My Top WFH Tips

As the pandemic made remote working more typical, more people are realizing the implications the #wfh trend has on their wellbeing and productivity. 

Moving forward, most companies are likely adopting hybrid models that give people the choice to work from home.

In my case, the ability to work from wherever I like has been a blessing. The one common factor that everyone I know who works from home agrees on is flexibility. 

However, be wary, there are always two sides to the coin. If you don’t find a way to regulate your schedule and balance your work-to-life ratio, remote working can actually hinder your well-being and performance in the long run.

Here are some of my top tips for working from home.

Don’t Start Your Day with Work

As cliche, as it sounds, establishing a good morning routine, can have a determinant effect on how the rest of your day goes. Don’t roll out of bed and jump into a meeting first thing in the morning. You’re going to deplete your mental resources early on in the day.

Make sure you do get a good night of rest. Morning routines can look different for everyone and there’s no single right way to do it. It’s whatever puts you in a relaxed and recharged state. It might look like reading, listening to music, cooking a good breakfast, exercising, or journaling. 

If you want to set yourself up for an amazing day, start by having an exceptional morning.

Set an Intention for the Day

If you want to maximize the quality of your output, one thing you should do is set an intention for the day. These aren’t goals or checklist items per se, rather, it’s an overarching theme of where your goals extend from.

For example, if your intention of the day is to be more focused and present for a big project,  the types of tasks that can extend from these can involve using the Pomodoro technique for the entirety of the day, writing up a statement of key milestones and what you wish to achieve from the project, and setting up tangible learning goals for each portion of the project you complete.

Make Breaks a Regular Occurrence

The nice thing about remote working is that it throws the traditional 8 hour-one-hour break thing out of the window. If you’re hitting a brain block at a certain point, you have the option to step out and recharge. If you want to spend a couple of hours catching up with friends, run errands, and then finish up the day’s work at night where there’s no distraction— the world’s your oyster.

What effect does this have on productivity? When people are given the opportunity to work within their productive windows and engage in activities that bring them mental satisfaction and rest, they are more likely to feel motivated to produce better output.

The thing is, breaks work differently for everyone. Some people might benefit more from longer hours, and longer breaks—others maybe having small breaks every couple of hours helps them stay focused.

Give Yourself a Cut Off Time

One of the most worrisome factors for employers that allow their employees to work from home is that the non-supervisory nature will deter employees from working aka slacking off. 

The ironic thing is that the more companies started letting their employees work from home, the less time off people were taking. People often find it difficult to set boundaries between work and home, especially when our “offices” are a few steps away from our bedroom. This can lead to problems like burn-out down the line.

This is why it’s important, that in general, you give yourself a cutoff time for work. Just like you have a relaxing routine in the morning, make sure you wind down and have a night-time routine that puts you in a state of relaxation. Don’t go to bed stressed. Even when you don’t feel like it, make sure you incorporate activities in your day that don’t involve working.

Put Effort into Engaging with Other Employees

As remote working is fairly new for some companies, there might not be infrastructure in place that prioritizes employee engagement.

In fact, not having an engaged workforce can have costly repercussions on overall productivity.

It’s important to keep yourself engaged, as working from home all the time can strip away much of the human connection we get from physically attending meetings or post-work happy hours. Take the time to send little thank you notes, or even just regular checkups on your colleagues. Attend as many in-person or remote social events as you can, and try to be a part of the community. This can make work, in general, more fun to go to when you look forward to touching *virtual* shoulders with the people you work with

Conclusion

Working from home can be extremely rewarding, and even better if you have good mechanisms in place that allow you to reap the full benefits of it. A majority of it comes down to taking good care of yourself mentally so you’re primed to work at your best. Remote work can be isolating, so make sure you are putting in the effort to stay engaged, even when things move online.