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Working from home is great for maintaining work/life balance. It can also be hugely rewarding. If approached in the right way, it can result in increased productivity and well-being. But, the convenience of remote work can present some personal and professional challenges.
Due to the recent Coronavirus outbreak, many employers and businesses have opted for remote work culture to remain operational. This means that there are a lot of people who are new to this concept and unsure of the best approach to take. To ensure that you are on the track whilst at home, we’ve provided 5 top tips to ensure successful remote working.
This could be an opportunity to test out contingency planning, remote working and other ways of working, so we encourage you to embrace it and see if it can work for you.
#1 – Set up a dedicated workspace
The first key to effective remote working is your working environment. With your bed and sofa metres away, the temptation to work from these places is strong. But, actually, working from these spaces is risky. If you choose to work from places of relaxation, you may start to associate them with work itself. It is important that you have defined areas in your home for work and leisure, if possible. You do not want to sit on the sofa during your downtime, thinking about tomorrow’s deadline. Create a designated workspace and make sure your setup is comfortable.
Health and safety precautions made in an office can also fall by the wayside when remote working. Activate the blue light filter on your screen and adjust your chair into an upright position. If your chair is not adjustable, place cushions behind you for support to ensure good posture.
#2 – Create a morning routine
Before starting the working day, it is important to be awake and ready to seize the day. Don’t rush around before your start time. Ease yourself into the morning with a cup of coffee, gentle exercise or reading a few pages of a book, or whatever gets you to the right headspace.
Another thing which should be a part of your morning routine is getting dressed, brushing your teeth and hair and of course washing your hands etc. By staying in your pyjamas, you are not getting yourself into the working frame of mind. One of the main challenges when working from home is setting boundaries. Don’t treat your working day as a day off. You wouldn’t walk into an office in your nightwear, so why work from home in it?
That’s not to say that routine throughout the rest of the day isn’t important, but the morning especially sets the tone for the rest of the day.
#3 – Maintain work/life balance
There are a variety of things which you can do to ensure that you maintain a healthy work/life balance. And, they are all equally important!
It is easy to fall into a trap of overworking when you have no-one else around you, or conversely getting distracted and under-working. Ensure that you maintain regular hours of work, and when you are not working, switch off. Work time is work time. Leisure time is leisure time. Keep these separate. This is even more important when you are working from home.
If there are others who share your space, such as your partner or children, it is crucial to set ground rules. If you are still working when they come back from work or school, you need to lay out exactly what they can and cannot do during that time.
#4 – Make time for short and regular breaks
When in the home environment, it is easy to lose track of time. Some tasks can also be quite long-winded or arduous. What better way to refresh your mind than regular short breaks?
Maintaining productivity for a long period of time is tricky. So make sure you schedule short and regular breaks! Go and stretch your legs for 5 minutes, read your book or go and make yourself a snack or drink.
For those keen to enhance productivity, try Francesco Cirillo’s Pomodoro Technique. Created in the late 1980s, this technique uses a 25 minute timer to create intermissions in your day. After a 25 minute period is complete, you can have a short brain break.
As mentioned above, a lot of the good practices which apply in the workplace also apply with home working. For example, you should rest your eyes for 15 minutes after two hours of continuous computer use. And ideally follow the 20:20:20 rule; take a 20-second break to view something 20 feet away every 20 minutes to allow your eyes a chance to refocus.
#5 – Regularly communicate with others
Even when a team is working in the same place, effective communication can prove to be difficult. So, when in a situation where you need to distance yourself from others, it is even more important than ever to touch base. And there are so many simple ways to do that even beyond emails!
Google Hangouts, Zoom and Skype are ideal for face-to-face discussion from afar. For quick questions and casual chat, Slack and Microsoft Teams are good messaging platforms too. To keep in the loop and sane, a combination of instant messaging and conferencing is ideal.
In a time of self isolation, it is also essential to communicate with friends and family. You could even utilise your breaks to check-in and see how they are.
Black and White Accounting
This is a difficult time for everyone and we must come together to get through this. This has not been written as a sales pitch, but just our thoughts to potentially help you as you or your team start their working from home journey, so please feel free to share wide and far, it if might help.
If there is anything we can do to help you at this difficult time, please do get in touch by contacting Black and White Chartered Certified Accountants, populate the “Got a Question” form on the right, or call us on 0800 140 4644.
