I have been working in IT for a little over seven years now, a large portion of which I have spent working from home. It’s undeniable there are many advantages to working from home. No-one steals your milk. You don’t have to experience other people’s questionable toilet habits. And of course, wearing trousers is very much optional.
As a Modern Workplace consultant, I specialise in implementing the tools to help my customers reap these benefits. One thing that is always abundantly clear when doing this is, remote working is a huge change for many people and can take some getting used to.
We’ve been travelling to our place of work for as long as society has existed, only in recent years have we really had the ability to effectively perform our jobs remotely. While some of us have been doing this for a while, some are only now joining us home dwellers thanks to the chaos being caused by Coronavirus.
One of the things I found hardest when I first started working from home was the ability to switch from work-mode to chill-mode in the evenings. To try and help those of you that are new to working from home I thought I would share my top tips to surviving working from home and help you switch to chill-mode.
1. Maintain a Routine
When you’re working from home it is easy to lose the routine that comes with working in an office. Most importantly I am referring to having a definitive Start Time, Lunch Time and “Home” time.
When you don’t have to commute to work, it’s easy to just turn the laptop on when you wake up and start reading through those emails that have come in overnight and before you know it you’ve been working for two hours and haven’t even brushed your teeth yet. Take it from me this is not a good habit to get into. Instead, I would recommend keeping as close to a traditional commuter routune as possible, even if you are only commuting to the spare room. By this I mean getting up, getting dressed, having breakfast and not starting work until you would usually have started working in the office.
At the end of the day and arguably more importantly, make sure you have a “home” time. At the time you would usually be shutting down for the day and skipping to your car, shut down your laptop. Don’t leave it on making noises all evening. Even if you are ignoring it, that god awful noise it makes every time you get an email is chipping away at your soul while you try to watch Emmerdale. If you don’t have a dedicated space to work while you are at home, I would suggest putting your laptop away too – even if you’re just going to be getting it out again in 14 hours.
2. Don’t Sit Where You Eat
Of course, I don’t mean this literally – this blog post is being written from my dining table. I just can’t resist a good pun. What I actually mean by this is try and distinguish work life with home life by whatever means possible, ideally by location.
Now I know better than anyone that this will be easier for some than others. When I first started working in IT I was living in a house share and the only place I could peacefully work was in my bedroom and this was far from ideal. If you are able to work in a separate room then I would definitely do this, however, if this is not possible then even just sitting somewhere different to where you relax in the evenings will help you psychologically switch from work-mode to chill-mode.
One extra step you can take if location is not working for you is to still get dressed for work in the morning and get changed in the evening when you finish work. I personally don’t adopt this technique as my hatred for doing laundry outweighs any stress caused by working from home. However, I know people that do this and they claim it helps them switch off in the evenings.
Do whatever works for you!
3. Get Them Steps In
It is surprising how many steps you do day-to-day when working in the office. It’s even more surprising how few steps you do when working from home.
When I go to the office, between walking to and from the car (usually twice because my I’ve left my phone behind) and to and from the canteen to get coffee etc I easily rack up over 8000 steps in a day. Some days when I work from home I barely exceed 800 steps and this is usually just to get more food from the cupboards. Really not a healthy way to spend a day – for mind or body.
I would strongly recommend going for a walk during the day or at the end of the day – or even both if you’re feeling particularly active! Getting fresh air, seeing some trees and real life people really helps the mental and physical strain that comes with working remotely which can often leave us feeling rather stale and isolated.
Stay Safe Out There
I hope these tips help some of you that are having to adopt the remote working lifestyle. It’s important to make sure you look after yourself – the effects of this seemingly harmless lifestyle change can really creep up on you.
Stay safe out there everyone. Feel free to Tweet me if you want to know more of have any extra tips to share!
