Working from home tips and tricks
1. Dress for success
This might seem funny, but it matters. Going about a normal morning regiment makes your day more normal and effective. When you take a shower, brush your teeth, and do your hair, it’s your way of preparing for the day. Obviously, when you work from home you might not get as dressed up as you normally would going into an office, but you should make a modest effort.
Right now, companies are doing a lot of video conferencing instead of meeting in person, so you still need to be presentable on camera. You are still making an impression with colleagues and clients. In short, dress for success!
2. Make your home office your own
It is hard to keep your work and home lives separate when you work from home. But if you never disconnect from work, both your work and your personal life will suffer. It is easy to just work all the time and not sperate the two specific hours.
You can do this by physically designating a specific workspace or office to work in. You don’t necessarily need a home office for this. But it should be as separate from the rest of your home as possible. Maybe work in a spare bedroom, den, or even in the garage. By making an effort to separate work and home life physically it will help you separate them mentally as well.
3. Keep Clearly Defined Working Hours
Try your best to work normal hours as you generally would. It is important to stay disciplined and regimented. If you have to work with other people and collaborate, it makes it much easier as a teammate if you are available under normal hours. Plus, if you ever transition back to office work life, you will have an easier time if your schedule remained the same.
If you home roommates or live with a spouse who also works from home, keeping things separated is even more important. Make sure you communicate and set rules so you both can remove distractions. If you do this your relationships will be healthier because you will be able to devote full attention to them and full attention to work the right amount.
4. Telecommuting
If you work from home, you don’t have a commute. However, a normal commute is a way you mentally prepare for the day. Even if you aren’t commuting, you still need to carve out time to mentally prepare. If you read or listen to a podcast, still do that. If you used to work out before going to work, try and keep that same routine as much as possible.
Most people have certain tasks or things they do to mark the end of a workday. Make a habit to do something monumental to signal the end of the workday. Maybe take your dog on a walk for instance! Decompressing with something fun will go a long way to making working from home not seem too boring and monotonous.
5. Don’t watch the news too much
The news, television, and social media can be a big distraction. That is why it is one of the biggest challenges people face who work from home. We are all human and it is natural to get distracted. But if you do it too much you won’t get any work done, and your production will suffer. You don’t want to get fired for not being able to manage your time effectively.
Right now, it is easy to get pulled into the news. It is on all the time and it is a lot of negative information being spread. Most of us are working from home because of the pandemic, so naturally, it is on our minds. But you need to remember, no matter what is going on in the news, you don’t have to watch every second of it. One way you can combat this is to turn off the notifications on your phone and computer, and don’t have a television on near you.
6. Words matter
When you don’t have the ability to be in the same room as your co-workers, communication is key. That means communicating with them via different methods. It is easy to not communicate as regularly but you need to try. Most companies and messenger applications like Slack or Skype. Use them as much as you need and when in doubt, pick up the phone and call them. Taking on the phone or over video conference is the best way to communicate when you can’t be in the same room.
Remember that everyone is going through the same situation as you are and making this transition. So, don’t be shy about taking the initiative and communicate openly with your superiors and well as people you might manage. Even though we are all remote, regularly reporting on performance and updates still have to happen. If you want you and your company to do well during this time,
communication is key for an effective, productive, workday.
7. Leave time for small talk
When you start working from home one thing that stops is a lot of the casual conversations you have with co-workers. Our work friendships and social interactions are just as important as our work. You and your co-workers can get lonely if you don’t make an extra effort to connect. In the same way, you can use your communication channels to get work done, you can be a friend as well.
Just keep doing whatever you normally would do in the office. If you ask your coworkers about their day and their weekend, do that remotely all the same. Asking someone how their day is going or how they and their family are dealing with what is going on can go a long way. Everyone is affected by the pandemic in one way or another. You spend a lot of time with your co-workers so the healthier the relationships are at work, the better it is for everyone.