With the current conditions, thousands of employers are requesting that their employees work from home to comply with the social distancing measures of the lockdown, and here we bring you five working from home tips to make you more efficient.
You might be used to work from home, or some of these tips might sound small, but when they are all done together, your efficiency will increase, and so will your mood.
1. A good night sleep
A good day of work starts from the night before, and we are all guilty that because we don’t have to be in work by a specific time, we then decide to go late to bed and binge on the new episodes of Brooklyn 99.
Research shows that a night of good sleep is the perfect recipe to a happy, productive day, so make sure you get a good 7-9 hours sleep.
The good thing about working from home is that you don’t waste time commuting, so no need to wake up at 6 am now you can wake up an hour before to get ready to work for 9 am at your home desk.
2. Set A Working Schedule
Being at home makes it very hard to get the motivation to start to work, what we suggest is to set home working hours, we recommend 9 am to 4 pm with a one hour lunch.
Working from home can be more productive than working from the office if appropriately done, that’s why we recommend a six-hour work block rather than the typical eight hours when working in an office.
You see the time you spend socialising with your colleagues, walking from boardroom to boardroom is time wasted, time that is not lost when working from a home office.
3. Get Dressed And Get Out Of Bed
It might come as silly advice, but many stays at home workers try to work from bed, or in their PJ some even in just underwear ( I guess no conference calls for them ).
Getting ready as you do for work is the best thing, brush your teeth, do some workouts, take a shower, have breakfast, get dressed put makeup and even perfume, yes, get ready.
It doesn’t mean that you need to put on your slacks, tie and dress shoes, no, that’s not what you are looking for, get ready like if you were going out, this would get your head into out of the house mode resulting in concentrating or as the kids say #Workmode.
4. Dedicate A Space To Work ( Home Office )
having a work office could be simple as a space in your dining table, or a spare room in the house, some people are using the garages. Garages are perfect as you are still in the house, but out of the house, so in your mind, it feels like you went to a workplace.
If you can’t or don’t have the possibilities of working form a garage in your home then having a corner in your house strictly for work is all you need.
Having an area for work will help your productivity and will also separate you from home life, this way you can concentrate in work, and when work finishes, then you go back to family/home life.
Having this separation, these separate spaces, it will help you with your mental health and wellbeing as you feel like you are removing yourself from being lockdown at home.
5. Take Breaks
Many get stuck to the computer thinking that they need to show that they are doing all their work and that they don’t want to let down their team, others just get lost in the amount of work and will stay sat for hours and hours.
Although as a working from home tips it is recommended to do some exercises before you start to work at home, to help you with mobility, elevate your heart rate and pump you with energy, it is recommended to take breaks.
Five minutes breaks every 30 minutes is the perfect ratio, get up and walk, get a coffee, go to the toilet.
It will help with circulation, gives your back a break from sitting down, as well as your eyes from looking at a screen.
Sometimes 5 minutes brakes result in breakthrough; as you take your mind away from the desk, it is found that the brain resets and can help you with ideas or find the answer to a problem.
A great working from home tip is taking walks/runs during the day; it is a technique mostly used by top CEOs.
You might have seen the previous USA president Barack Obama going for a little run around his office in the White House; many sources say he did this to clear his mind and find solutions to problems.
Don’t feel guilty into thinking that you are wasting time; it is similar to walking to the printer at the office to get a paper, going to a colleagues desk to ask a question or toilet brakes.
Remember taking these small brakes will help you concentrate and maybe find answers to your questions when you return from your brake.
If you find it too difficult to keep track of the time you can always use a timer on your phone, nowadays they are pretty straightforward and only a few steps to set up, or I will leave links to Focus Time an app that you might enjoy and help you with taking brakes while you immerse yourself in work.
As mentioned above, don’t forget to plan your lunch break, this is very important as you can easily forget to eat, or have the time to eat a healthy nutritious meal when you are home.
Bonus Working From Home Tip: Prepare Food
Following from the above point about taking brakes, a vital break to plan is your mealtime, and for that, it is also advised that you meal prep.
If you already do this for when you work at your office, then continue to prep your meals in the same way.
Preparing your meals the day before or in the morning will help you on either not eating or doing something similar to NBC News tech investigations editor Olivia Solon eating chunks of Parmesan and some weird protein ice creams.
At the office, there’s always access to the canteen or shops, and that’s the option most people take, but as we know that’s not an option in the current lockdown, this brings us back to our point of meal prep.
Prepping your meals in advance will also help against raiding your fridge or cupboards eating all the little treats hidden away but not the best for every day eating.
Another reason it is advised to prepare your meals in advance is that it might take you longer than your allocated lunchtime to cook a whole meal, being prepared will help you stay true to your time blocks and will keep you in track with your work.
