Over the past several years, we have seen remote work culture skyrocket, especially among young professionals. One study even found 74% of workers would leave their current job for an opportunity offering a remote work option. Time and flexibility of location are the currency of remote workers. However, the benefit isn’t just for workers. 2/3 of managers saw an increase in productivity from their remote workers, there was a competitive advantage in hiring, and the talent pool from which to recruit quality candidates dramatically increased.
But for those who are new to remote work, it can be a difficult transition from a 9-5 office job. Here are some of the top ways you can set yourself up for success when working from home.
Have a Space Just for Work
My partner and I live in a 400 square foot studio apartment (check out these things to know before moving in with your partner). Yep, you read that right, a studio apartment, and I have been working/attending grad school from home for a year and a half. That means there is VERY little space for setting up a designated workspace. However, one of the most significant benefits AND challenges to working from home is comfort. Hitting the afternoon slump? Your bed is RIGHT THERE. I am far too guilty of working from the comfort of my bed and deciding, “Okay, a 20-minute nap, and I will get back to work.”
Instead, set aside a place in your apartment, specifically for work. It can be your kitchen table, a desk by the window, or in my case, a 1.5-foot wide desk sandwiched between my murphy bed and the wall (you do what you need to in a studio!). By setting aside one specific place in your home to work, you are subliminally conditioning your brain to be more productive when you get into that space. Make sure you are near an outlet so you don’t have to trek back and forth across the house when your computer runs out of juice.
Maintain a Schedule
It doesn’t have to be a regular 9-5, but you should maintain some semblance of a schedule. This again has to do with conditioning your brain to work during pre-set times. I prefer to use block scheduling, where I set aside certain portions of my day to complete different tasks. Written work, emails, and analytics in the morning, phone calls in the afternoon (I barely want to hear my own voice in the morning, let alone someone else’s). This also means setting aside blocks of time to get housekeeping done, such as grocery shopping, doing laundry, etc. By setting aside specific times for these tasks, you will keep yourself from using housekeeping to procrastinate on your other work.
Set a Good Morning Routine
This also means keeping a consistent wakeup time. While working from home does inherently add more flexibility to your schedule and kill the morning commute, you should have a morning routine to help put you in the mindset for work. For me, this means waking up, working out, showering, and spending the first hour of my day listening to podcasts while I drink coffee and eat breakfast. After that, I switch off my podcasts and focus purely on work until lunchtime.
Lunch > Snacking
When you are working in your home, it can feel like the snack pantry is calling you all day long. Don’t let working from home kill your good eating habits. Have an actual lunch break and a full meal. Take time away from your desk to refresh yourself and your mind.
Remote Work Doesn’t Have to Be Lonely
There are endless tools for working with teams from a remote location. Trello and Asana for team management, Zoom and Google Hangouts for Team Meetings, Google Docs for working concurrently on the same document. All of these are amazing, and I have used each of these as a part of remote teams! But one of the most helpful ways I have connected with colleagues remotely is through setting “coffee” and “lunch” dates with my coworkers. These are not meant to spend time working on a task together. They are to connect with my coworkers as people, check in on them, and hear about what is going on in their lives. For the extroverts, this can help lessen the impact of not being around your coworkers on a day to day basis.
Dress the Part (or Don’t!)
Many of the people I know who work from home say that the number one thing which helps them get in the mental space for work is to dress like you are going to the office. For me, taking a shower and throwing on a clean pair of jeans/leggings and a t-shirt is good enough. Heck, I wear pajama pants on the bottom and a button-up and blazer on top to give presentations over Zoom. Know your own body and see what works for you. You may want to experiment with trying different schedules and styles of clothing to understand what motivates you the most.
Have an Execution Plan, Not Just a Vision Board
This is especially important if you work for yourself as opposed to working for a company. When you work for yourself, the only person you are accountable to is you. If you fail, there is no one else to blame. If you don’t put in the effort, you won’t see the results. While I love the idea of using mind mapping and a vision board, the next step is to create an execution plan. This means going through and setting key performance indicators (KPIs) for each part of your business and checking in to see if you are making progress. I have a written down execution plan pinned next to my desk so I have to look at it every morning. I love it because it forces me to dream big, but also hold myself accountable for the steps necessary to achieve my long-term goals.
Set Expectations
I can’t count the number of times where I tell people I work from home, and then they say, “Oh my god, you can sleep in till whenever you want and watch Netflix all day!” While yes, that is technically true (and I do tend to leave mindless TV on in the background, working from home is still WORK. You still need to be putting in the effort to reach your goals, whether that is pitching clients, working with your boss remotely, or executing a plan to reach new audiences. Working from home isn’t for everyone, so first and foremost, you need to set expectations for yourself. This is still a job, and you have to be able to hold yourself to the standard of getting work done, even when it’s in your home.
Another group you need to set expectations with is your boss/team (if you don’t work for yourself). Working from home shouldn’t mean you are available 24/7. Sure, you may need to have the flexibility for early team meetings for different timezones. Still, when you are working from home, that also means that you are responsible for managing your own boundaries. Try and separate your work life and your home life as much as possible (hence having a specified workspace inside your home!).
The final expectation you need to set is with anyone who shares your space with you. If you have a roommate or live with your partner, you need to communicate what you need from them. If I need to take work calls (and since we live in a studio, there is nowhere to go), I ask my partner to put on headphones if he is going to play or watch something. If you are going to be on camera, let your roommate know, so they don’t appear in the background unexpectedly. If you have two people working from home, this becomes doubly important.
So there you go, the top tips for successfully working remotely! Do you have any additional tips which set you up for success when working from home? Let me know in the comments!