Top Tips For Home Working
Getting your home working routine nailed
As the majority of us have been thrown in at the deep end trying to manage a new home working routine, we’ve got a few handy hints to make it a bit easier.
There are two over-arching themes to this advice:
try where possible to build your existing work patterns into your home routine.
Accept that some days will be more productive than ever. The great thing is that we’re all in the same boat, so there’s no need to feel embarrassed about your child interrupting your phone call or not answering that email immediately.
So here goes for the top tips for staying sane and productive for those new (or not so new!) to working from home.
GET DRESSED
For some people, the prospect of staying in their pyjamas all day is the most tantalising aspect of working from home. But washing and getting dressed will not only improve your state of mind, it will psychologically prepare you to start work.
Whether you need to change into business attire depends on the type of person you are and the nature of the job you have. Some people find that dressing formally is helpful, and also useful if they need to dial into a video call.
But for many others, the point of getting dressed is being forced to shower and change out of clothes they associate with sleep and rest, even if that means just changing into a T-shirt and jeans.
Wearing respectable clothes also increases motivation to leave the house. Likewise, changing out of work clothes when you clock off for the day helps your brain to understand that the working day is over.
ESTABLISH BOUNDARIES BOTH PHYSICALLY AND MENTALLY
If you’re employed by a company, you’ll probably have set hours of work, and it’s important to stick to these where possible when you’re working from home. Be ready to start your day at the same time as you would normally arrive in your office or workplace and finish your day at the same time.
Create a dedicated area to work at home where you can keep your laptop and associated work materials together. That way when you go to your designated work area it will re-enforce your mindset of what you are there for. If you want to try and re-create the atmosphere you would have at work, maybe try some apps that provide background noise or play the radio quietly.
If there are other people in the house, finding a space where you’re not likely to be disturbed is essential, as Prof Robert Kelly found out the hard way in 2017. He was being interviewed live by BBC News when his two children burst into the room, creating a now infamous video, which has been viewed more than 30 million times.
Don’t be tempted to eat your lunch at your desk! When working from home it’s more important than ever to keep those boundaries separate and feel you are taking a break in an area you associate with leisure time. At the end of a working day, it’s best to switch off your computer and tidy away papers and other items.
It’s also important to not “overcompensate” because you’re anxious about working from home, says Ross Robinson, who manages a team of freelancers at his Ignata Consulting firm.
“Many people tend to over communicate when working from home – either wanting to ‘be seen’ or overcompensating to ensure people know what they are up to. That’s fine – but don’t go over the top. You know if you’re on task and being productive – keep yourself in check.”
LEAVE THE HOUSE FOR YOUR DAILY EXERCISE (IF YOU’RE NOT SELF-ISOLATING)
Just as you would at the office, schedule in your lunch break and a slot for exercise.
Working from home shouldn’t mean you stay cooped up indoors all day. While you might not miss your daily commute, it does guarantee that you leave the house for your allotted exercise once during the day.
So get your shoes on, get outside and enjoy that fresh air. A different perspective will also help undo mental blocks and give you a fresh pair of eyes for any tasks you’re struggling with.
PICK UP THE PHONE
If you’re working from home, the chances are you’ll be alone, so you won’t get distracted by colleagues’ conversations and other office noise.
When you’re at work, you’re more likely to engage with colleagues but when you’re working from home, you could spend the whole day without speaking to anyone which can be isolating.
Make some time to pick up the phone and have a real conversation, rather than relying on email and instant messaging, which can often get mis-construed and result in over-arduous explanations.
Jack Evans is lead business psychologist at workplace wellness consultancy Robertson Cooper. Their plan is to speak to each other for 30 minutes every day via video conferencing.
“At about lunchtime we will just chat over video message about nothing in particular. It’s to make sure people don’t just turn into work monkeys. We will maintain conversation about work but it’s also about not losing that social connection, which is much easier to get in person.”
TAKE REGULAR BREAKS
It’s good to have a routine when you’re working from home, but work shouldn’t become all-consuming. It’s important to take regular screen breaks and get up from your desk and move around just as you would in an office.
Research has also found that short breaks throughout the day are more beneficial than less frequent, longer breaks.
Many home workers recommend the Pomodoro Technique, a method of time management which breaks your working day into 25 minute chunks. Each chunk is followed by a five minute break.
Another thing to bear in mind is that without all those intermittent interactions in the office the chances are you will be as productive (if not more so), at home when you look at time spent actually working, so don’t beat yourself up about taking a longer break to play with the kids or get your washing sorted out.
TAKE TIME OUT TO HOME SCHOOL
OK, so we’ve left the trickiest one until last! With many families having to manage 2 working parents’ schedules with differing home-schooling regimes for their children, a normal working day just won’t be possible.
Review each parent’s non-negotiables and start from there each week. For example, if you have a team meeting scheduled on Monday morning at 11 try to arrange for the other parent to be more flexible at that time and catch up on emails where an interruption is less disruptive. Continue this pattern so that for up to 4 hours a day one parent can be on hand to assist with home schooling
Resign yourself to the fact that you will need to adjust your working patterns and work with your employer to agree more flexible solutions. This could mean working a few hours in the evening when the kids are in bed and you can quietly get on with your work when you need to be with the children during the day
Prioritise and organise tasks that need to be done during standard working hours and work the rest when it suits your schedule
If you are a lone parent, organise your day into 30 minute or 1 hour chunks so you can set tasks that children can do for a set period whilst you complete your tasks. Obviously younger children will have a shorter attention span so you may need to bow down to a movie or some extended screen time so that you can achieve as good a balance as possible.
The important thing to remember is that children will bounce back from this. Schools will not be expecting you to deliver a full-on timetable, so if it just means your children play a computer maths game and do some reading on some days then that’s perfectly fine.
We hope that this helps to put things into perspective a bit – good luck and please feel free to share your stories and personal experiences with us.