PSA: Get READY to work from home

In an effort to help members of my organization assimilate to working from home, I put together a 1st draft of tips and tricks from my past experiences. Wanted to share here for anyone having trouble making the transition. Anyone else feel free to add things that have helped you work remotely with success.

When I was first forced to work from home unexpectedly it was in the summer when the kids were home and my youngest ones were toddlers. It was a huge stress at first and an adjustment for the entire family. 

Routine

Environment

Adapt (and Overcome)

Discipline

Yes! You can do this successfully.

 

Routine

One of the most important factors to keep you successful when working at home. Keep your routine! When do you wake up to go to the office? How long is your typical commute? The key to success here is to maintain normalcy and help you adjust by keeping a routine. Obviously it will be different than the one where you drive to work but guess what?!? Now you have MORE time to get things done. Does your commute take 30 mins each way? Congrats, you have been gifted a free hour – DO NOT USE IT TO SLEEP AS LATE AS POSSIBLE RIGHT UP TO 5 MINUTES BEFORE YOUR FIRST MEETING – THIS WOULD BE A GOOD WAY TO FAIL WHILE WORKING AT HOME (your brain needs time to wake up and is used to having that time while you do your routine before working). Here’s what you can do with that free hour as you craft your new routine:

• Wake up at the same time as if you had to drive to work
• Still shower, brush teeth, make coffee, get dressed, eat breakfast, etc
• 2 days a week you can work out for an extra half hour in the morning
• 3 days a week you can get an early start on work for that extra half hour each morning
• Go To Work – This matters – after your routine is done and you are ready to “drive to work/walk in office” – enter your office area and begin your work day – as silly as this seems, it helps you get in the right mode and sets the tone for your brain getting into productive working mode
• See the next tip for where to Go To Work (Environment) – it is easier to Go To Work if that is a designated place in your home

 

Environment

Sweet, we get to work from home, so we’ll just be kicking up our feet on our recliners in front of the tv and working all day, right? NOT IF YOU WANT TO BE SUCCESSFUL. Kicking the feet up and relaxing on your laptop with the tv on in the background is called “Catching up on work while at home”, this is not “Working from Home” – and if you’re not careful, trust me, “Working From Home” can very quickly fee like “Living at Work” and that is not ideal. Take time to setup an Environment to be successful in:

• Separate Room or blockaded area of room for your office
• Comfortable chair as many of us don’t have standing desks at home – maybe a working pedestal in addition to your desk area?
• Setup Monitors/area as similarly as possible to your workstation at work – if you’re used to 3 monitors, you’re going to miss that 3rd one
• NO TV OR OTHER DISTRACTIONS IN YOUR OFFICE
• Always wanted a window office? Now’s the time (but remember a curtain for privacy and concentration if kids playing outside, etc)
• Have kids? Those kids trapped at home for next few weeks with schools closed? This was my nightmare when first working from home with young kids in the summer, but it is doable! Start to train them – When Mommy or Daddy is in the office, they’re working, you have to knock quietly and ask to come in, remember we could be on conference calls with clients, etc
  • Your parenting partner or older children are key here – this will be a burden on them to help the family get used to the new arrangement – help train them to train the others and be cognizant of the fact this is not easy for them and puts more of a stress on them – THIS IS A FULL FAMILY EFFORT

 

Adapt (and Overcome)

This is different. Some parts of it we can make fun and make the best of it, but us humans aren’t naturally good at changing things we’ve been used to doing the same way for so long. We are going to have to Adapt and Overcome! Look at it as a challenge/game if it helps. How fast can you adapt?!? This is a valuable life skill to work on that makes us more valuable employees and people in general!

• Used to dragging things up from your laptop onto your extra screens, but now you need to drag to the side of your laptop screen to get there due to the amount of space you have to arrange your office area? Adapt! It will take a little bit until it feels normal, but it will definitely get better
• Don’t have as good a headset at home and have to unplug one of monitors to use a new headset? Adapt!
• Try to address as many things as possible for “normalcy” in Routine and Environment, but no matter what, we will have things left to Adapt and Overcome
• To maintain sense of contact and togetherness with your coworkers, use the awesome video sharing capability we have!
• Adapting can include your attitude, outlook, positivity, relationships with family members you’re now trapped with for foreseeable future, etc – this is an undervalued skill in today’s world and especially in these times, so practice adaptation any way you can, and set an example for your family whom you’re asking to adapt too (remember they’re making sacrifices for the successful Environment part of this also!)

 

Discipline

Ok, now we’re getting somewhere. We’ve adapted our routine to maintain normalcy and help find extra time to get more things done, we’ve set ourselves up for success by adapting our environment and have generally began to focus on how we and our fellow housemates can adapt to this new reality. Anything else we can do to make sure we’re successful working from home? YOU MUST HAVE DISCIPLINE to be successful. This is NOT easy, especially as time goes on, but discipline is the answer:

• Set rules for yourself wherever needed – you know you, you know your weaknesses – address them with a system to hold yourself accountable

• Daytime soaps on in the next room and you’re dying to know what happened? – there’s a reason our office doesn’t have a TV in it – record it for later when you’re “catching up on work while at home” (remember that’s different than “Working from Home”)
• March Madness on and you want to check out the games? Wait, what? You’re kidding me. Oh man this is absolutely insane.
• Lunch Breaks – you should take them if you normally take them – this is a good time to hang with the rest of the fam for lunch - also maintain a sense of urgency to get back to it just like you would at the office if your workmates would give you the look if you were coming back 15 mins late
• Smoke breaks – it will be tempting to take more smoke breaks but don’t – it’s only setting you back – have a family member hold you accountable and count your smoke breaks for the day!
• Meetings – Use Video! Make it like we’re in the same room together even though we’re not – don’t slack on your routine and be in your pj’s for 2 days straight and then be caught off guard when your boss holds you accountable and asks you to turn your video on!
• Also, remember, we don’t want to “Live at Work” – Discipline goes both ways – sometimes it can be hard to turn off the computer and “leave work” – work this into your routine too – you leave work, undock from your office, and “come home” – exit your office area, exclaim “I’m home” – this gives your kids the signal that they can “bother” you now – and if you need to “catch up on work while at home” by all means, pull out the laptop and find the recording of that soap, you’re not “working from home” right now, because you don’t want to “live at work” either

 

Yes! You can do this successfully.

Find what works for you. Change things up. Try new things. Be creative. Get READY to Work from Home successfully, you can do this!

 

Glossary:

Working from Home: Having an office area at home to conduct all normal business activities you would do, just as if you were at your office at work

Catching up on work while at home: Kick back, relax, you’re not at work, you’re catching up on emails late at night, etc – this can and should be done from your living room or somewhere that isn’t your home office

Living at Work: This is what happens when you are in your home office too often, from not separating the “Working from Home” and the “Catching up on work while at home” – it is not fun and leads to depression, avoid at all costs