20 useful tips for those who work from home – PART 1
I’ve been working from home for several years now, when I started there was no such tutorial or BLOG in place, everything I know now is based on what I have learned over the years, often with trial and error approach.
These days many are working from home as a result of Covid pandemic, whichever job could have been done in office environment is likely to be done from comfort of your home. If you are just starting your trip or perhaps you are doing it for a while but struggle with it, these tips will help you to stay productive and maintain the balance.
There always be challenges to face, not only because we all have different personalities, but also due to our various lifestyle choices and the type of work we do. There are still many of the core issues we face as remote workers and they happen to be the same.
Every person who started the remote work journey has to figure out when to work, where to work and how to create boundaries between your work and personal life. How about your office equipment, career development and progression, training opportunities, building relationships with clients as well as your colleagues?
Here is the list of 10 first tips leading a better, more productive and happier life based on combined experience of mine and people I have worked with. There will be list of another 10 next week ! Stay tuned for that.
- Maintain regular working hours
You absolutely must set a schedule and stick to it, no matter what. When a person have a clear guidelines for when to work and when to stop working it helps a remote worker maintain healthy work-life balance. With that in mind, one of the benefits of working remotely is flexibility, sometimes you will have to extend your day or start earlier to accommodate to someone’s else schedule. When you do that, be sure to wrap up earlier than usual or sleep in a bit the next day to make up for it.
There are many time tracking apps and programs, but there is nothing wrong with set of reminders or alarms on your phone. Prepare the working day beforehand and you will stay on top of your agenda. You cannot let time to control you, you have skills to control the time (at least the one you spend on working).
- Create and stick to a morning routine habit
Making a decision that you will kick off your day at certain time by sitting at your desk is a one thing. Creating a habit which will rule the order of things to be done is another. What is your morning routine which indicates that there is a time to start work? It could be making a cup of coffee and taking time to actually savour it before you start looking at your to-do list. It might be returning home after your morning exercise. It could could be you getting dressed. Routine is very powerful tool and you can stay on top of it by simply creating a good morning habit.
- Set the ground rules with the other people in your space
When you don’t live alone, and there are other people at your home you need to create clear rules for when you work and what can and cannot be expected from you during the work hours. The earlier you draw a line and explain that during time you work you will be not available for anything else, better that would be in the future. When you start doing “little” home jobs, it will be expected forever no matter how busy you will be at work. This will only lead to arguments and misunderstandings.
- Do not forget to schedule your breaks
To begin with you need to know your company’s policy on break times and simply you have to use them. If you are working for yourself instead you also need to dedicate the time when you walk away from the computer screen.
- Take small breaks During the work
Do not short your regular breaks, I will go as far saying to take more small breaks during the day so you will not feel overwhelmed with work and you will have some breathing space, I’m talking about small 5 minutes breaks, these would really help with your mental health.
- Leave your home
Leave the building you are living in at least once a day, you need to move your body, get the fresh air as well as natural light. You obviously do not have to go to the crowded public spaces, just take a walk, focus on nature around you, breath in, breath out…
- Never hesitate to ask for what you need
If you are employed by a company, make sure there in an understanding in place on who is responsible for your working equipment, is that you who have to spend your own money on furniture, computers etc, or maybe work has a budget in place?
It is very important that you will be able to work with good standards and get your job done comfortably. If your work place is not happy to provide you with any tools and your salary is smaller than what others earn at the same position, sorry to say, but you need to get out and find some other company to work for.
- Keep your dedicated office space
Ideally you need a room where you can shut the door and focus on your work, however people who unexpectedly landed in remote work environments may not have a spare room, therefor make sure you will create a working space within the space you already have.
- Maintain a separate phone number
You should have a business phone number for your colleagues and clients but you should also have a separate one for family, friends and your home related affairs. If you keep separate phone numbers you will manage your work-life balance successfully.
- Use a VPN
This is more for your safety, you are perhaps sending emails and accessing work data from your home, you do not want this to be at risk. With VPN you are safer but also monitor your behaviour, you do not want to use it for personal gains when connecting to company VPN as your work could be monitored.
Next week we will focus on other 10 tips.
Are there any tips you’d like to add? Do you have problems with implementing anything into your daily routine? Make sure to let me know in the comments section below.
All the best,
Lucas
