Many of you will be having to work from home as a result of covid-19. Not too many of you will be used to doing this. As someone who has worked from home, several days a week, for many years I thought it would useful if I shared some of the lessons I have learnt to ensure that you are productive, effective and not too bored or distracted.
- Since you are going to be sitting down at your desktop or laptop for many hours at a time, with few, if any distractions, do get up every hour or so and stretch out. This will help you avoid getting compression in your lower back which leads to back ache. In my case I set my alarm to go off every hour so I don’t forget to do this.
- Don’t switch on the TV (especially since all of the news is depressing at the moment) as this is a major distraction.
- If someone else is also with you at home and not working, ask them nicely not to distract you (too often) whilst you are working.
- Do break for lunch and go outside and buy a sandwich (or whatever you eat)
- Don’t work in your pyjamas. You won’t be very productive if you do as you won’t be in the right frame of mind.
- Do reach out to clients and colleagues throughout the day via email, phone or VC. Seek their input. They will value this too.
- If you are not already a big user of collaboration tools like MS Teams and Slack (which help remote people work together more effectively) then this is a great time to embrace and use them.
- Do try and work your normal (8 hour) day and start and end work at your normal times so you can continue to collaborate with your colleagues. But remember, since you won’t have to travel to work each day, you could be saving yourself up to two hours a day, which is very nice. Indeed you might get rather use to it
- Be busy and don’t raid the fridge.
- Try to follow your normal routine as far as possible
If you’ve got any other ideas to share with people do pass comment
Now I better get up and stretch 😉
