Tips for Working from Home
Are you one of the many employees still working from home?
This article is here to help make the challenges that working remotely has created much easier to overcome. We've put together some suggestions from bed retailers, furniture retailers, and lifestyle experts across the internet to help you cope with working from home easier.
Stick with a routine.
The editors of Good Housekeeping magazine knew the difficulties that lay ahead for people who had to work remotely after the coronavirus broke out. The editors' first tip was to stick to a routine. No skipping parts of the daily routine just because you're working from home. Observing the same routine prepares you for work and protects you from burnout.
Also, a routine can save you some time, which is important given the situation we're all facing just now. You can get on with your tasks for the day. Without the routine, you'd waste time planning and making decisions.
Create a workspace and give yourself a break.
On their blog, furniture retailer Habitat Retail Ltd, known more commonly as 'Habitat,' has advised against staying in bed and working. Instead, they recommend creating a separate workspace that feels like an office. They say doing so is good for body posture, avoiding distractions, and, generally, the feeling that you can get away from the 'office' when you've finished working. They also recommend setting up your desk to face a window for good feng shui.
We add that your workspace shouldn't be in your bedroom if you can avoid it, and working from your bed isn't ideal for productivity.
Space will remind you of all the work you have to do and cause you some stress, impacting your sleep. You can find more tips for getting to sleep during this period in our blog post, Six Sleep Hacks to Help You Sleep Regularly During Lockdown.
Stay active
Office furniture company Blue Spot Furniture Ltd has been concerned about the physical impact of working from home after research has shown that people exercise less, observe a less healthy diet, and drink more alcohol when they work remotely. Their advice would be to stay active and keep your body mobile. This could be with a few stretches, some yoga, a short walk, or a run.
Any business whose employees need to work from home to encourage their workers to keep active. Exercising during the day has several benefits. It can make a person more productive and is suitable for mental health, providing an escape from stress. Encouraging workers to keep active during the day could make your team happier, healthier, and more productive.
Get a house plant.
The retailer Harvey's Furniture, suggests getting a house plant since house plants are believed to purify the air in the room while you're working. Bringing a touch of the outdoors into your home is always lovely, and the greenery adds a splash of colour to the room. Then there's the fact that indoor plants have heaps of benefits, such as improving productivity, lifting mood, reducing blood pressure, and lowering stress.
House plants can also have unexpected benefits. Whereas receiving an email that requires an immediate response is, in office terms, somewhat dramatic and demands your full attention, plants sit there nonchalantly and replenish your capacity for focus. They're a more moderate form of stimuli and don't grab your attention so dramatically.
Prepare for disruptions and set boundaries.
Good Housekeeping magazine has also made the important point that you're likely to experience disruptions, especially if you have children. It would be best if you prepared for these and ways to explain your children's situation, asking a family member who can isolate you to look after them and buy new toys or games to entertain them for longer.
Note that looking after the kids and working simultaneously is like multitasking, and you might not get as much done as expected. Every time you switch between tasks, there's a lag time in which your brain must settle into the new task. As a result, you take longer to complete the task, so minimise the disruptions as much as possible.
Stay Connected and Communicate with others
On their blog, bed retailer Bensons for Beds highlights the importance of communicating with others while working from home. It's easy for remote workers to feel isolated, especially now, and using tools such as Skype, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams can boost morale. All you have to do is meet with your colleagues online.
Communicating with others can help you stay connected to the wider business. If something important is happening within a company, you should want to know about it. The development may affect your work or your wish to continue in a specific role.
Working from home is a challenge and, right now, is especially tough. Organising yourself and your workspace and keeping in touch with the outside world, as retailers and lifestyle experts have suggested above, will help ease the burden until it's completely safe to return to work. Of course, that could take some time.