Working from home is new for a lot of people. Well, not totally new at this point, but it definitely takes time to find a rhythm with this setup. Even if you’ve been doing it now for many months, you may still struggle with how to make the best of it.
I’ve been working from home for the past four years, and over the course of those years I’ve accumulated a few tips that I’d love to share with you now. It should go unsaid, but I’m gonna say it anyway: These are things that have worked for me, and I know that not all of them will work for everyone. I am not an expert in this, I’ve just been doing it a while and I hope you gain one or two new things to try!
1. Get out of your seat
I know the transition to working in a home office (if you’re lucky enough to have a home office) is incredibly difficult. You’re used to walking around all day — from the car to your office, between offices to talk with your colleagues or hop into meetings, or to pop off to grab a coffee or lunch out of the office. Don’t let your situation stop you from still walking around. Set a timer for yourself. Every hour, just get up and take a break – walk outside if you can, but any movement will do. I even count the walk to the washroom or the kitchen. Just get that blood flowing! (Full disclosure: I totally don’t do this as much as I should. Some days I only manage to get up and move around a few times — but it’s my goal!)
2. Leave the snacks in the kitchen
Speaking of the walk to the kitchen, that’s where I keep my snacks! It’s so easy to overeat when we work from home. All our favorite treats are just waiting for us. But if we keep them in the kitchen and not at our desks, at least they’re not just a drawer pull away. When I was teaching, I kept snacks at my desk. But because I was up and around so much, I rarely sat at my desk and so rarely snacked. As we spend more time at our desks, those snacks need to move away.
3. Remove the computer from your personal space
I’m lucky enough to have an office at this point in my work-from-home career. Once I realized it was going to be a permanent situation, we turned the guest room into a combo guest room/office. If you don’t have the room for that, you should try to find a spot for it where you won’t walk by it constantly — or cover it with a blanket or towel when you’re not working, like it’s a sleeping bird — whatever it takes to keep you from being drawn back into work mode when you should be caring for yourself.
4. Turn off personal notifications during work hours
This is sort of the reverse of #3. I used to keep my personal email notifications on during work, and found that it was just terribly distracting. If someone is emailing you, they’re generally not expecting an immediate response. It’s 100% okay to let those emails sit there until the end of the day. Try to keep work at work, and home at home as much as you can.
5. Set realistic expectations
When I started working from home, I thought the (housekeeping) world was my oyster. I was going to use breaks during the day to clean the house, cook masterpiece meals, and create epic birthday parties. I was going to meditate, do yoga, and stay in better touch with my friends. I was going to DO IT ALL. Wellllll then real life set in, and I did basically none of those things. During my breaks at home I do what I’d have been doing in an office. I make a quick snack, run through social media, maybe take a quick walk outside, then head back to my desk. At first I was pretty disappointed in myself for not conquering the world, but there’s only so much one person can do. You gotta rest sometime.
Bonus tip: Remember to be social!
This one can get tricky, as you work in the silo of your home. Having some social interaction in your day is VITAL. I try to connect with colleagues on a personal level when possible (easy enough to do when one/both of you have kids popping in to see what’s going on when you’re in a meeting) and take a second to text friends silly GIFs. One of my incredible colleagues has also set in motion a weekly virtual happy hour and a monthly virtual game night for our whole staff. People come when they can and stay as long as they can. It’s so important to continue nurturing personal relationships, in whatever way works best for you.