Effectiveness in the Remote Workplace

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Rules of Thumb For Working From Home

Create a Work Space 

Creating a work space in your home helps you context switch been work and life. Try to create a space that is out of the main flow of traffic in your house. If you can't, make sure you have a comfortable headset so you can "tune out" the activity of your household. Use a background in your online meetings to keep the activity in your household from being a distraction for others during meetings

Have a Routine

Just like when going into the office, you should try to maintain a routine. Healthy routines provide us with structure. Often, people new to work from home will find their sleep and meal schedules thrown off. Build time into your day to get up and stretch, take a walk, eat, and socialize with co-workers.

Create a Daily Work Plan

When we work from home we are more self-guided. Start your day by identifying the highest priority work you have for the day, and use a simple tool to track your work. Make sure you account for the meetings you have and the parts of your routine that aren't "hands on keyboard"

"Get Ready" for Work

Make the first part of your daily routine getting ready for work. This will help you context switch from being at home to being at work. Plus, you'll feel better. I swear.

Set Good Boundaries

People who are new to working from home tend to work far more than they do when going to the office. When you did go to the office, how many times each evening did you think or talk about a work problem? It's much harder to not act on that when your work space is in your home. You may have to more rigorous to create that separation by turning off notifications on your phone at a certain time every day.

Surviving the Stay at Home period

Create Social Spaces

We are social creatures. Even the most introverted people need some social interaction. We often don't realize how socializing with our colleagues and friends at work satisfies those needs, until we work from home. Create some online social spaces to spend time with your colleagues outside of a work context. Join a video call and have lunch. Join a virtual happy hour and blow off some steam with your co-workers.

Do Something New

Pick up a new hobby. Read more. Take Online Courses For Free.  Write a blog. Do a podcast. Plant a garden. Find ways to replace the time that you used to spend meeting with friends, shopping, hitting the gym, eating out, etc with something new. Filling your free time will make keeping a good work/life balance easier.

Get some exercise

Staying at home can mean a mean a more sedentary lifestyle. Walking around the office to ask questions and have quick discussion, going to the bathroom, the printer and recycling bins adds in terms of physical activity. Ask anyone who counts steps. Take walks to start working out. Keep your metabolism healthy

Maintain your Boundaries

Maintaining the boundaries you set. Post working hours for your family. Don't get sucked into 1 hour conversations at 5:30 PM. Hold yourself to your scheduled social time with colleagues during work.

Find the Positives

Once you've worked from home for a month, you may realize a few things:

• How ridiculous all those meetings were
• How bad your organization's communication was
• How chat is an effective and efficient way to get similar results to a meeting.
• How incredibly inefficient it is to commute in rush hour traffic twice a day
• How much time we weren't working during work hours
• How it’s no longer as necessary to live in an expensive city
• How difficult it is to concentrate at home when you have kids or a stay at home spouse
• How lonely working from home can be
• How much more productive you are