples of common bad WfH-habits (Inspired by Hive's article)

Skipping Breaks:?

There are two types of workers, according to Greatworklife.

1. Type: Breakers – People, working 30 minutes and take a quick break, have a chat, and restart work fresh.
2. Type: Immersers – People, who once in the flow they loose their sense of time and finish that one topic completely

The first type might not take a quality break and the other definitely will feel overworked very soon as they drain their attention span on a daily basis over and over. Without the natural division of an office building and our home building, people can easily never "clock out". As hcamag found, too:

66% of workers admit to working from the toilet at some point when working from home, while a shocking 12% admit to working from the toilet every single day.

How can we avoid this?

• Start by getting up every hour. You could set an alarm reminding you to drink and stand up (I need to do that myself more often, as well).
• Schedule your lunch break in your calendar and stick to it
• Make appointments in the evening to meet with someone, so that you do not always work till late at night.

No Transition Between Work And Home

53% of WfH-workers go straight to their desk "somewhat often" or even more frequently than that without brushing their teeth

Let me share my own story here: I have had trouble the past weeks focusing in the morning and I started to reflect on why that might be. I found that the reason for it has to do with me going to my desk already 10 minutes after waking up and getting out of bed. So what am I doing differently now?

I read every morning. For the past two weeks instead of reading in the kitchen, I took my book and my coffee and went for a 20-minute walk outside. Not only do I get steps in and some fresh air outside before starting work, but I somehow separate my "private" life with my "professional". After I come back, I take my shoes off and go straight to my workstation. So far, this has done wonders for my concentration. Additionally, since you don’t necessarily have to get ready for work when working at home (which I took advantage of until now), now I am forced to put clothes on that I feel comfortable going in front of the door with which forces me to somewhat "get ready" for the day, too. A little self-care never hurt nobody, right?

What can we do to separate our work life with our home life at home?

1. Start By Having A Defined Workspace. Even if it is just a tiny table. It is super crucial to be able to separate your work area from the rest of your home. I, too, don't have my own office room, but I have a desk in the corner of the living room to which I only sit down to work. Best is even when you're doing other things on the laptop that don't relate to work, to do it somewhere else. James Clear also mentions in his book Atomic Habits how helpful it can be to associate one specific thing, for example, the desk, with one specific purpose, in this case, professional work.?
2. Establish Do Not Disturb Rules. With kids, roommates, or a partner all at home it might sometimes be difficult to seem like you are not available. But it's important to address when you do not want to be bothered if possible and when chats are fine. At my home, a closed door means "Do Not Disturb".
3. Establish Healthy Working Hours. We could work all day every day, but we need to clock off and recuperate. Thus, set yourself limits for how long you'll work. Emergencies are ok but they shouldn't happen every day.
4. Block Your Calendar For Important Personal Events. There are other parts to life than work, partake in them.

No clear schedule

At home, we could work all day and every day, but again we shouldn't. Instead, we should establish a clear schedule for our working times and to-dos aligned with the expectations resulting from our goals, team, and manager. Some bad habits to avoid:

1. Quick Responsiveness. Slack and all those other notifications can throw us out of our rhythm and enforce this want to be available and respond as quickly as possible. But it doesn't always need to be like that. Do you for example know the coworking sometimes office rule with the headphones? If the headphones are on, that means no disturbing. The same goes for working at home: don't answer immediately if it's not an emergency (maybe even create one specific channel of communication for such scenarios). Instead, answer when it fits into your schedule.
2. Working all the time. Related to the previous point, a schedule can also help create separation between work and home as you'll set regular hours for when you will be at your desk actually working, and you’ll create consistency with your routine and accountability with your team, too.
3. Not getting the boring, lengthy or difficult stuff done. The best thing is to establish a clear routine around breaks, food, fresh air, house chores, exercises, and all the to-dos = meaning the good, bad, boring, complicated, long, and fun. As James Clear likes to point out in his book Atomic Habits: Tie the difficult habits to build to something that you already automatically do which turns those automatic tasks into rewards for what you want to do more of.
4. Multitasking. Juggling domestic chores and office work leads to mixing everything and in the long run potentially burnout. One other driver we like to multitask around is social media. One way to overcome this and what I do: I leave my phone out of reach at the other side of the room. That way I don't check up on anything when I am working.
5. Eating all the time, but too little exercise or steps. Our health is the most important to be able to function. If we don't look after our health we hurt ourselves, our loved ones, and our surroundings. As we need to be so highly intentional when we work remotely, set time for yourself to go outside and do a workout – I personally work out in my lunch break every day outside (hitting two birds with one stone: fresh air and sports)

