If you’ve just gotten a job that requires you to work from home at least some of the time, or your current position has moved to a hybrid or total remote working setup, you might be feeling a bit all over the place right now. Trying to turn your personal space into a professional zone takes some time and effort.
And with no experience with working from home, the idea that you now have to self regulate your working hours and aim for optimum productivity while at home is probably very daunting. That’s something a lot of new remote workers have to deal with. You’re in charge of the way your working day looks from now on – that’s a lot of freedom in the routine to try and manage!
But there are various ways you can turn your remote working setup into the perfect place to get the job done. That’s the thing we want to focus on in this post: preventing remote work from becoming too taxing on your time and energy.
And while we’ve got some more general tips for getting used to working from home, the tips below are for when you’re on the clock and getting overwhelmed by it. Check them out.
Don’t Spend All Your Time at Your Desk
You wouldn’t do so in the office so don’t do so at home! The more time you spend sitting down, the more sedentary your life becomes, and that certainly isn’t the goal here. So get up and walk around, stretch your legs, get yourself a drink and a snack, and simply get a few more steps in.
Do this at least three times throughout the day, but the more breaks you take, the less stagnated your remote working setup will feel. That’s why we think you should get away from your desk once an hour, even if only for 5 to 10 minutes at a time.
Don’t Sit in Silence
Remote working is made all the more sinister-feeling when you’re doing it in silence. This isn’t how you’d work in a traditional environment, where you can hear everyone else’s keyboard tapping away and the water cooler making bubbles in the background.
And sure, you might not have noticed those noises after a while, but once they’re gone and you’re working in relative peace and quiet, you’ll certainly miss them!
That’s why buying a good set of headphones and putting on some music or a podcast you like can be a great way to work. Make sure the sound isn’t turned up too loud, seeing as you’re still trying to focus here, but do use a bit of audio stimulus to help your space feel busier.
Know Who to Reach Out to in Case of a Problem
If you’re working from home and you’re outside of the office, you’re not going to be surrounded by all the usual suspects. You’re going to be on your own toiling away, and that can be a little worrying for a few reasons. The main one, however, is the idea that you may run into trouble while on the clock and have no one to go to about it.
And that is a bit of a scary thought; if you can’t get on with work, the work isn’t going to get done, and you have no idea who you can tell about the issue! But remote working setups cannot thrive without someone on the other side of the screen.
That’s why you should make sure who it is you should get in contact with if you need some advice. Whether you have to shoot this person a message on Slack or send them an email, there’s someone who can help just a notification away. Ask for these details before your first day working from home if you haven’t yet been told about your point of contact.
Learn Plenty of Tech Shortcuts
Tech shortcuts make sure you’re not wasting time on trying to do something that the digital world has already processed out. They can save you handfuls of minutes throughout the day, and that can cut at least an hour off the clock and give you more time to focus on the quality work you want to be doing.
Need to share your screen with a co-worker but don’t have any sharing tech installed? That’s fine! Just learn how to screenshot on mac and paste the resulting snaps into the chat you’re sharing. This way you can demonstrate what you’re talking about and keep the conversation flowing, without having to stop multiple times to search for a file or wait for your download to finally finish!
Or maybe you need to find something in your inbox that’s been buried by thousands of emails since? If you’re using Gmail, there are various operators you can try out to make sure you can find that one specific email quickly and succinctly. What may have been a 10+ job will now only take you 60 seconds max.
Keep Personal Messages Until You’re Off the Clock
Personal messages can interrupt your working flow. Answering them while you’re on the clock can be a very bad idea for this reason. They can pull your focus and make it harder to get back on task, especially if the message stirs up any strong emotions.
You may even want to turn your personal phone off until you’re done with work for the day. This way you won’t ever be tempted to check who’s contacted you. Staying off the phone, for some people, is the hardest thing about working from home!
If you’re new to working from home, these tips will help you get your time management right. Above all else, don’t let yourself become too stressed out by a remote working schedule. Instead, focus on the positives, learn a few nifty tricks to make the work pass efficiently, and create a line between the personal and professional even while you’re doing both at home.
