With remote work on the rise, it comes with unexpected challenges. Stop them from standing between you and your best work-self by following these simple tips:
1. Keep to a schedule. Try to keep your work day routine to the schedule it’s used to — wake up at your regular time and keep to your morning rituals, starting work when you’d normally head out the door. But don’t forget to also give yourself breaks you’d give yourself at the office, when you’d take them. The less your body realizes you’re still home, the more comfortable and productive you’ll be.
2. Keep up the dress code. Normally, you associate the clothes you wear at home with being at ease and relaxed. By fusing your work and leisure clothes, you’ll be robbing your work-self of productivity and your home-self of relaxation. Don’t go all-out, but wear something you could get away with at the office. This will help you get down to work with a professional mindset and set yourself up for a successful day.
3. Keep your strength up. Working from home can be surprisingly strength-sapping. Make sure you get up and walk around — take the same effort to move around at least once an hour, which you should be doing at the office anyway. It’s also important to eat well. Your kitchen is right there, so use it. Make your lunch break an opportunity to stand up and try cooking something fast and fun before settling back down.
4. Keep the conversation going. Even if you’re an introvert, going into the office provides some much-needed social interaction. At home, you may be shielded from its distracting aspects, but you’re also cut off from that contact and support network. Make a point of having at least one phone call or Zoom meeting with a coworker every day. Avoid typed conversations, they offer less of a hard break from your work, and the two bleed together too easily.
5. Keep the tunes coming. At home, the silence can potentially be just as focus-breaking as a coworker wandering up to you to discuss the latest internet meme. Don’t let the quiet take over — just fire up SiriusXM. Unlike the radio, you won’t have to slog through ads. Just hit play on your computer or phone and let the productivity flow, or seamlessly transition to your smart speakers if you’re a more mobile worker. Coming back from a break and your favourite artist comes on? You can effortlessly create an ad-free Pandora station of just their music to keep the energy going as you jump back in.
And you can check out our Netflix playlist.