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Working From Home, 3 of 3: Routine

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We hope by now you are getting used to working from home. This is the last post of our three Work From Home: Tips & Tricks blogs. This post will touch on why a routine is important and how to create one.

Your routine:
Try to stick to the same work routine Monday – Friday, decide a hard start time and end time. Set a reminder on your phone to take a few 10min breaks throughout the day, as well as your lunch break. If you can’t step away when the reminder pops up, “snooze” it a few minutes.  Don’t “dismiss” it, or you’ll never get away.  When you do take a break, leave your work area. Go outside and toss a ball with the dog if you can, refill your water bottle, grab a handful of almonds or other  small snack.

Be clear to your colleagues about your work hours and stick to them.  If you choose  to work late, consider at least setting yourself to “away” to discourage interruptions from others that think your green dot is an invitation to discuss something outside work hours.  If they chat you up anyway, you’re not obligated to answer if you’re set to “away.”

Try to avoid snacking. It’s hard with your whole kitchen right there. Schedule out what you’re eating for lunch for the week and stick to it. Try not to eat lunch while working. Take a real break. Keep healthier snacks on hand. Make sure you get up to refill your water bottle when it gets empty. Stick to your work hours. Close your laptop lid and walk away. Just like when you’re in the office, the work will still be there tomorrow.

If you are a current customer and want to join one of our Microsoft Teams Tutorials please sign up at this link. This is a great introduction on how to have face to face meetings with your customers and teammates. We hope these tips and tricks have been helpful in this new work from home world.

Working From Home: Tips and Tricks

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Was working from home something you used to look forward to on the occasional Friday, but now it has turned into an everyday reoccurrence?  

The work world has shifted quite a bit over the past month with some states even issuing a mandatory order to work from home. We are here to give you some tips and tricks on how to seamlessly transition into a work from home atmosphere. Or as a lot of people refer to it as, WFH. We have tested out many of these tips and tricks as a lot of our employees worked from home quite often before it was mandatory.  

We split WFH into three parts, 1) Your Office Space, 2) Your Co-workers, and 3) Your Routine.    

Your Office Space (Part 1 of 3) 

  • Creating an at-home office space can be tricky, in an ideal world everyone would have an extra room in their house with a desk and a personal library. But that is just not reality. Try to get creative, is there an old playroom that isn’t used anymore or an extra nook in the upstairs hallway? Ideally, this office space would not be in your bedroom. It is too easy to carry the stress of the workday to bed if you are working and sleeping in the same room.   
  • If possible, in a room with a door you can shut, but only shut the door if you feel you really need to focus or are getting on a call. WFH can feel very lonely when the rest of your family is on the other side of a closed door.  
  • If you must work in a common area, like the kitchen table, clear one end off for your workspace every morning, don’t let the placemats, yesterday’s mail, the kids’ schoolwork, or the cat encroach into your workspace.  

We hope these tips on how to make your office space the most productive helped. Be on the lookout for two more work from home blog posts touching on co-workers and your routine. Comment below with any tips you have on how you’re adjusting to your new WFH workspace.