In a previous post, the Crave of Connectedness, I spoke to our need to be living in community, to have connection with others. I believe that is true for our personal lives as well as our professional lives. My new job has allowed me to work from home more, which is a blessing when I face a very long commute right now. But it can also lend itself to me being lazy, distracted or just not as productive as I would normally be. I’ve noticed some best practices to working from home that has helped me keep up with my workflow, and still feel human (rather than work from home, or WFH, zombie). Here are some guidelines if you find yourself working from home more or just need to mix things up a little bit!
Top Ten Things to Do While WFH:
- Sunshine- sit near a window or work outside for some part of the day. Being near sunshine helps you remember you are not in a cave. But in relation to this, open the blinds or windows too! Let the fresh air in or natural light come through. It’ll make a world of difference.
- Stay active- One of the first things I noticed when I started working from home more consistently is how much I don’t move compared to when I am in the office. So now I am setting a timer (or you can use your smartwatch) to remind myself to get up, walk around the house or the neighborhood for a few minutes every hour or so. It acts as a brain break and stimulation, helps you refresh to face the next task or meeting. It is a good thing to do to transition from one work activity to another. But also in addition to walking around throughout the day, keep up with your workouts! Maybe you need to switch to doing them at home or go to the gym at different hours, but whatever you do don’t give them up completely. You need them, probably more now that you are working from home more than you did before.
- Be mindful of your eating habits.- When I am home, I tend to snack more than I normally would because the food is just right there ALL THE TIME. I started to write down when I eat and what, noting the time. I want to eat something every couple of hours, but I want to make sure I’m not just eating one thing after another every few minutes! Because I would totally do that. So I keep track. Not for calories, but for knowledge and mindfulness (which is my word for this year, so it goes with my personal goals too!)
- Opt for Colleague Coffee- I miss my work friends. So we decided to get together every day for a few minutes to just chat and have coffee together, over Zoom (video chat). This helps us not feel so alone in our work, but also to remember we are part of a team! We are all in this together (and yes, I did start singing the High School Musical song right then. Was there really a question I wouldn’t?).
- Get out of the house- If you are able to do your job somewhere else, try doing that for a few hours of the day. Just to get yourself out of the house. Go to Starbucks, Panera, Chickfila, the local library. All of free Wi-Fi and want you to work in their spaces. I realize this doesn’t work for everyone or all work situations, but if you can, it’ll help you have some background noise and still be around people. Maybe help you meet some other WFH peeps you can “work with†in the future.
- Minimize TV- I know the first few times, this was a great background option for me. Got some movie I’ve seen a million times playing on the TV as I type away. And that works to some extent. But it all got to be overwhelming. You have to get comfortable with quiet, so let there actually be some quiet. I limit my TV being on while I am WFH to a movie a day. And it has to be played in the afternoon. I need quiet mornings, even at home, I want limited interactions and noises in the mornings. You will be tempted to have the news on 24/7 or stream endless Disney+ movies or shows. And that is a great benefit, but I encourage you to limit those hours, even if they are only white noise. It is distracting on some level, whether you know it right away or not.
- Upgrade to video chat rather than conference calls- I didn’t want to do this, but I am making myself do more video chats now than just a call. Why? Because it makes me have to look normal at least from the waist up, and I need to keep up that habit of somewhat normal hygiene. Because for anyone who has worked from home long enough, you know PJs are the wardrobe norm and “getting ready†really isn’t a thing you do. So in an effort for me to continue to feel like a normal human, I am forcing myself to achieve a level of getting ready, maybe lower than if I was in the office, but still higher than sitting around the house in my PJs with my hair in a bun and unbrushed teeth.
- Maintain other life habits- I have continued to meal prep on the weekends, to set an alarm, and to workout. Now that I am not commuting as often (which is 2.5 hours each way!), I have gained a lot of hours of life back! And that is amazing and wonderful! But it also means, I don’t want to waste that time and in order to do that, I have to keep doing what I am doing and maybe more to keep me from being lazy. Yep, I said it. LAZY. Because that is where I want to go and what I want to do with my life. Maybe some of you can relate? No? Liar. We all have some lazybones in us, and they often come out of the woodwork when we are asked to work from home. So, keep a schedule, start and stop work at the same time (this is hard!!!! On either end- lazy or workaholic), put in those breaks, but also continue to do what you have been doing in some form or fashion.
- Invest in a Desk- When I started working from home, I tended to stay in bed and just work from my laptop which is nice sometimes. Notice, I said sometimes? Because what I have now realized is, I need a table or a desk to feel like less of a sloth and more productive with my time. I need my organized space and tabletop to layout my notes. I encourage you to create a space at home where you “go to work†and make it not a place you tend to lounge (like your room or the living room on the couch). It just sends mixed messages to your brain, which doesn’t help the working from home cabin fever feeling that is sure to come at some point if you have any ounce of extrovert in you at all.
- Meet up!- Do you have team members that live nearby? Schedule time to meet up in person every once in a while, for lunch or a meeting in person. Remind yourself there are living people on the other side of your emails and calls. In college, we called these study groups and somehow as adults, we think we don’t need this type of gathering. But we do! So just do it! It can, of course, be virtual, as I mentioned before, but there is great value in being in the presence of other humans. So, put it on the calendar and make it happen. You’ll be glad you did and probably look forward to that regular occurrence every time
I need people. I will get bedsores and the worst kind of cabin fever if I don’t implement these things in my life. I need to be productive, not lazy. Because once I start down the lazy path and habits, it is incredibly difficult for me to correct that destructive ship. And I want to be good at my job and interact with my work crew, even at a distance. How do you manage the work from home balance? LinkedIn also has some great resources on how to stay productive while working from home. I have linked their article for you here: LinkedIn- Productivity Tips for Working at Home
Let me know in the comments what some of your best practices or tips are for being productive from your residence!
