Working from home comes with its own set of benefits and challenges. Here are a few tips to help maximise the benefits, while keeping sane!
- Create a routine to start and end your work day
Your commute to work would normally allow you to detach from your home life and gear up for your working day. Working from home blurs the lines between your work and personal life, so having a short transitional routine, such as making a cup of coffee before sitting at your desk, can help you to shift into work mode.
Likewise, at the end of the day it is helpful to have a routine to help you disengage from work and transition back into your home life. Something as simple as signing off on your chat group, shutting down your computer, or perhaps going for a walk will help signal that your working hours have ended.
- Create a designated work area
Another way to help differentiate between your working and ‘home’ hours is to have an area (space dependent) which can be designated as your work space. Try to make the workspace comfortable, with a chair you can sit in for long periods.
- Communicate, communicate communicate!
When a team is working remotely, checking in regularly is essential. Our core team at Yellow Door has weekly ’scrum’ and ‘power hour’ sessions, which help hugely in prioritising tasks, avoiding any miscommunications and promoting teamwork.
There are apps available, which can support remote working teams. We use Slack, which allows the team to chat in real time.
Another of our favourites is the project management app, Asana.
- Plan for snacks and breaks
Being in close proximity to your fridge can be a distraction and if you are like me, you may find yourself ‘grazing’ frequently. Try to keep healthy, ‘brain food’ snacks on hand for those moments. While you don’t need to have elaborate meals, aim to have a proper lunch time break away from your desk.
- Get out and about and socialise
One can feel quite isolated working from home, especially for extroverts. When working at an office there are casual interactions, which can help break up the feeling of being on a hamster wheel. Make an effort to continue those social chats with your colleagues. Yellow Door has regular ‘one on one’ chats between colleagues, which are a great way for the team to feel connected.
Consciously make an effort to leave the house during the day. Exercise, the fresh air and natural light are so beneficial for your mental well-being.
Working from home provides an opportunity to build a healthy, balanced, productive lifestyle. Yellow Door has always had a robust system for our team to work with flexible hours and remotely, and service clients around the world. The enforced lock down simply strengthened our process to work seamlessly together. For more tips on working remotely, read Janine’s blog post on how to effectively manage a distributed team.