As a veteran of the home office, here are Word Dragon’s top tips on how to smash working from home when you’re more used to a traditional office.
Set specific working times
The beauty of working from home is that, as long as you get the job done, there is often less necessity to stick to conventional working hours. If you’re not a morning person, your new routine can accommodate that! As long as you make yourself available when your clients need you, you can work whenever suits you. Saying that, discipline is key, particularly in the early stages, so when you’ve decided on your routine I’d advise sticking to it religiously for as long as possible so that you get into the habit of putting the hours in. Distractions are rife – the cheeky lie-in, a quick bit of housework, bonus time with the kids, a pop to the shops, some household admin, the leisurely lunch, a sneaky round of golf… decide what your working hours will be and stick to them. Saying that, once you’re in the zone it can be hard to stop – established working times will help you to draw the line between work-time and down-time and will stop colleagues getting an unrealistic idea of your availability.
Communicate your availability
Communicate your intentions and expectations early on, before interruptions become the norm. Make sure that family and friends understand and respect that “working from home” does not equate to “available for coffee and a chat / round of golf / shopping trip”. If they wouldn’t interrupt you at work, nor should they interrupt you at home.
Separate work and family resources
If your working life is suddenly merged with your home life, it will probably involve
Stuff. This
Stuff
can easily become part of the family – whether your teen expects access to your laptop or your toddler is interested in smearing playdough on your files. Set rules from the start about what can and can’t be touched and keep the Stuff in an allocated place so there’s no confusion.
Maintain office communications
When you’re in the office, it’s obvious whether or not you’re available – either you’re there, working, or you’re not. When you’re at home, out of sight, your colleagues have no idea whether you’re available or not, unless you’ve had this discussion with them. Make sure your colleagues are informed of your rough intentions. Day-to-day information sharing and the ability to bounce ideas around will require more effort than before, so make time to agree on how you’ll stay in touch. I personally use a group WhatsApp and Slack chats, where colleagues and I can post questions or comments and others can respond as their availability allows – but there are so many technologies available now, there’s bound to be one that suits your industry and your style of working.
Beware the fridge
Possibly the biggest home-working distraction of them all is the fridge. No longer able to lean across the desk to chat to a colleague, the kitchen will bear the brunt of your need for a break. Whether you need to stretch your legs, procrastinate, avoid a difficult customer or just gather your thoughts, there are really a limited number of places you can go to if you’re working at home. You could stock up on healthy snacks or incorporate more exercise into your homeworking routine, do whatever works for you, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Accept the hiccups
You know what they say about the best laid plans! Just like when you’re in the office, things won’t always go as you’d hoped. Family life will occasionally take over and technology won’t always behave. That’s life, but longer you stick with it, the easier and more normal it will become. Additionally, when you’ve been working from home for a while, you’ll identify when you’re at your most and least productive and it will become easier to prioritise your work around the flow of your family – you can save the complex, high-concentration tasks for when you know you’ll be able to work for long periods uninterrupted, and the more routine tasks for when you can grab a moment.
Enjoy working from home!
I hope you enjoy your time working from home! After all this time, I wouldn’t have it any other way, so maybe if it works for you too then the daily commute could soon be a thing of the past. Liking the
lifestyle but in the wrong job to make it work? Check out Word Dragon’s
CV writing services to get some help with writing a CV to secure a job where you can make home working, either part-time or full-time, a long-term reality.
