Working from home tends to be polarizing. Some people love it while others prefer the structure of a commute and office to thrive. But those don’t have to be mutually exclusive. If you’re finding yourself at home these days we wanted to share some of the best ways to make the most of your time:
Dress for the job you have!
Keep Your Routine
Continue to wake up and begin working at your normal hours. The bonus is that your commute time can now be dedicated to making a healthy breakfast, quiet meditation, or stretching to start your day. Try to keep your start, break, and end times consistent so your time at home doesn’t become entirely work.
Dress For The Job You Have
While keeping your routine it’s important to prepare for work in the same way. Maybe you can ditch the suit and tie, but you should still get dressed as if you were going to work on a casual workday. Shower, shave, and prep your face as you would for the office. Make sure you look your best for all of those Zoom calls. That softening camera filter can’t make you look as good as a little concealer. Also see: How to look your best on Zoom
Setup Your Workspace
Dedicate part of your home as your workspace whether it’s a kitchen table, desk, or even create a space where you can stand for part of the day. Try your best to avoid your bed but move from sitting to standing as best you can.
Take Breaks & Move
It’s easy to get distracted at home especially if you’re not alone but you should make specific time to step away and have a snack, give your pet some attention, take a walk and my personal favorite is to do a light workout in the afternoon as a pick-me-up to get you through the afternoon. Explore your flexibility and find the right balance to keep your best work flowing.
Avoid the Meeting Trap
As more work moves remote you’ll lose the daily spontaneous interaction of co-workers but there is a desire to get people on more calls and your calendar can fill up quickly. DO keep in touch with others via Slack or messaging services, but DON’T spend the whole day in those chats and email. Take the time to silence all notifications and focus on deep work. You can play your music as loudly as you’d like or have total silence but take the time to turn off, focus, and do your best work in between calls and breaks.
We hope everyone is staying safe and healthy during this time. Take care of others, but don’t forget to care for yourself first.