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8 Top Tips for Succeeding at Productive Home Working
Gemma Higgins • March 20, 2020
Our Co-Director, Gemma Higgins, provides her top tips for adjusting to working from home and ensuring productivity.
If you’re not used to working from home, it can prove very challenging to suddenly be in your home environment with all the distractions that can bring and still trying to ‘do the day job’. With more and more companies now suggesting, or even insisting their employees work from home, we have compiled a list of tips that may help you adjust to this new working style during the Coronavirus outbreak:
- Get up, showered and dressed before you start working! You may often have dreamed about being able to work in your pyjamas but a proper start to the day will do wonders for your mindset.
- Find a dedicated workspace at home. It’s important that you have an area that is quiet and distraction free, ideally with a door you can close, to allow you to focus on the job in hand and concentrate. It’s also important that you don’t impede on the space of anyone else living with you and that they know where your workspace is and respectfully leave you alone when you are there. If you don’t have a separate room to allow for this, a quiet corner will work just as well.
- Try not to get distracted by your new working environment. It’s easy to get bogged down with the usual chores that need to get done at home or the Netflix series that you’ve been watching and put work to the bottom of the pile but try and make sure this doesn’t happen. Maintain the same working hours as you would usually, take regular breaks and use your lunch hour to hang the washing out or empty the dishwasher (and to eat of course!).
- Get some fresh air. Now many of us are working and living in the same space, there is a danger of never seeing sunlight again! If it’s a nice day, sit in the garden and have a coffee break or go for a quick walk around the block. You will feel re-energised and ready get stuck back into your ‘to do list’ when you get back to your laptop.
- Use technology to communicate more. If you need to speak to someone, video call them instead of emailing so you are still getting some social interaction. Most companies have some form of video conferencing available so make the most of this. Agree a time with your team and all dial in for a virtual tea break and a chat during the day.
- Make sure your working hours are reasonable. Don’t do too little and don’t do too much! When you haven’t got the commute home to consider, it’s easy to find yourself still working at 8pm. It’s important to set a rough time at the end of the day and try to log off and finish work as close to that as possible. Having a social life and time to relax will ensure you are recharged and ready for the next day.
- Stay positive! This is a strange period we are living through and it’s hard not to read every article about Coronavirus and feel bogged down with the enormity of it all, but a positive mental attitude will do wonders. Accept the things that are out of your control and try to find the positives of each situation. Maybe now you can bath your children as you aren’t stuck in traffic on your way home or you can get out and go for a run in your lunch break instead of dodging city traffic to grab a sandwich.
- Be mindful of your mental health. If you feel that you are not coping with this new style of working and feel isolated, make sure you speak about this with your manager or appointed mental health officer. Your health and wellbeing should always be priority.
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