29 Apr 11 Workin’ From Home Tips for Newbies
You’ve dreamt about working from home for yearsss, and now here you are actually doing it.
But if you’re being totally honest with yourself, it’s not the cakewalk you always imagined it might be.
You escaped your cubicle, but are still sitting at your home desk every day (“If I’m not working at a desk, is it even “legit” work?”) You’re not sure what you should be wearing (“Do I still wear dress pants at home??”). And you keep getting distracted from your work by house chores (“May as well throw in a load of laundry since I’m home, right?”).
So you might be workin’ from home now, but are you really working?
Survey says: probably not. Or you’re not being nearly as productive as you feel like you could be.
I’ve been there. When I first started working from home, it certainly wasn’t smooth sailing. I had to learn an entirely new way of working (like you’re doing right now). It took a ton of trial and error before I figured out what worked best for me.
To save you the months (okay, years), it took me to become a rock star at it, I’ve compiled a list of 11 tips to help you up your workin’ from home game.
1. Keep a Routine
I think it’s safe to say that whatever your normal was before, it’s been disrupted. Big time. But the thing is, humans are creatures of habit. We thrive on it. So even though you can’t follow your typical routine for the time being, you still need to have one.
If it helps, continue getting up at the same time you normally would each day. Get ready and have brekkie per usual. You might even have a little more time to enjoy your morning coffee before your workday starts, now that you don’t have a commute.
If you’ve suddenly got more flexibility in your schedule, or don’t have to follow typical 9 to 5 working hours, invent and experiment a new routine that works for you. Pay attention to the hours when you’re firing on all cylinders and build your day around that.
No one’s saying you’ve gotta continue following the same routine you always have, but it’s important to have one of some kind in order to give your brain the order and structure it needs to operate at its best.
2. Shower Every Day
Did I really have to make a standalone point about this? Yes, I did. Because when you don’t have to worry about other people seeing you every day, it’s amazing how quickly looking presentable becomes “optional.”
Now, I’m not saying you have to shower in the morning. If you’re the type who showers later in the day or at night, proceed as usual. But you do need to shower. Like, every day. Working from home ain’t no back woods camping trip.
3. Wear Real Clothes
And no, pajamas don’t count as “real clothes.” I’m talking about the kind of clothes that, if you were allowed to be in public right now, you’d feel confident wearing in front of others.
While the temptation is real to just live in sweatpants all day, erryday, the reality is that your brain associates your loungewear with rest and relaxation. And that’s not the mode you want to be in when you’re tryin’ to get shit done.
Unless you’re going to be on video calls, you definitely don’t need to wear blouses and blazers. Rock your comfiest pairs of jeans or typical work pants on the bottom, and tops from the “Casual Friday” or weekend wear section of your closet.
This may seem like a totally unnecessary thing to do, but wearing the right kind of clothes will make you feel more like your “work self” signal to your brain that it’s time to get down to business.
4. Take Breaks
If you’re used to working in an environment where there are defined times for breaks or lunch, it may be harder to walk away from your work for a few minutes or an hour without those typical cues.
So, create some for yourself! Set timers or reminders in your calendar or on your phone to let you know when it’s time to hit pause on what you’re doing. Whether it’s to make a tea, go for a fresh air break around the block, or to make yourself something to eat.
Your brain needs down time throughout the day to recharge its batteries so you can maintain your focus and stay productive. So don’t skip out!
5. Move Ya Body
Most of us aren’t the best at staying active, even during the most normal of circumstances. But if ever there was a time to get your ass movin’ on the regular, it’s now.
Go for a walk around the block or neighbourhood on one of your breaks (as mentioned above). Or schedule in some time each day to “go” to your home gym, just like you would if you were going to a brick and mortar version.
Movement needs to be a non-negotiable in your schedule. It gets your blood flowin’, your muscles workin’, and has innumerable health benefits. And for the purposes of work specifically, it helps to boost creativity and focus. So, no more excuses. Like Nike says, JUST DO IT.
6. Work in a Space That is Not Where You Relax or Sleep
Have ya always wanted to work from your bed or couch? A word to the wise: don’t.
I know, I know. It’s just so comfy there, though. Which is precisely why it’s a bad idea. Just like I mentioned your brain associates loungewear with rest and relaxation, it associates your bed and couch with the same things. They’re the settings for takin’ it easy, not working.
Which is why, if you’ve been trying to do it for the past few weeks, it probably hasn’t been working all that well. Your brain is like, “This is where we sleep” or “This is where we Netflix.” Not, “This is where we work.”
Now, if you’re someone who lives in tiny place and doesn’t have any other options for where to work, try creating a visual cue for your brain that helps it know when you want to use your bed or couch for work instead of chillin’. For example, drape a colourful blanket over its surface when it’s “work” time, and remove it when your work day is over and you’re ready to move into relax move. Sounds crazy simple, but it works!
