It's not for everyone!
I love working from home, I’ve been doing it for 24 years (give or take). I get the people interaction I need via zooms, Slack, email and the phone. There’s no commute, interruptions and best of all, no office politics. I’m lucky enough to work with a team and because we are all working remotely, I see the best side of them. Long lunches … early finishes … compulsive ‘chatters’, it doesn’t matter. I only see outcomes, and they’re good!
But it’s not for everyone. So this month, I thought I’d share some tips on how to work from home so your office too is a place where dreams come true 💥
“If we could be somewhere, experiencing the world in a beautiful setting while working, challenging ourselves, growing professionally, enjoying a community of like-minded people and connecting locally, what’s stopping us?”
10 tips to help make working from home, work for you
- Set and respect office hours. When you’ve finished work, finish!
- Don’t have your work email on your phone. If you absolutely have to have it there, turn off all your email notifications so you control when you check in.
- Turn off all notifications for your work apps when you’re not at work. And when you’re working on a task or project, they’re a distraction you don’t need.
- Have a dedicated space to work from. Whether you’re lucky enough to have a dedicated office or you’re working from your dining table, make it a calm and uncluttered area you enjoy being in. During the lockdowns we saw some real ingenuity, I had a friend who used her ironing board as her desk.
- Tell your friends (and family, unless you have littlies you’re working around) to respect your ‘office hours’. Like when you’re working in an office, by all means drop in for lunch … but working from home doesn’t mean not working.
- Look after yourself. Eat well, exercise daily, take little breaks often. Putting aside time for you will only improve your productivity (and state of mind 👍).
- Do you work better with background noise? I enjoy instrumental tracks in the morning when I’m at my most productive, and upbeat … even boogie-worthy songs in the afternoon when my energy is flagging.
- Be a home worker, not a lone worker. You’re working from home, not the moon. Interacting with other people during the day is allowed, even if they’re not your colleagues. It’s a good idea to see another face during the day when most of your workday is solitary. So, use your breaks to interact with others. Use all the tools at your disposal to interact with your colleagues so you still feel like part of a team.
- Be kind to yourself! Just like working in a physical office, some days working from home is hard. Go with the flow and be kind to yourself when you do have days you’re unproductive. Because you will … we all do!
- Home doesn’t have to be home. Grab your laptop or iPad and work from a cafe, park, beach, library, shared office space when you need a change of scenery. Turn ‘working from home’ to ‘working from anywhere’, you don’t need to board a plane to be a digital nomad.
A quick win for today is to identify one thing you struggle with about working from home. Now choose one of the tips above, or create your own solution, to eliminate what you’re struggling with. A change today will make a difference tomorrow.
