Over the past week, several friends and clients have mentioned the difficulty they’re having adjusting to working from home. Maybe you’re feeling that way too?
As someone who has spent years working from home and on distributed teams, I thought it might be helpful to share my best do’s and don’ts of working from home to help make your adjustment easier.
Here’s what I’ve found to work well and what to avoid.
Do’s:
Create a dedicated work space
Whether it’s a desk, your kitchen table, or even a tray table, create a dedicated space to do your work. When you sit down there, you’re working. When you’re elsewhere in your apartment or home, you’re not. This will help you stay motivated and set work boundaries so you don’t bringing work into bed with you or don’t just lounge on the couch all day.
Set a start and end time for yourself
When you work from home, it’s easy to let the lines blur between work and personal life. That’s especially easy right now when we’re all quarantined and don’t have plans outside of our homes. So decide what time you want to start work each morning and what time you want to stop. Outside of those timeframes, do whatever you want with your time. Hold yourself accountable to this schedule as much as possible - routines are helpful for focus, motivation, and efficiency!
Make time for breaks
While I just suggested making a start and finish time for the day, it’s also important to take breaks within that timeframe as well. Think about it, if you went to the office, you wouldn’t literally be sitting at your desk from 9-5 all day every day. You’d get up to talk to coworkers, grab lunch, go to the bathrooms, take a walk, etc. Bake those breaks into your WFH day too.
Some people find it helpful to use certain time management techniques like the Pomodoro Technique, where you focus on work for 50 minutes, then take 10 minutes off. After that you do the next round of 50 minutes on, 10 minutes off. Rinse and repeat. (You can also do this in blocks of 25 minutes on and 5 minutes off if that works better for you.)
Move your body
Along with taking breaks, make sure you make time for movement throughout the day. Even if you can fit in a workout before or after your working hours, it’s still not good to just sit the rest of day. So make sure some of your breaks throughout the day include moving your body, whether that’s a few sun salutations or walking the dog. Do what feels best for your body.
Press “mute”
When you’re on a conference or video call, please please please press “mute” when you’re not speaking! This will help reduce the amount of background noise during the call, help everyone stay focused, and facilitate a more productive conversation.
Everyone will thank you, trust me.
Set some ground rules
If there are multiple people in your house or apartment, set some agreed upon WFH ground rules. Maybe you designate different spaces for each other or agree that if someone has a call, they get to use the room with a door. Have a conversation about what each of you needs in your environment to feel successful and be respectful of each other’s needs.
You’ll all be a lot happier and have fewer moments of conflict if you take the time up front to discuss this stuff.
Don’ts:
Stay in your pjs
When working from home it’s super duper easy to roll out of bed and sit down at your computer without even thinking about it. Suddenly it’s 2pm and you realize you’re still in your pjs. It’s not great for your productivity and motivation though.
While you now need less time to get ready for work in the morning, I suggest changing out of your pjs into comfortable professional clothes at a minimum. Some days this might look like jeans and a blouse, others it might mean yoga pants and a top (you know, business on top, comfort on bottom). Wear whatever will help you feel focused on work and not like it’s a snow day.
Walk around while on a video call
When you’re on a video call, follow the same meeting etiquette as you would if you had meeting in a conference room. Don’t get up and walk around! If you’re on the phone with no video, it’s fine to move around a bit, but with video on, sit and stay attentive. Be professional - the same as you would at the office.
For more video call best practices, I recommend checking out this great post by Seth Godin.
Forget to make time for fun and socialization
Yes, you’ve now brought work home for the foreseeable future, but that doesn’t mean all of your waking hours need to be spent working.
Make time to FaceTime with friends and coworkers (and discuss things other than work). Set a challenge for yourself (like discovering the best chocolate cookie recipe) or with your colleagues (one person I know started a plank challenge with their team). The world feels heavy right now, so all the more reason to find some ways to lighten up and enjoy yourself too.
Be hard on yourself
There is no totally right way to work from home. Some of my tips might work for you; others may not. It might take some trial and error for you to figure out what works best for you. If something doesn’t work, don’t beat yourself up. See it as a way to find out how to set yourself for the best possible time while WFH. Even after years of experience, I’m by no means perfect at all of my suggestions - and that’s okay! You do you!
Anything else related to working from home that you’re particularly struggling with? Let me know in the comments below or email me at carolyn@compassmaven.com and I’ll get you some more suggestions!
Additionally, I’ll be hosting free virtual WFH office hours over the coming weeks to answer any questions you may have. It'll be a group format with no specific agenda - just open time for you to ask your WFH questions.
If you're interested in joining, please click here to RSVP for a session and I'll send you the video conference info!
Be well,
Carolyn