7. Set Boundaries
As you’ve probably already experienced, when you work from home it’s A LOT harder to turn off. Because your work is always right there, it’s realll easy to just flip open your laptop to quickly check something and get sucked into two more hours of work.
Which is why it’s so important to create boundaries between your work and home life—and stick to ‘em!
For example, have a set time that you begin work each day and a set time that you’re done. No exceptions.
Or, when you’re done working for the day, close the door of the room you work in. If you work in a common area of your home (like your dining room) where you “live” after work hours, then at the end of each work day, clean up your things and tuck them away in a cupboard or put them in a separate room where you won’t see them. Out of sight, out of mind.
This one’s a toughy for a lot of people when they first start working from home, so if you’re struggling with it, know that you’re not alone! But boundaries are so important to creating a healthy divide between your work and home life.
8. Keep Work and Home Separate
Which leads right into this next point about continuing to treat your work life and home life separately, as you normally would have when going to an office every day.
And by that I mean, when it’s work time, it’s work time. And when it’s home time, it’s home time. Don’t try to do home tasks during your work time, or vice versa.
It can be really tempting to throw in a load of laundry, start cooking dinner, or do the dishes since you’re at home during the day. But it also throws off your focus on your work, and makes you less productive. Which means that later, when it’s home time, you might have catch up on work tasks you didn’t complete earlier. And then your work and home life start bleeding together so much you can’t tell them apart. Danger zone. Don’t let that happen.
So between the hours of 9 to 5 (or whatever your typical work hours look like) tune out all of the household stuff. A good rule of thumb is that if it’s not a home task you would have or could have typically done from your work office, then don’t do it from your home office.
9. Keep Your Phone in a Different Room
Our addiction to our devices means they’re never farther than arm’s reach away from us.
But this habit is highly problematic, because your phone is where focus and productivity go to die. It is a black hole of infinite distraction. We all know this. It’s not a secret, and yet we continually allow it to happen.
It’s gotta stop. Especially since there’s no longer the looming threat of your boss catching you on your phone while you’re supposed to be working.
If you have a prayer of accomplishing everything you want to from home, you’ve gotta make your workspace a phone-free zone.
The best way to do this is to make sure that your phone is far enough away that you can’t just pick it up compulsively; a far enough distance that you’d have to be intentional about getting up to grab it. Ideally, put it in a separate room where you can’t even see it.
This is the workin’ from home tip that most people ignore, but I urge you to experiment with it. I cannot stress enough how big of an impact it will have on your ability to actually get. shit. done.
10. Have an Accountability Buddy
When you work in a traditional office environment, there are a multitude of people and processes in place to help keep you accountable to getting’ your work done.
But when you work from home those methods virtually disappear. This is especially true if you’re now working for yourself, as opposed to for someone else. You are now solely responsible for productivity.
And this is HARD. I don’t care how self-driven or determined you are, we all fall off the wagon from time to time. It becomes so easy to say slack off and bump deadlines, because “there’s always tomorrow.”
But I also know firsthand how frustrating it can be when you fall into that “there’s always tomorrow” trap over and over, to the point where you’re not making progress on anything.
So how do you break the cycle and light a fire under your ass again? Have an accountability buddy. Set up a system with a friend or colleague where you meet weekly to discuss your to-dos and priorities. You can also check in with each other throughout the week to give progress reports on how things are going.
People are far more likely to accomplish things when they’ve told even just one other person what it is they want to do. So partner up to boost your productivity!
11. Set Up a Fun and Inspiring Work Environment
Let’s be real: Your cubicle at work? Not very inspiring. You did your best to make it less soul sucking by adding trinkets, photos, and plants, but…it was still a cubicle.
But now that you’re working from home, you have this unique opportunity to fun up your workspace as much as you want to, and in ways you never could have in an office.
You can now play music OUT LOUD (buy bye, ear buds). You can light a candle or some incense to add a cozy vibe. You can play movies or TV shows for background noise (as long as they’re not too distracting, of course). And you can have a snuggle sesh with your fur baby.
There are so. many. ways. you can add good vibes to your home workspace. Make sure you do! You’ve wanted to work at home for eons, but there’s no reason to replicate the boring and sterile space you had at the office.
Maybe you got off to a bumpy start with workin’ from home, but that’s okay. Change rarely goes smoothly, even the changes we think we’ll just ease right into. It’s a learning process. So don’t be hard on yourself for not nailin’ this new way of working right out of the gate.
Hopefully, by implementing some or all of these tips, you’ll find a way to make workin’ from home work for you. And maybe even work better than working from an office ever did for you. In which case, why bother ever going back?
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