Before this week our team at It’s Your Time worked communally from our offices. But with COVID-19 we felt it wise to have our staff move into their home offices so we could stay health and strong to support our clients and each other. However, back in the early days of It’s Your Time, when it was just me, I worked from my home office every day. While working from home is often heralded as the nirvana of work situations, for those of us that like engaging with people and are extroverted it can be difficult to cope. Even introverts, without a routine, can slip into the world of housecoat wearing, unwashed unproductive work at home masses. Here is my list of top 5 tips for working from home.
1. Keep your morning routine.
Get up, shower and get dressed like you normally would. I get it, you don’t have to commute, fine – sleep in an extra 30 minutes or so. But get up, get showered, get dressed, have your coffee and breakfast. Now that you have more time add meditation or yoga or some other pleasure activity. BUT GET UP, GET SHOWERED, GET DRESSED. Your morning routine wakes up your body and mind, telling it it’s time to work. It helps you feel like you have something to do and a purpose for your day. It also ensures that when you have that zoom call you don’t look like your client just woke you up out of bed.
2. Calendar Block.
It’s so easy when you work from home to throw your laptop on the kitchen table and just start working over breakfast and right through dinner. The truth is though that often that time is less productive than if you worked your regular hours in a focused and intentional manner. Think about what you need to get done in the day and block it out in your calendar. I like to use colour in my calendar to represent the different types of activities. It is a further cue to my brain on what to expect of my day.
3. Find ways to be social.
Back in the old days when I started my business this was easy: attend networking events, work at a café on occasion, go out with friends. NOW it’s a lot harder. At It’s Your Time we have a daily huddle and a coffee break on zoom. We’ve scheduled a public coffee break in the afternoons (join us). Suggest to your team to have your own zoom coffee break (no business chatter – just social), Facetime your friend while you both cook dinner, check out Netflix Party and watch a movie with friends.
4. Be mindful of the “whys”.
This includes your “why” and we encourage our team to remember their clients’ “why”. It will help you stay engaged and eager to do the work at hand. Data entry is never a fun job; data entry while sitting alone in your bedroom or kitchen table . . . Remember who you’re helping by doing your job well; and, how doing your job well supports your own why.
5. Schedule Breaks.
This ties into the calendar blocking mentioned above. Schedule breaks every hour – even if only for 5 minutes. It’s easy when working from home to just keep working. It’s super hard to stay working productively for long stretches without taking a break. Stop, get up, stretch, get a glass of water, dance to a favourite song, kiss your kids . . . and then return to the next activity blocked in your calendar. You will feel more rejuvenated and have an increased ability to focus on the next task at hand.
So those are my tips – what helps you work from home?