Working From Home

Even before COVID-19, working from home was on the rise. However, it is already clear that the recent lockdowns around the world have changed the view of most companies towards working from home forever.

There are clearly many benefits associated with working from home, or from not having to commute to an office somewhere in the city, like having more time for the family, not having to get up as early, working in an environment that you can truly make your own, etc…

There are however, some downsides as well. Most importantly the fact that the boundaries between work and private live have become very blurry indeed.

1. Plan your workday

See my articles on ‘Priority Management’ and ‘Being Busy’ for some useful tips.

Use your calendar and start by putting in your main targets and deliverables. Work backwards from the deadline, break down the target into milestones and individual tasks and plan them in a realistic way to guide you to the deadline (ideally with some time to spare).

“If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning.And if it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.”

-- Mark Twain

Where do you expect the most challenges? Do that task as soon as possible, since you might encounter delays (e.g. you are depending on results being shared with you by colleagues or third-parties). It’s synonymous to starting your day with eating a live frog, get the worst thing out of the way immediately so that the next tasks look blissfully simple by comparison and also to clear your mind – if you know you still have a daunting task ahead, it might distract you from what you are doing at the moment.

2. Dedicated workspace

Since you are working from you own home, you can make your workspace as personal as you like. Now we are all different and there is no ideal way to organise your workspace that would suite everybody, but there are a few guidelines that I think will be

• How much noise there is around you will depend on where you live. But internally you can set up your workplace away from the noisiest parts of the house of away from the busy road at the front if that is the case. You can also use noise-cancelling headsets.
• Natural light is one that is often neglected but very essential. And to top up on light, sun and vitamin D, don’t forget to go for walks, ideally is a natural environment. I am blessed to have a lot of green around where I live and will go for walks on a daily basis.
• What the right temperature is, is very personal, and that might be a challenge when you are working from home with your spouse and/or children who are doing home schooling. Have an open and honest discussion about it and find solutions that can be win-win for all involved.
• Look for essentials like a good chair with a good back support, having a computer with a monitor that is set up correctly, remote keyboard and mouse, so you are not working bend over your laptop. A lot of people have those things at the office, but not necessarily at home. Check if your company has a program to help its employees acquire some of these essentials for the home office.

3. Be as productive as you can during ‘office hours’

As I already pointed out, the lines between work and private live do get blurry, but try to set up blocks of ‘office hours’ where you yourself do not engage in any non-work activities, like personal calls, messages, … and you make it clear to the other people at home that you are not to be disrupted. This can be a challenge when there are children at home doing home schooling. But they have their need for un-interrupted blocks as well, so try to synchronise those blocks.

Switch off your email client: check your emails on specific times, don’t let your email client interrupt you continuously.

Keep any distraction out of sight, be honest with yourself as to what distracts you.

Again, have productive conversations as a family to solve any issues. Always remember you are all in this together. When having these kinds of conversations, actively listening to the other people involved is crucial. Don’t project your own thoughts before understanding what the other person needs.

A TED talk that might inspire you to truly listen is this one:

Sophie Andrews - The Best Way to Help is Often to Just Listen

4. Establishing a flexible remote work routine

I personally find that having a routine, without it being too restrictive, helps to reduce the stress of constantly having to think about what you are supposed to do next.

• Have a healthy breakfast, lunch, dinner: take care of what you eat and when you eat
• Hydrate: drink sufficient water, to allow your brain to work efficiently and for your body to function properly.
• Always start your day with planning it (see Point-1)
• Have intentional breaks: Make yourself a coffee or tea, go for a short walk, even if it’s just in the garden. During breaks, when your mind is not focused consciously on a specific task at hand, your creativity will go up, which might help you find a solution for something you have been blocked with all morning. My family and I go for walks around the neighbourhood and we installed a trampoline in the garden to let ourselves go for half an hour from time to time.
• Be okay with changing your routine: be honest whether you feel you are being productive. If not, change what is blocking you from being productive. Take accountability for your own work day and talk to those around you to find solutions.

5. Create balance

Since we are now spending most of our time (both waking and sleeping hours) within our own home, there is an important need to balance out work with free time.

Obviously, people have different ideas of what to do with their free time. I just wanted to share a few ideas.

Physical exercise: in whatever form you enjoy it most, but it’s so important for us to move, to get the blood flowing, the re-charge our batteries.

Wendy Suzuki - The Brain Changing Benefits of Exercising

Hobbies: we all have our favourite was to pass time. If you are looking for a new hobby, this TED talk could be an inspiration for you:

Shantell Martin - How Drawing Can Set You Free

Reading: spend time every day to read half an hour. Read about things to allow your mind to grow. It’s great to read up on the technical information you need to be good at your job, but ideally you schedule that in as part of your work day. I would encourage you to also read something outside of your normal field of expertise, in order to learn new things, to expand your understanding. I personally prefer to read a physical book, but there are many sources of information these days. I put in several TED talks in this article on purpose to give you some inspiration. Reading long articles or entire books not only helps with sustaining your focus for a longer time (short attention span is becoming an issue these days due to the bite-sized articles and tweets that float around), it will also give you more detailed information about the topic at hand.

Take care of yourself: apart from physical exercise, something that is often neglected is taking care of our emotional, mental health.

Sangu Delle - There's No Shame in Taking Care of Your Mental Health

Susan David - The Gift and Power of Emotional Courage

Ryan Martin - Why We Get Mad and Why It's Healthy?