Working From Home Now? Engage Your Senses

At this point in the COVID-19 pandemic many of my colleagues, friends and family are learning what it means to work from home. Some have been forced into workplace social distancing despite their social nature, others have grinned at their car in the driveway as memories of gridlock rapidly fade. Regardless of whether you are where you want to be, if you're at your computer right now inside your new home-office/dining-room/basement/spare-room/three-seasons-room-that-you-knew-would-come-in-handy-one-day then there are some tricks you can try to stay focused, be productive and be a positive influence on your team, even if they can't see your smiling face. I'm going to share two tips with you that involve your senses and have been the most important for me in working from home.

I'm coming up on 4 years of working from home and went through a phase of seeking out articles and blogs that could get me thinking outside the box. These were all very helpful and I recommend you do some googling to find recent content that might help you. After some time however, it all comes down to you and who you are. Some people need to set boundaries between work-time and home-time. Some people need structure to ensure they put in enough good work hours. Some people need a reminder to stand up once an hour, some people need a reminder to sit back down!! You will have unique needs and so my first tip for working from home is this:

• Set aside a designated time to stop what you're doing and take a breath.
• Clean off your work surface so that there is nothing there that can distract you or clutter your brain. Mute your phone and email.
• Listen to what your brain and body are telling you. Are you hungry? Are you tired? Are you irritable? Are you bored? Do you have pain in your neck? Are you anxious? None of these questions are specifically important. What is important is that you stopped to listen.
• Make note of what you felt. If you are tired, set a goal to get more sleep or exercise. If you are sore, get to the bottom of why. Is your chair 6 cm too low or three legged stool that you found in your storage locker? If you are anxious, try to figure out why. Is it because of your twitter feed? Is it because your kids are getting stir crazy? Make a plan to mitigate whatever it is that is cropping up. Your ability to follow up on these actions will make or break your home work effectiveness. After you have identified problems and an action plan it's all on you whether you succeed or fail, not on COVID-19.
• Do this once a day until you're practiced enough to instantly notice when you're feeling off in the middle of your work day and make a change to offset it immediately before it grows into a real problem.

You may find that by not listening to your body's signals you will end up dreading your new work arrangement! You might say things like "I'm just not wired to work from home" or "why am I so tired all the time now! Do I have the Coronavirus?!" It could just be that since no one is stopping by your desk you are cranking out more creative hours than you have every done in one sitting. This can be exhausting for someone who is constantly interrupted at work or is an extrovert and is constantly interrupting other people. That's okay! Get up, walk around, call a friend, call a co-worker. Things are different now and you have schedule in disruptions in your day because no one is going to pull you outside of your own work flow.

My second tip: Leverage your senses to create different spaces without leaving your isolated work-space.

• Manage your food - If you don't get this right, you could ruin your whole day. A well timed cup of coffee, tea or even glass of water can alter your state of mind. Poorly timed, however, and you could have a problem on your hands. Food should be managed according to your body and this is were it is so critical to stop, listen and learn whether you are hungry or just need to move around or talk to someone. I found in my first few months at home that I was constantly visiting the fridge just to stay focused. The tools below helped me get that under control. Leverage your food as a strategic boost, don't let it rule your day.
• Turn on some music - I find that if I put on some music at the right moment I can change my whole mental state and give me another power-hour to get stuff done. Pro-tip: Know when to change the music genre or TURN THE MUSIC OFF! This can be so critical. Some people leave music running all day long. That's fine if you're in a warehouse and you need some background noise to drown things out. If it's the ONLY noise in your space it will occupy part of your brain. Turning it off or changing from techno to jazz will re-adjust that part of your brain that is getting worn out by the constant sound "daily mix 1" on Spotify.
• Light a candle, open a room door or open a window - Adding a scent or change of airflow to your work-space can make you feel like you have changed the environment just enough to keep it appealing.
• Change the lighting - Switch from a lamp to overhead to whatever you have at your disposal. Pro-tip: Natural light is always best. If you have a window, let that light in no matter what! On a cloudy, rainy day, use that diffused light to change your mood and make it feel like you're in a different space! It's good to have a gloomy day because it makes the sunny one's stand out. If you don't seek out the natural light you'll never experience change which is not good.
• Move around the house: If you are able, spend some time in a different room once in a while. Pro-tip: Always be sure to return to your main work-space. Just like a visit to Starbucks (oh how I miss Starbucks right now!) can be a jolt to the senses with the smells, change in light and background noise, you need to "get back to work" at some point to get that warm fuzzy that you are part of the larger organization and not a rogue reporter going wherever the wind blows and the contracts are signed.

That last part can be very important. Remaining part of the team and feeling like your part of something bigger than yourself is crucial to your social well being when you are physically separated from the action. Your ability to control your brain and body will change how you interact with your team and let's face it, we could all use as much positivity as we can muster these days. I could write more about how to engage with your team but I'll save this for later. I gave myself 45 mins on my lunch to do this today because I stopped, listened to my brain and had a creative spark to share my experiences!

I hope you stay safe, listen to social-distancing guidelines for your workplace and get the chance to put into practice some of these tools that I keep close at hand every day.