10 Tips – Working from Home.
I've been working from home for the last 9 years, following Marshall Goldsmith's advice for Coaches to function with zero overheads.
These are a few tips that may be useful to those who are finding the new need to work from home during the coming weeks. I have two sons who are now working from home... (hope they read this too )
These are a few tips that may be useful to those who are finding the new need to work from home during the coming weeks. I have two sons who are now working from home... (hope they read this too )
- Set the times for commercial work, and for just being at home. Be disciplined about this, else you may end up being at commercial work 24/7. Also, be realistic about these times, and factor in all variables like video conferencing, con calls etc.
- Set a particular place for your work. This is your "office". It can be just a table, or a dedicated room. This helps psychologically too. Ideally, be at this space at the times you have set. Don't take the easy way out of making the whole house your work area.
- Don't feel guilty if you don't work at all on a particular day. Remember to avail of "leave" if needed and as may be applicable to your terms. The self-employed, who need no ones permission, need to be actively aware of giving themselves leave.
- Don't feel guilty that you are not occupying the dedicated office space for 8 -10 hours at a stretch. Each of us have differing productive lengths that we can work for at a stretch. Find yours - 1 hour, 90 minutes, 2 hours whatever it be, but take active breaks. Set the duration of the break though, and get back to work at the end of each break!
- Be flexible and creative with your schedule. Don't blindly copy yesterdays schedule for today. Make it sensible and useful as the work demands. Also the breaks can be of any length not necessarily just 5 or 10 minutes... Find what works for you best, keeping in mind that different time zones may need you working at odd times of the day.
- Eventually it won't matter how you dress, but to start it's useful to dress just as you did when you actually travelled to office.
- Silence alerts/pings from Social Media and don't indulge during the hours you have dedicated as work time... you can lose track and fool yourself too easily while at home. ( It was okay to peep and respond in your actual office and okay now to indulge during your dedicated breaks.)
- During work hours if you find you have nothing really to do... read/ study matters related to your particular profession. Actively improve on your skills/abilities
- Be lavish regarding family time, but remember the family is most probably still learning to cope with having you at home all the time.Turn a blind eye to all those things you are noticing for the first time now (and perhaps disliking) at home. Wait for an appropriate time (like when you restart going out of home to work) and see if it still irks you, before taking it up. Try instead to do more than you otherwise did to help around the house.
- Unless you are one of those who have been constantly available, be strict about holidays and personal time. Be at work, but remember to be at home too!!