Today’s post will be about how to work from home/beach/café more efficiently.
Set your daily routine
Keep your alarm clock set at the exact time you would need to wake up when commuting to the office. Brush your teeth, take shower, workout or whatever you are doing on a regular office-work day. This way your mind is set to Mon-Fri mode.
Take off your pyjamas
When working from home put your casual clothes that you wear on usual work day in the office. It will tell your mind that it is not weekend and you should work and not watch television/netflix series for the whole day. You can wear normal clothes and a tie which will be the sign for other family members that you are currently working and they should not distract you.
Remember about breaks
You should include breaks during your day. At the office you are, most likely, taking breaks for coffee, lunch or simply to talk with your colleagues. You can and should do it also while working from home. I know that talking with your buddies can be difficult but in 21 century there are plenty of applications for that purpose – grab a virtual coffee or set up lunch time thru WebEx/WhatsApp/Facetime/Zoom. You can discuss whatever work stuff or just the weather. It will be benefitial for your mental health and productivity!
Make arrangements with family members
Talk with your second half and children (if you have any and they speak already ;)) and set up boundaries. Maybe agree on a sign on the door that would mean daddy/mummy is at work as an example. Just remember that WFH does not mean you are shortening your working hours – you should work the exact amount of time you do in the office.
Find a quiet place to work
Good idea is to set up a place at home where you have no access to TV, your kids’ loud toys or any other distractors (you can’t influence your neighbor’s construction work plans however you can find a spot that is far from the noise). Best option is to have a separate room (with door) so that you can focus on working and not playing with kids or talking to wife/husband.
Headphones to the rescue
If you live in a small apartment and have no extra room to work in then buy headphones with build-in noise cancelling option. This will help you focus on your tasks. However, if you have small child this might be difficult to achive -good luck thou (I am with you here – my boy turns 14 months this week!)
Turn off all media (including social media)
Media are not helping with remote job – that is true. Turn off tv, radio, disable notifications or log off from facebook, twitter, linkedin, slack on all your devices (of course only if you do not communicate through it at work ;)) There are plenty of applications that i.e. block your feed on facebook when using browser. It’s worth trying multiple solutions and check which is working best for you.
Plan your day ahead
It would be perfect if you put some time at the end of working day to plan the next one. This way you will save energy on thinking what to begin with next morning.
Create priority list – complex tasks go first
Now that you have your plan from yesterday afternoon you can prioritize your tasks. What works for me is when I complete the toughest tasks first. This way you will complete them before noon (well, some may take weeks or months – you can still prioritize bits and pieces thou). Also, set up time to go thru your emails – this may take a lot of time however is probably less complex. Another task good for second half of day is writing documentation of what you created – this is super important in our programming word!
I would be glad to read about your tips around working remotely – please share your secret sauce in the comments.
Until next time!
Łukasz
PS. Remember that here you can check information about my personal token.