8 Tips to Work From Home That Worked For Me!

There are jobs of all kind and many of them have tremendous flexibility in this day and age of constant and pervasive connectivity. Some careers are entirely based out of home while a few do so sporadically. In the past, whenever I saw people around me working from home, I would say to myself, "Oh…I could never, ever do that”. I am so used to having people around me and interacting with atleast 70 -75 people across the office floor on a daily basis that being home bound meant zero interaction and given the kind of person I am, I could never quite digest that thought. I personally feel an office gives you a regimented schedule, coworkers give you social interaction and a physically present boss gives you accountability.

"How in the world is anyone supposed to get proper work done in the absence of all those things? Right??"

 I thought so too!

I stepped into the role of a Manager – Human Resources around 2 years ago knowing that my profile is people focused and handling people’s issues, so when our company announced “Work from Home” for a couple of weeks in the best interest of all the employees, at first I freaked out a little because for me it didn’t quite seem like the most workable idea. But during this time of crisis and no other available option...."What is it that I could do differently that would ensure sufficient productivity without me getting bored or irritable"

So, Day -1 arrived and I was working from home alongside my 11 year old whose exams were just around the corner, and two other generations of extremely strong women with me (my 64 year old mother and my 84 year old grandmother) Yeah! We’re 4 generations living under one roof! I needed to think and think fast on how I could make the most of this time without all 4 of us ending up tearing each other’s hair apart and also get my work done efficiently… but you know what? It wasn’t that bad! Here’s what helped me tide over this little hiccup and sail through the last week with the hope to be equally successful in the one ahead

1.     Early to rise!

For many, this may be the hardest part of working from home. With no office to go to, and no boss to tap his/her watch and give you an eye roll if you're late, there can often be little motivation to get up at a reasonable hour and start work. I was this close to getting tempted to snooze the morning alarm but I knew it wouldn’t be worth it.

Training yourself to get up on time like you have a job to go to, will get you into a routine that encourages productivity. Speaking from my personal experience here, that getting up in the morning turns you into a more proactive person, and I've found that it makes me much more productive, way more quickly. Waking up at 7:00 am every day allowed me to start work by practically 8:00. It wasn’t obscenely early like I usually wake up on school days, yet it was not 11 am either, like I'm some hungover college student who just remembered she has a term paper to finish.

Getting myself into this schedule was rather easy since I am have been disciplined, and having been this way for a sufficiently long time, I've found that my most productive time during the day has always been between 8:00 am - 12:00 noon. After breakfast, my mind is sharper. It's early in the day so I'm motivated to work harder, faster and more efficiently in the hope of finishing up the day early.

 2. Do yourself a favor and dress appropriately!

Next up and an important one at that…I know it's incredibly tempting when working from home to wear the most comfortable set of clothes whenever possible, especially since most of the time you're rolling out of bed and starting work soon after. Again, with no coworkers around, what's the point of dressing up you may feel, right? Why can't you be lounging around in a pair of pajamas or simply walk around in a pair of shorts/boxers all day until you're forced to emerge from your cocoon to seek actual human contact?

Well, let me tell you, it makes a huuuugggggeeeee difference! I read somewhere that further to a survey conducted, when we put on any garment, the wearer tends to adopt the characteristics associated with that piece of garment. Every kind of clothing has a symbolic meaning for each of us whether it is 'sophisticated work wear' or ‘chilled out weekend attire’ so when we put on clothes, we subconsciously instruct our brain to behave in ways consistent with that meaning.

In other words, if you wear lazy clothing all day when working from home, you are probably more likely to act and feel lazy, and therefore get less work done. There's a limit here, however. I'm certainly not asking you to over dress and wear formals and sit at your dedicated office space created at home with no one to appreciate your suave sense of style. But I am suggesting, on wearing actual clothes, something as simple as a pair of jeans and a t-shirt maybe, and trust me you’ll find yourself in a much better mindset than you would be in wearing those ‘oh so comfy pajamas’ that sneakily tempt you from your wardrobe!

3. Working out of your bed…. Bad idea!

Nope! Don’t even think about it!

I always found it easier to work out of a dedicated spot at home or the dining table sitting in the right posture that wouldn’t give me a backache that I would need to attend to later. But, ever since ‘Work From Home’ has been announced Nationwide, I have come across so many posts on Instagram of people I know captioning pictures taken from their beds as “Working from Home and its advantages” or "Little Perks of Working From Home".

Let me tell you, if wearing your pajamas while you’re working from home makes you lazy and less productive, working in bed triples that effect at the very least. Not only that, but it will stress you out to have the place where you do all your work also be the very spot where you try to relax and fall asleep at night. This also applies to working right next to where you sleep. I do understand that sometimes this may be the only place you may possibly have given your living space arrangements, but if you can avoid it, try to do so!

4. Make a schedule and try sticking to it!

This seems relatively self-explanatory, but most people will not be able to function properly working from home if they don't have at least some sort of regimented schedule guiding them. This can start with waking up at a set time each day, as I've mentioned earlier, which translates into whatever you need to get done in that given day.

