Top tips for working from home
Out of all the things I should have been worried out before going part time, oddly enough the one that I was most concerned about was how I would get on working for myself, by myself, at home. Would I be disciplined enough to start working at a reasonable hour? How would I feel having nobody to talk to all day? Would I be disciplined enough to stay on task throughout the day?
Despite these worries I decided that I would just see how it went, in a worst case scenario I could either work from my work-work office or I could shell out and rent a co-working space for a few days a week. To be honest though, it has been nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be. Here are a few tips that help me:
- DO NOT work from bed
However tempting it is to stay and work in bed all day, I strongly advise against it for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it means you have no separation from work and rest, which I believe I read somewhere results in you sleeping worse as you think more about work. Secondly, it is good (for me anyway) to feel like you are ‘going to work’ even if that is just a few steps away to your lounge or home office area, it means you are less likely to go back to scrolling through Instagram/Facebook/watching random stuff on YouTube.
- Get into a morning routine
Setting a structure to your day again makes it feel more like you are working. Make sure you get showered and into “outside” clothes, have breakfast at a relatively consistent time, maybe allocate some time to reading news/blogs or the like, then get your head down and into your to-do list
- Work hard, but don’t kill yourself
One thing to bear in mind is that as you are working from home, with nobody else around you can be far more productive and so in 5 hours at home you may achieve what would have taken you 8 hours in an office job where people talk to you, you go for walks or coffee breaks etc. So think about that when you have worked solidly for 12 hours in a day and grant yourself rest when you are tired (maybe even a little power nap to recharge the batteries!)
- Factor in breaks
Again, as you have no colleagues around you to prompt you, you may end up just working consistently through the day. Pretty much all research shows that you need to break up your day every few hours to be productive. When you are at home this may be getting some fresh air outside or cooking a snack, just something to get you away from the screen. It’s very easy to forget to take breaks when you are by yourself.
- Meet people and make plans
Working from home can feel like a watered-down version of solitary confinement at times, just waiting for a call or your flatmates to come home so you can have some form of human contact. You should therefore make it a priority to get out and meet friends or colleagues for lunch or make plans in the evening to ensure you don’t become too isolated.
Now get your lazy ass out of bed and start working.
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