Whatever your job may entail, these pointers may help you take your office-based job home with you, stay focused and feel like you are still contributing to the overall working day, from home!
1- Try to keep to a routine of getting up and ready for the ‘working day’ before you start working…. We don’t do video calls in our pj’s!
2- Find a suitable place for your workspace to create a real sense of being in the office – sitting in front of the TV is never a good idea
3- Take regular breaks – especially at lunch time otherwise those 4 walls are going to drive you insane.
4- Decide on your hours of work. Most people will tend to stick to their usual working day, but with children at home you may need to structure your day so that it includes some ‘after bedtime’ hours. If you’re not customer facing and have squared this with your line manager, this can be a benefit of home working
5- Stay in contact with your colleagues! Home working in these circumstances can be quite isolating for some people so be sure to reach out and still have those conversations like you would in the office
This isn’t an exhaustive list, but hopefully one that you will benefit from in the weeks to come. Oh and the bit about pj’s…. sometimes we do.
Coming next … Do you have the necessary technology to work from home?