Working from home is a perk that many employers offer, and at the moment something that is highly encouraged. Working from home can be tricky for people that have never done it before, and it can be difficult to separate your work and personal life when they are both happening under the same roof.
There are many simple, yet effective changes that you can introduce to your environment and mindset that will ensure you are getting a healthy work/life balance and staying focussed.
We’ve put together a list of tips that will help you make the most out of your working day from home, combat loneliness and increase your productivity.
1. Set up an appropriate workspace
You may be tempted to grab your laptop and sit in the comfort of your own bed and get on with the day, but this will just lead to a drop of motivation and feeling lethargic. Finding an area of your house where you can set up your equipment and have a dedicated office space will make it easier for you to focus and avoid distractions.
2. Set yourself working hours
Stick to working the hours that you would be working as if you were in an office. Don’t dip in and out of work throughout the day, set yourself a specific start time and a finish time over 8 hours. If you find yourself more productive first thing in the morning, start a little earlier, but make sure this works with your team so you can keep up communication.
3. Create a morning routine
Once you have decided what hours you are working, create a routine from waking up to getting to your desk. Now you have the benefits of extra time without your commute, consider using this time to do something productive and energising such as going for a walk / clearing any little bits of housework. Allowing time to get yourself up and ready as if you were going to the office will put you in the right mindset, and avoid any embarrassing bedhead video calls.
4. Structure your day as if you were in the office
Give yourself breaks throughout the day as if you were in the office. You may feel like you shouldn’t be taking any breaks to grab a coffee or get some fresh air because you’re at home and that you need to dedicate your entire day to working without interruptions but this is more likely to kill your productivity. Take a couple of short breaks to ‘brew up’ and your full lunch break, try and get fresh air as much as you can.
5. Manage expectations of the people around you
Set boundaries with the people that you’re living with, make them aware of your working hours and ask them to respect that, keeping distractions and noises at a minimum. This can be difficult when living with people that want your attention, particularly with the current school closures and managing work and family needs.
I’m sure we all remember this iconic moment from a BBC video conference, while it may provide laughs during any video conferences, it can be a major distraction.
6. Stay away from digital distractions
Staying at home may seem like the perfect chance to catch up on some TV that you’re behind on, or catching up with your friends on social media. All of this will result in a drop of productivity, and distract you from your work tasks. Avoid turning the TV and checking your phone for non-work related things until your breaks or the end of the day.
7. Use communication based apps to keep connected with colleagues
Working from home may be a bit daunting to start with, and may end up with you feeling somewhat lonely and unsure of what to do with yourself. This can be combated by staying in touch with your colleagues. There are many apps that allow this, such as Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts and Slack. These are all team based communication apps that allow instant messaging and video conferencing between several people.
8. Make daily and weekly to-do lists
Setting some time at the beginning of the week and your day to focus on what tasks need to be completed will give your working days structure. This can be done individually or as a team using a communication based app. Apps such as Asana and Trello are perfect for managing workloads, distributing tasks and being able to see what everyone is working on. This will help you manage deadlines and focus on priorities.
9. Create a motivating playlist
This might not work for everyone and could just be as distracting as having the TV on. However, many people find listening to background music makes the workspace much more positive and productive. Compiling a playlist of your favourite songs that will help you keep focus, this could even be a fun task to do with your colleagues to keep it varied and more like being in the office. Alternatively, find one of the many that are already set up in music streaming apps such as Spotify / Apple Music.
If you’re feeling like working from home and staying indoors too much is taking its toll on your mental health, please reach out to either our designated safeguarding team or many of these helplines that offer free and confidential support.
Check in on your co-workers as well as your loved ones, be kind to each other and try to stay positive in these uncertain times.
Learners can also benefit from a range of online, distance learning courses, designed to enable you to upskill in a number of key areas and from the comfort of your own home. https://www.b2wgroup.com/distance-learning/
