How To Work From Home

For many people who have been sent home to work, attempting to be productive from home can be a new challenge. As I've been doing it for three years, I'd like to offer some advice that will provide some insight on how to maintain your sanity as well as get your work done.

Find A Space

One of the biggest challenges to effectively completing your work is the number of new distractions you may encounter. You now have the ability to pay attention to pets, family members and even domestic tasks. The best way to avoid being distracted is to find a place that is dedicated to your work. Not everyone has the luxury of a spare bedroom or a place that has a door which can be closed. Regardless, you should attempt to separate yourself from others as much as possible. It might be worthwhile attempting to move a bookcase or shelf to a corner to try and provide some visual barrier from distractions. Additionally, a set of headphones (ideally noise-cancelling) can be very effective to provide further isolation from distractions.

Set Expectations

If you are at home and you have others with you, you'll need to make it very clear that you are not at home for leisure time. Spouses, roommates, children and even pets will be (hopefully) thrilled that you're home. They will seek your attention which is nice at first, but can prove to be an unwelcome disruption when you're trying to concentrate. Set the expectation that when you're in your dedicated work space that you should be permitted to work without distraction. This includes being mindful of the sounds they make.

Set A Schedule (And Stick To It)

When working remotely, it's easy to fall into a strange reverie where work ceases to become a thing you do, but more a continuum that blends personal time with work time. The way to avoid this condition is to set some rules and adhere to them.

It might be tempting to make some coffee (or tea for the weak among us) and stroll over to your computer in your jammy bottoms. "Ha ha, best commute ever!" The problem with this is that you've already erased the start of your day. You're not dressed, you may not smell all that great and if you get busy, you won't get around to fixing either of these. If you bring the odd-sock basket to your desk, you're not going to be very effective with your work. The end of the day will come and you'll feel guilty about not getting enough done and probably end up trying to make up time into the evening. Now the people in your home are less thrilled that you're home, frustrated by the smell and you never stop working.

You should have a normal morning--get up, work out, shower, get dressed, have your breakfast and THEN get to work. It will prevent the erasure of the day's start/end and your housemates will not recoil from the sight or smell of you. You should also set some times where you can step away to eat something and even throw a load of laundry through if you're feeling ambitious. Domestic tasks don't have to be strictly forbidden, but you want to maintain strong discipline where you are ONLY doing them during the time you've allotted.

Voice And Video Calls

For most of those who are office workers, we take meetings via Skype, WebEx, Zoom, or similar platforms. Now that you're at home, you will have to consider how you're going to handle the typical sounds of your home. If you have a room with a door, be sure to close it BEFORE your meeting. Noisy pets and children are funny now and again, but when you're "that person" who sounds like they live in a daycare (doggy, child or otherwise), it will work against your credibility. Looking back to setting expectations, hopefully you've asked your housemates not to run the blender or leaf blower and any children know that they won't be able to play "who can scream the loudest" during work hours.

When it comes time to actually participate in your meeting, please ensure that you're not the person who can't figure out how to make your audio work properly. If you're using different audio equipment at home from what you did in the office, please make sure that you spend the time to test how it works and how it sounds. Personally, I've spent the first five minutes of almost every meeting where SOMEONE just cannot figure out how to adjust their audio properties so that their microphone isn't turned down so that nobody can hear them or turned way up and deafen the other callers. Probably the most important change is to build the new habit of being on mute ALL THE TIME unless you're actively speaking. As you cannot control when your neighbor decides to fire up a chainsaw, the best approach is to be muted unless speaking. Most conferencing applications use the space bar as a mute key--figure out how you can quickly mute and unmute yourself.

If you're expected to use video conferencing, you now have some additional concerns that you want to address prior to your first meeting. If you've followed the earlier advice and have dressed and groomed yourself suitably, you're one step ahead. Now that you look presentable, you should consider the environment around you by turning on your camera and having a look at what's behind you. While there's no accounting for taste, you may want to think about what your colleagues may have to say about what they can now see of your home. Ideally, the view doesn't include anything visually distracting so that your coworkers aren't focused on the questionable paint color you may have selected instead of what you're saying.

Once the background is under control, you should also consider what you look like from your laptop's webcam. Most people have their laptop sitting on their desk where it is comfortable to type. Sadly, this position gives viewers a great shot of what's up your nose--literally. If you can acquire an external keyboard, you should consider raising your laptop so that they camera is level with your eyes. Also, very few people look good with the notably poor quality of light that a laptop screen generates. I don't imagine that anyone will be winning an award for "Best Lighting From a Laptop Webcam" anytime soon, it doesn't hurt to consider your lighting. If you're in a darker room, your only light comes from the laptop screen which is typically very blue--this can make you look gray which isn't flattering for anyone. If you can add some warmer light from an external source, you should do so. A desk lamp that has a bulb with a warm color temperature can help tremendously. There are even USB-powered ring lights that you can use to add a touch of quality to your appearance.

Here are some examples of your basic webcam approaches:

This is me with my laptop flat on my desk looking at the monitor above it with no lighting beyond a little natural daylight and my monitors. Not exactly appealing, but this is what most people settle for.

In this image, I've raised my laptop with a five inch tall box which puts the camera level to my eyes. This makes looking at the camera more natural (even if I can't muster a half-decent smile).

In this image, I've warmed up a bit by using overhead lighting, but it has the unfortunate effect of throwing shadows downward, adding a delightful shine to my forehead and highlights the door behind me more than anything else. While the color temperature is better, the placement is not.

In this final image (whew), I've turned off the overheads, the laptop is still on a box and I've put a small lamp with diffused shade on my desk. While the improvements are subtle, it is a welcome change from the original image.

With a little planning and discipline, working from home can be an enjoyable change and you will remain productive.