Obviously this will depend on your job. In my line of work, I do a lot more that just working with people at my organization (eg: Recruitment, Blog writing, Social Media content to some extent to name a few) So here’s what I did…I chalked out a schedule for myself daily and struck off whatever I accomplished. This way, by the end of the day I had a fair idea about what needed to be looked into on priority the next day. I started early so I was able to wrap up majority of my tasks that were on priority in my most productive time of the day ie: 8:00 am – 12:00 noon, this way I did not miss deadlines of any kind and ended up accomplishing more than I expected. At times, I may not physically write down a schedule anymore, as it's all locked in my head. But when you're starting out for the first time, it may be helpful to do so.

5. Work out!

As I just mentioned, working from home allows you to schedule activities during your workday that you wouldn't normally be able to do in a traditional office. One of these is working out, and for me, it's an absolute must when working from home, and plays into both motivation and self-discipline especially since you are home bound and can't step out.

Most office jobs these days are relatively sedentary, but nothing compared to working from home in times of crisis. At this point, you're not even doing minimal walking around your office building like you would otherwise. Being in that sedentary type of lifestyle isn't just harmful for your health, it's terrible for your motivation and discipline. Working out of any kind gives you a boost of energy that's incredibly helpful for productivity. It gives you more clarity and simply makes you feel active throughout the day.

Planning a trip to the gym with all that is happening around is just impossible at the moment but what I highly recommend is trying out home workout programs or Yoga for that matter. They can seem goofy at first, as they have a stigma of being aimed at only homemakers, but honestly, these kind of programs have really turned my personal and professional life around. They take sometimes as little as 20 minutes to do, or an hour at the most, and if you stick with them, you'll be in amazing shape and have a brain that's firing on all cylinders every day. It always helps doing your workouts earlier rather than later, as that way you can reap the physical and psychological rewards for the entire day.

6. Reward yourself!

Another common refrain I hear from people who think they could never work from home (like myself until the last week) is "If I did that, I'd just sit around and watch TV all day." I'm here to tell you that if I could do this effectively, so can you!

One of the perks of working from home is that you can do whatever you want, whenever you want, but the whole point of this blog is to show how you have to balance it with actual productivity and discipline. Rather than simply sit down and binge watch a Season of 'The Game of Thrones', putting your actual work off until later part of the day, use the show as a reward.

Do two hours of solid work and then watch an episode of something. Get that one important project finished and play some PS4 for a little while. Turn these distractions into rewards, and then have the willpower to use them in moderation. Don't get carried away and convince yourself that an hour of work entitles you to five hours of a F.R.I.E.N.D.S marathon. But micro-rewards will go a long way to both making you feel accomplished, and giving you a brief respite to boot.

7. Check on your colleagues, friends, relatives!

In the last one week that I have been home, I have realized that working from home is a far cry from working in an office where you have coworkers you talk to day in and day out. So what I would suggest is, keep checking on your tribe through calls, messages, chat and various other available mediums. This is the way the world works now in many fields, so you have to adapt and improvise, and make up for the lack of human contact where you can. By interacting with your people on a regular basis, in whatever form, you'll continue to develop social skills that email and hangouts simply won't give you. Take time out and connect even if you wish to ask something as simple as “What’s cooking for dinner tonight?”

8. Nurture a new or old hobby to fill the dead space!

Despite the human interaction they provide, a regimented work-life full of meetings, seminars, training sessions, calls etc often make a workday far longer than it is required to be. Not to mention the raised eyebrows for leaving early, even if you've finished your work well before time. Clocking in those mandatory 9 hours is essential in most organizations. Working from home cuts through all that and as such, a 9-6 job might turn into a 9-2 job simply by trimming the fat from your workday.

But what to do with the extra time you might find yourself having after following my first seven steps? Again, there's the temptation to binge watch Netflix until your eyes fall out, but I highly suggest using it to take up a hobby or a side-project that's actually productive. It could be working out, like I said, or it could be something else you've always wanted to do.

Once I got my schedule down and streamlined the efficiency of my workday, I found I actually had this free time. I sat down and decided I'd do something I always wanted to and started on writing a book. Using the freedom working at home provides, I have started using my early-ending workdays to write. We people with more traditional jobs otherwise may not possibly find this kind of time, but now, with working from home, we are most likely to be able to streamline our own schedule so that we have time to take on another challenge. While it was writing for me, it could be painting for you or maybe sculpting for someone else. It could be learning to play a musical instrument, figuring out how to code, or any other thing that can help bolster your personal or professional life. Use the freedom of working from home to your benefit, and don't waste the opportunities it provides.

Now that we have reached the end of my blog… let me ask you all a question…

Is working from home for everyone? ABSOLUTELY NOT!!

 As someone who loves being around people most of the time…I'm certainly not predisposed to adapt to that sort of scenario, and I understand why it would be hard for most people like me too. Trust me, it's not easy and definitely requires a lot of effort. The situation we are currently in and knowing that this way of working may continue for some more time, although I miss having my colleagues around me, I am slowly learning to adapt and accept the shift in my temporary work environment, to make my own schedule, work at my own pace, accomplish all my tasks and nurture a hobby.

During this if I can discipline myself enough to get my work done on time and find the motivation to enjoy it, I believe you can too!

These are testing times and this too shall pass...