6 TIPS WHEN WORKING FROM HOME

Have you found yourself working from home for the first time since the coronavirus outbreak? 

There’s a lot of stigma with ‘working from home’ which is sometimes met with air quotes and the assumption is your not really working - BUT employers and managers should trust their staff if they are sitting 2 feet or 200 miles away and lets ignore those rumours that streaming and porn sites are struggling to cope with the bandwidth.. 👀

So here are my tips that might help - while we try to find our new normal. 

1. Write a to do list - I’m a list person I don’t think I can trust someone who doesn’t have one.. write it the night before so when you rock up to work bang on time you can get started with your day! 
2. Have a dedicated space to work - sitting on the couch or laying in bed might work for some (it’s where I get most of my work done working with one hand and baby sleeping in the other - she is not aware of the social distancing yet) but having a space to work will help you get in the work zone and not have a weird bed/ desk/ work vibe going on. 
3. Get dressed in the morning - the WFH dream - working in your PJ’s right?! - Without the morning commute you can enjoy the extra time in bed but make sure you still get yourself ready to work - have a shower, get dressed and sticking to whatever your pre-morning ritual you have will help. Because come 4pm, you will be thankful you are not still sitting in your musty PJ’s.
4. Take a break - remote working can create bad habits, with your fridge so close by and no commuting to work you might find you eat more and exercise less. Eating can be out of boredom if you find this change the task tour doing, take a break, drink some water, get some fresh air (while we still can).
5. Work within your hours - I have been guilty in the past of overworking when working from home, especially when you're making progress on a project or finally catching up on things. Enjoy that you have now reclaimed your commuting time and once you have finished work, you are already at home - where’s that glass of wine?!
6. Keep speaking to people - Communication is key and always will be. Working remotely can be lonely and sometimes you will go hours without speaking to anyone, only when you do you sound like a pubescent boy whose voice is breaking. There are so many effective ways to communicate these days and here are just a few tools I use - phone, What’s Ap, Slack Google Hangouts, Skype and Zoom 

What’s your other top tips?