Tips for working from home as a UX writer
How I stay productive writing at home
For almost 4 years, I have worked as a remote UX writer and know from my own experience what it’s like to be sitting at home 9 hours straight and editing copy on endless Figma mockups. Sometimes this is accompanied by late night work calls, renovations at your neighbor’s, cats and kids messing around, and skipped lunches. Sounds like no fun, heh?
Thankfully, it gets better with time. Well, mostly, it’s not time that changes anything, but your knowledge of yourself, healthy boundaries, and a couple of time and energy management tricks.
Let me share some things that help me stay productive working from home and avoid those nightmares from the first paragraph. Some of these tips may sound obvious and well known, but you shouldn’t underestimate their importance.
- Find out your best and worst hours and plan your day around them
If you already know when your mind is especially sharp and when you feel a bit of a lump, that’s great! If not, it may help to dedicate a couple of days with your average workload and track your levels of energy throughout the day. Just put a reminder every couple of hours and note down how you’re feeling. You might notice a trend in your data — pay attention to it.
When you have defined your best and worst hours, start using them wisely. Schedule the most difficult, creative, and energy-consuming tasks to your most productive windows, and leave the worst hours to mundane tasks that require less concentration.
For example, my best time is morning, so I spend it on most important writing tasks and complex userflows. In the afternoon, it’s all different: I feel more communicative but also more easily distracted, so I usually allot some time to meetings, discussions, and more creative tasks.
2. Set your working hours and don’t stay overtime
I mean, having a laptop around 24/7 doesn’t mean you have to work 24/7 and be available any time your colleagues DM you. Pick the time you plan to work, add an hour for lunch, and set this schedule in your calendar. It’s totally fine if you have a DND status at the time outside your work hours.
Of course, we all have situations when the amount of work is overwhelming or something urgent comes up rather unexpectedly, so we have to stay late and finish the task. But this should never become your new norm. Worship your life outsude work. For me, having appointments with friends or other plans at a certain time after work helps actually get up, close any work chats, and move on with the day.
3. Be truly in the “work mode”: remove destructions and create the vibe that you love
When it comes to the desk setup, everyone has different things that help them get into the flow state. For me, that’s soft lo-fi or white noise, a notebook with a pen, and the cup of coffee. For others, an ideal desk setup might look very different. Try to find what suits you and makes you want to get to work.
What unites, I think, all remote workers, however, is the abundance of noises around us. Children, other people who live with you, pets, neighbors, kids from the playground, and many other sounds that can easily distract you from your writing or editing. Soundproof headphones sound like a valid solution to mute noises around.
Check this article for ideas on organizing and customizing your desk (or any other, there’s plenty of tips on the internet!)
4. Move your body even when you’re working
When you’re working in the office, you naturally move more: at least, you commute from home to work and back, go to the coffee machine, and just walk around th office to join meetings and talk to colleagues.
At home, there are less square meters to walk on, but you still have your legs and body :) And, sometimes you also have the priviledge of privacy! So, take small breaks between the focus hours and stretch out, do a quick fun dance to energetic music, or create a challenge to squat 10 times every hour. Alternatively, you can set up a standing desk next to the window and even walk in place imitating the walking desk.
I love making small dance breaks! YouTube can help you with music and moves: just turn on a collection of JustDance videos or pick one of MadFit’s dance workouts (10–15 mins), Pamela Rief’s dance workouts (also 10–15 mins), or her song workouts (just 1 song, 3–5 mins!)
5. Remember to stay a social creature
As a UX writer, I understand how easy it is to feel left out and be somewhere on the outskirts of the development team. Communication can get even harder if you’re working from home and don’t see your colleagues often.
So, try to overcome the awkwardness and social anxiety that you may have:
- Join team meetings and 1–1 with your colleagues that you have, and if you notice you’re not invited to some important calls, ask if you can join.
- Turn on your camera on work calls — it will be easier for others to remember you, and at the same you’ll be more involved and active.
- Be polite and interested in your team members life — if they don’t object, of course. Not work-related team chats and some team meetings are a great place for networking and getting to know each other better. Sometimes a small talk to a designer you work with can make your day! The same goes for jokes and stories — share some events and news from your life and encourage others to do the same.
- If you can, join any activities outside work that your company is holding or your team organizes, like team lunches, parties, or sport competitions. They are a great opportunity to make new friends and turn your colleagues from avatars and messages on your computer into real physical people.
6. Change your environment from time to time
Even if you’ve created the best working environment at home, with time it can get boring. That’s why we need to introduce small changes to our WFH lives — like working from a nearby coffee house, a park, or even another city!
I enjoy spending one or two afternoons a week working from a library or a cafe. It gives me a slight productivity boost from being around books and people, a portion of social interaction, and also a chance to explore new places in the city with great coffee :)
Working from home gives you plenty of freedom, and remote jobs let you customize your workplace in a gazillion of ways. So, use these benefits but stay in moderation and implement some of the rules and restrictions that work best for you. This way, you will less likely burn out and will feel energized, involved, and happy working from home.