Since I love remote work, let's talk about the positive side too, inspired by X-Team:

The good that comes out of remote work

Great Communicators

Working remotely eliminates most of our body language to be observed by others or being able to observe by ourselves. What does that leave us with? With facial expressions and our voice, it's tone and words we choose.?We are basically forced into learning how to communicate well, else we probably won't get very far.

Independent Creatures

We take charge of our work. Being without your team right next to you means not only great responsibility but also that you are solely responsible to meet your goals and get results. Very quickly you learn how to mobilize resources to achieve your objectives.

Self-Motivated

If you are not able to motivate yourself, working remotely probably isn't for you. Without self-motivation, you probably wouldn't even be able to show up at your desk on time in the morning because the bed was too comfortable. Working remotely strengthens us and our inner drive to get ourselves to move forward. This ability to get yourself to do something, without any influence from another person, remote workers master.

Organized

Once you went down the rabbit hole of doing everything on the fly you quickly realize that you feel overworked, not as productive, and a little all over the place. After this realization the path toward a hyper-organized plan will evolve: you learn that by planning the day, you feel much more in control of your own destiny, more relaxed, and more clear.

How to? Planning your schedule helps you:

• Manage your time effectively,
• Organize your day’s activities for the best possible result,
• Work on the right projects at the right time.

Digital natives

With all the tools we have to use we learn quickly to evaluate new processes and wiggle our way towards understanding every new tool. There is actually a study around that says employees today have access to around 70!! tools. Well if that doesn't mean we know how to get the hang of all those digital work boosters in no time.

GRIT?

Remote workers limit distractions and focus their concentration to get things done no matter what might get in the way: the kids, TV, uninvited guests, and even the fact that your kitchen is just a few meters away with a bunch of delicious treats. Successful remote workers understand that they must work in a straight line to get from where they are to where they want to go without diversion or distraction

Intentional learning

Basically, everything within the remote world needs to be intentional but, very important as I believe, we specifically need to be intentional about our growth. If we just follow our routine day to day and finish the tasks we set, we might not develop much. Moreover, we specifically might not develop much in a way that we as humans learn best: Through social learning. My advice??

1. The best option with the least effort:

Test our beta tool – the EdTech tool connecting employees internally for skillsharing.

Sign up to see our demo: www.instill.so

1. Find out if you can partake in a project at work where you can develop new skills that you find interesting.
2. Make it a habit to read up on skills you might want to develop, then search and reach out to a colleague you believe could be a valuable connection in terms of your learning journey and the connection to the company you work for.

Luckily, and very importantly, all those approaches will grow your network within the company and build on that human connection that is so crucial for our development – and not even just randomly, but based on a purpose.

What I read this week

• How To Start Investing in Workplace Professional Development
• Employers’ Role In The Education-To-Employee Skills Gap
• The Future Is Fractional: How Remote Work Opened Doors For Decentralized Talent
• Study: Just how many remote workers are actually lonely?
• How Leaders And Employees Can Close The Connection Gap In The Post-Pandemic Workplace
• The office of the future: A whole new (floor) plan
• Hidden Talent: Where Skills Data Falls Short
• The secret to hiring is skills based
• Employees want more friends