WFH - WTF .. let's WFG?

Heading toward six months 'WFH' like the rest of us who are lucky enough to continue careers working from home, without needing to put ourselves in harms way (huge respect to those who cannot!) I feel blessed.

There are a lot of blogs and pieces of content marketing bemoaning the downsides of working from home, and whilst it comes with its own challenges, there are things that can help whilst we have few alternatives..

Measure expectations - this is by no means normal, 'new normal' or 'old normal' - measure your own progress and successes by output and impact, not by time spent and be kinder to yourself.

Remain creative - yes its difficult, no you can't brainstorm on whiteboards, but getting a good group of people together to bounce ideas around on a common aim is still possible, and great results can follow - as you will all see in the coming weeks (excited!)

Remain active - whatever that means to you (for me its messing about dancing with my five year old daughter during breaks between calls, getting a standing desk so I can wander about whilst thinking, get a decent bluetooth speaker which can double up to improve calls, but also used to play music lightly in the background!).

Remain connected - don't ALWAYS need a reason to connect with colleagues, in a normal office environment you would stop by desks to say Hi, use messaging systems to do the same, sometimes without a purpose - it builds relationships, brings social interactions (albeit in a different format) and makes you feel better!

Be clear - with expectations on you, and what you expect - use video facilities where ever possible - avoid the faceless nature of phone calls without video, so you can connect person to person and spot non verbal signs - when you do - for god sake be present!

If you have an opportunity to - have a defined space for work - I found it very difficult to switch off with work in the next room to where I slept .. my WFH has just turned into WFG (Work from Garden) and Blue Prism Chelmsford is now officially open!

Quieter space, no stress trying to keep kids quiet, and I can lock the door on the way out!

My bet - we are in this mode for a while yet - plan forward for it, make the changes you need to make, learn from it, embrace it, be grateful.

**Updated - as I woke this morning I realised another key factor I missed - get up at the same time as you would for 'normal' work, follow the same routine (ok, maybe with a slight diversion to send the kids some love), get dressed as you usually would - routine .. follow routine!!