Working From Home: 10 Steps Toward Working Productively During Your Covid Curfew
For me, working from home is a choice. But for a lot of you, it may be something brand new to navigate while you’re also figuring out how you are going to entertain your kids for 3 weeks or where you will procure your next roll of toilet paper. If you’re not used to it, like anything, it can feel fumbly at first.
So, I thought I’d take a moment to share some insight I’ve gained in working as a freelancer from the comfort of my couch. The overall hope is that you to know you are doing it right because there really is no one way to do it. You will have to figure out what works best in your own household, but there are some constants we’ll all share.
Start each day with a list of things you want to accomplish that day. Since you will not have people around you checking on your progress, self motivation will be key here. Having a to-do list (and getting that super satisfying feeling of checking things off!) keeps you accountable in a way that coworkers in close quarters used to.
Your work-flow will change from day to day. Depending on your job, this might already be true. You might ask yourself if you should be doing more with your day. If you find yourself doing that, I suggest taking the time to learn something new or dig deeper into facets of your current vocation. You can use this time to continue shaping your career.
Communicate, communicate, communicate. When working from home by yourself, you don’t get the advantage of seeing or experiencing other people’s non-verbal communications. Therefore, you will need to make up for it by asking a lot of direct questions to make sure everyone is one the same page. And then reply back w/ your understanding of the answer. It is a little extra work, but I’ve found it a worthwhile practice.
The laundry can wait. When you are working from your home environment, it will be tempting to take care of home tasks since you see them right there across the room. Distractions are everywhere - including the furry kind sitting next to you on the couch. Give yourself time and space to do your job w/o the urgency to overly multitask. But also, know that Gorilla wants to play ball, so make time for that, too. She loves having you home, btw.
If you’re having trouble with the above, set a 45 minute timer to do your work-work and then spend the last 15 mins of that hour doing a house chore. This one has saved me many times! It’s amazing what one can accomplish in 45 minutes of focused work time. I kinda live by it now.
Stay in touch with people! Really, it can feel lonely when you are first at it - like the world is going by without you. I’m so thankful for chat, email and text and appreciate every Michael Scott meme sent my way. I do miss the camaraderie of an office setting, so these little things really help. Schedule lunches with people. Trade stories and appreciate the fact that you do not have to rush back to the office in an hour’s time.
Stand up and swing your arms. For real, yo. I sometimes forget to do this for hours. The timer helps make me aware of my sedentary nature. And drink your water.
Go ahead and get exercise in the middle of the day. Your schedule belongs more to you now. Make it work to your advantage. If you have kids at home, they’d probably love to share recess time with you!
And also, know when to call it quits for the day. Keeping a routine in a time that is anything but routine will help you feel centered.
Kinda on that note, even if you are home and you get sick, for God’s sake, take the time to rest! Again, the laundry and TPS reports can wait.
Hopefully, this list will guide you in the next few weeks. It’s going to be a learning curve for all of us, so let’s give grace to ourselves and others while we get through it all. And if I can be of any assistance to you (I send really good memes, too!), let me know. I’ll be here in front of my laptop finding creative ways to help my clients build on their digital presence when everything else seems to be coming undone (to be fair, that’s been going on for years now, and we have managed). We live in strange times, indeed.