Now that summer has officially come and gone, vacations are winding down, and the world is back on some type of regular schedule—I figured it would be a good time to talk about working from home. Most of us have a good schedule down by now, however, I personally think about the fall like “back to school” still. With that, I always buy new office supplies, try out new ways to do things, and work to integrate new positive work habits. In a regular world I don’t work from home, so this has been a pretty tough adjustment for me since it is not my preference. Now that I have been working from home since March and will be for the foreseeable future, I have worked tirelessly figuring out a routine that works best for me. After six months of trial and error I have finally narrowed the best tips and tricks that worked for me.
Prepare
I find I have the most productive and effective workdays when I prepare for each day ahead of time. I work in Pharmaceuticals so my day to day is almost never the same. I found that this was why I had a difficult time making a schedule that worked for all days. Once I realized that it was possible to still be structured even though each day was different, I had a much easier time planning and preparing for the day ahead of me.
Every night before I go to bed, I check my meeting schedule for the next day. During the week, I wake up at the same time every day for the most part, in an effort to stay consistent. There are some days I have to wake up hours earlier than usual for international meetings. Aside from that I shoot to wake up by 8:00 AM every day. Preparing for morning meetings the day or night before is useful to me and something I found that helped me be more present in the actual meeting. Anything I can do to visually map out the day ahead of me really helps. I personally like looking just at the next day rather than the entire week, it helps me to not feel too overwhelmed by truly taking it one day at a time.
The last thing I do to prepare for a day is to make sure I go over any due dates for that day or any upcoming deliverables. This helps me organize what tasks/ projects I need to prioritize in order to meet all my deadlines. Another way I keep track of timelines is by creating to do lists. I have always been a write it down and cross it off person when it comes to things I need to get done. For whatever reason, it’s really satisfying crossing something off my list. I have two ongoing to do lists and I look at them as short term and long term. I prepare each day by ensuring my short term to do items are completed by the deadline or within the next few days. Anything that is long term or upcoming within a significant amount of time (typically more than a week), I keep an ongoing list for that separately. On days I can complete all my short term to do’s I will start chipping away at my long term to do list.
Work Life Balance
When I first started working from home in March, I found that I was working way more hours than I was prior to quarantine. I had a really difficult time unplugging when the workday was done. I decided early on that I needed to separate my workspace from my living space. Luckily, I am able to use a completely separate/spare room as an “office” space which has really helped me separate my workday from my personal life. Once I focused more on working my regular hours and got better with logging off around 4:30/5 every day really helped me maintain a more regular schedule. When your work life and home life are so meshed, it’s easy to fall into the trap of never unplugging and that definitely can lead to burning out.
Another thing that I learned from the beginning was the importance of taking breaks. When I’m in the office it’s nice to walk down the street to grab a coffee, go to the kitchen to eat lunch with coworkers, or even just have a quick chat with someone. Working from home is much more isolating and lonely so I really struggle with missing the day to day interaction. I think it's really easy to get caught up with work and find that you aren't getting up from your chair as often or taking real lunch breaks. I really try to plan my breaks ahead of time depending what my meeting schedule is for that day. If I have a chunk of time to workout or go for a run or walk, I will block off my calendar so people know that I'm unavailable for that 30-60 minutes. Having it blocked on my calendar also helps me stay accountable to step away for a little bit and refocus my energy elsewhere. I actually find that breaking up my day this way helps me get a second wind for the rest of my work day.
For the most part I'm really good at listening to what my body and mind need. If I kept going at the rate I was in March, I would have been completely burned out by now. There wasn't a huge separation between my work life and my home life. I would bring my laptop into bed with me and do emails after dinner while I was relaxing before bed. I would advise against creating these habits if you can help it. I like my room and living room to feel like personal spaces that bring me happiness and make me feel relaxed. It sounds silly but when I started doing work in bed, my room started making me feel stressed or anxious. Once I left work to my office space only, I got better at unplugging and my room started feeling like a sanctuary again. Maybe it's all in my head, but if you're feeling the same way, try it out—it worked for me!
Navigating a Virtual World
I think by now everyone is really sick of hearing “Sorry, I was talking on mute!” “Let me just share my screen,” “Let me know when you can see my screen,” etc. Unfortunately, this is the world we live in for now, so communicating with colleagues, external vendors, and other points of contact has to be done in a creative way. There are a lot of challenges communicating via Zoom, Skype, Slack, Teams, and so on. Meetings that used to be in person are sometimes difficult to navigate virtually. I find I have a harder time staying engaged when I’m in back to back meetings some days. I find it’s really important to not let other tasks distract me and try my best to remain present in meetings the way I would if they were in person. I take a lot more notes than I used to during meetings since I find that days mesh together and not having in person meetings makes it difficult for me to distinguish what action items came from what meeting. I am a wicked visual person as it is, but I would say even more so while working from home.
Another tactic that has helped me stay organized with my notes and to do lists is using OneNote. OneNote is part of Microsoft Suite and is extremely user friendly and helpful. It's a great way to organize meeting notes, to do lists, reminders, etc. I don't know how I went this long without it but it is a tool I would highly recommend for organization. Another random tip that I started doing was blocking my calendar for "working hours." For example, if there is a document I need to focus closely on writing or reviewing that needs undivided attention, I will block my calendar and mark my Skype and Teams as "busy." I am personally extremely distracted by coworkers sending me an IM while I'm in a working groove. I think letting colleagues know you are not available by your "busy" icon definitely helps limit the amount of interruptions. For me, the ad hoc IMs are a lot more increased when working from home since we can't walk over to each other in person anymore, which is fine, but I definitely needed to come up with a compromise and this works great for me!
Another trick I do is turn my email notifications off if I'm in a meeting that I really need to pay close attention to, during a training, or while trying to complete a task/project. When I see a notification of an email come through that I've been waiting for or feel I need to read, it totally throws me off track of what I'm currently doing. I think it's key to recognize what helps you stay engaged, what distracts you, what stresses you, etc. That way to can do more of what makes you productive and make a conscious effort to mitigate things that interrupt you. Overall, I was extremely nervous about working from home mostly because of my personality, not because I thought I wouldn't be productive. I am an extrovert to a fault so it took a lot to adjust to the new normal being alone day in and day out. I definitely wasn't expecting having to change my working style so once I realized it was important, I started paying attention to what I could do to make it better. I would even go as far to say that I enjoy working from home now, which is saying a lot for me! I hope this helps anyone else that is looking for ways to make WFH better, if you have any of your own tips, please share with us!
