The ongoing crisis is forcing many businesses to work from home, including our own. We share some of our top tips:
1. Pretend you are still going into the office
This might sound like a strange idea, but the mental association you make between ‘working’ and the office is powerful.
Wake up at the same time you usually do and get changed into regular day clothes – even your shoes.
Have your morning coffee, check the weather (even though it makes no difference) and walk the dog.
Maintain your regular morning routine.
2. Use the extra time productively
One clear benefit of working from home is the lack of commuting. But how are you spending that extra 30, 60 or even 90 minutes you have at your disposal?
The temptation to sleep-in is great, but you should try and stick to the same sleeping pattern.
You could instead use this time to make a healthy breakfast, engage in light exercise, or read a book (or all three, if you have a commute as long as Ben’s).
Alternatively, you can use this time to get ahead at work. Plan out your working day, sift through your emails, or catch-up on the latest industry trends.
3. Create a distraction-free working environment
Whether it’s your study, the spare bedroom or your living-room table, create an ‘office-space’ for yourself and exclusively work there.
This means no working on the sofa or in bed. These seem like great ideas at first, but it won’t be long before back pain and sleeping troubles arise.
You need to keep your ‘work’ environment and ‘home’ environment separate.
Consider investing in a comfy desk chair and noise-cancelling headphones (especially if you live with others).
If you’re in need for music suggestions, check out our new ‘Working From Home’ playlist, curated by the fine taste-makers of E1MA:
Decorate your desk with houseplants – they help you relax.
Put your phone on silent and turn the TV off – it can be easy to get distracted by the minute-by-minute coronavirus updates.
4. Keep collaborating
Trading your open-plan office for a living room might make collaborating with your colleagues slightly more tricky, but by no means impossible.
We should be grateful to live in an age where vast quantities of digital tools are available at our fingertips.
Most modern messenger softwares have both text and video chat options: Messenger, WhatsApp, FaceTime.
But for speaking to your entire team, Slack, Zoom or Skype might be more suitable.
The E1MA team find Slack particularly useful, as you can create separate channels for separate projects.
These are tough times for businesses to operate in – bringing the whole team together (digitally) is the solution.
5. Look after yourself
Carrying out tasks for your business is important, but looking after both your physical and mental health is more so.
Don’t feel guilty about taking regular breaks during the day to go outside for some fresh air.
If you were considering taking up Yoga, Meditation or Mindfulness – now is the perfect time.
Apps like HeadSpace can work wonders. Alternately, there are countless free tutorials on YouTube.
Working alone gets lonely. Continuing ‘water-cooler’ chats with your colleagues as if you were still in the office.
Create a ‘random’ channel in your Slack in which you share gossip, memes or inspirational quotes – whatever keeps your spirits high.
Call your family & friends and see how they’re faring.
We’ll all in this together during these unprecedented times.
