Working from home: Yet another perspective!

You may have already seen lots of articles and videos on the topic of working from home given the volume of people who are working from home at the moment. I won’t claim to have tips that are completely new or unique but wanted to share my personal and professional perspective on the topic as I worked from home for many years and learned a lot during that time!

Some simple tips:
1. Prepare a comfortable working space: Many of us do not have dedicated home offices or desks so we may be limited to a kitchen or dining room table. When deciding where to set up consider the amount of traffic in and out of the room and what kind of seat to use to support your back. If you live in a busy house and your bedroom is the quietest space, consider a small fold up table as an option (it should be possible to order an affordable option online and have one delivered).

2. Start and end work at the same time that you usually do: This requires self discipline but it will give you more of a sense of routine. Of course if your role allows you could start earlier and finish earlier but the key is not to start later than the time that you usually do as it may make you feel “out of whack”.

3. Plan for the day ahead before you do anything else: You may have a method of planning out your day when you are in the office whether this is a “to do” list, booking calls and meetings into your calendar, blocking off time to complete certain tasks. Take the same approach when working from home and stick to your plan as it will give you a sense of structure.

4. Focus first on your top three priorities: If you are not used to working from home it’s natural to feel a bit disconcerted at the start. Ask yourself “what are the top three things that I want to accomplish today?”. Don’t allow yourself to be distracted by e-mails/ other tasks until you have finished your priority tasks.

5. Avoid social media: Many have commented on their feeling of overwhelm when they look at social media and messages on their phone at the moment. Work can be a really good way of switching off from this and allowing your brain to focus on something else. Again this requires self discipline but try to use working from home as an opportunity to get away from the media overload and achieve some headspace for yourself.

6. Take breaks at the usual times: First of all, remember to take breaks! You won’t see any of your colleagues going to take their lunch or coffee break so you won’t have the usual cues to take a break. Try to use break time to do something positive for yourself such as going outside to get some fresh air. Again try to maintain your headspace and don’t get sucked into social media scrolling on your break time!

7. Connect with your colleagues: You won’t have the usual face to face contact that you have in the office but you can still connect with your colleagues over phone and video calls. E-mail is great but if you feel a little isolated there is no substitute for hearing the voice of a valued colleague or friend. In addition to this, professional queries are often resolved far quicker over the phone than they are over e-mail.

8. Use this time for upskilling: Remember the great online learning resources that are available to you such as Udemy – this could be a great time for some new learning and upskilling.

The additional challenge of working from home with kids or loved ones who are dependant on you

This is where working from home gets more complicated but it is the reality for many of us at the moment. A few tips (that may or may not work depending on your situation) but are worth a try are:

1. If you are a sole parent or carer working from home: Let your employer know this – most organisations are understanding of the current challenges that employees are facing. However if they do not know about your situation they will not be aware that you may need additional support.

2. If there are two parents or carers in the home: Try to divide your time if possible e.g. if one person has a conference call at 3pm, plan ahead and see if the other person can be available to take over responsibilities.

3. Set a structure for kids: Kids like knowing what’s happening next so discussing the plan for the day in the morning will help manage expectations and give them a sense of routine.

4. Get enough sleep: We may already know from experience that as adults/parents we are a little more patient when we have had enough sleep. Having slept enough supports us in dealing with many of the challenges that the day throws us. Try to be disciplined and go to bed at a reasonable time.

5. This too shall pass: It’s certainly a challenging time trying to balance work and family commitments and the many internal anxieties that we all have. We don’t know how long this will last but the saying “this too shall pass” is an important one at the moment.

Author: Lorraine Shine, Career & Executive Coach/ Corporate Trainer: www.careerandinterviewsuccess.ie