8 Work-From-Home Tips During The Pandemic
With the pandemic, the concept of working from home has become the new standard. No longer are we required to rise at ungodly hours to prepare for our daily grind. Instead, we have the luxury of rolling out of bed at the commencement of our workday, blurring the lines between professional responsibilities and personal life thanks to this newfound flexibility.
While it may seem enticing, it’s imperative to maintain a healthy work/life balance even within the confines of our homes to avoid potential pitfalls, like missed deadlines or a decline in productivity levels. In this article, we’ll share eight invaluable tips to help you achieve optimal productivity without sacrificing your much-needed relaxation. Let’s dive in!
1. Keep Home And Work Life Separate
The term “Working From Home” probably gives you the image of yourself, on your laptop, in bed, with the TV playing in the background. Sounds great doesn’t it? However, this may affect your productivity and efficiency at work. Your body would not be able to discern whether you are working or resting, making it difficult to do your job during working hours and to unwind afterwards. Prior to the pandemic, this would not have been a problem as we had a designated space for work, which is the office, and to decompress, which is at home. Therefore, to adapt, you should provide yourself an office-like environment to ensure that you remain focused on your work – keeping your head out of the clouds. This will also allow you to resist the urge to nap in the middle of the day or procrastinate. I know that the calling of your bed is incredibly seductive but concentration is key to a productive work day!
2. Put On Your “Work Face”
It might be freeing to be able to finally wake up right before the start of business hours and work in your pyjamas. Sleeping seems to be a better option than waking up early to dress up and commute in a crowded subway. However, contrary to what you may think, dressing up and waking up at your usual timing will actually make you more productive and alert than clocking in more sleep. That’s right – keeping to your usual morning schedule, like showering and dressing up, has a direct effect on your efficiency and performance throughout the day. Doing this allows your body to adapt better to having to work from home during your typical business hours and prevent your sleep schedule from getting ruined.
Working in a space where you also rest will no doubt increase the feeling of lethargy and laziness. Wearing something reminiscent of what you slept in will surely affect your preparedness for work as well. Therefore, wake up, wash your face, wear a nice clean top and start your day with your usual cup of coffee.
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3. Keeping to 9-6 Nothing More, Nothing Less
To add on to the previous tip, sticking to your usual morning schedule ensures you have clearly defined working hours. It is completely possible to be so immersed in what you are doing that you are unaware of how much time has gone by. This is usually the case during days where you have piles of work to be done or when there is an important deadline coming up. This is especially common during this WFH period as you do not technically have to “clock out” of work. You simply stop. Therefore, it is important to set a distinct timing of when you start work and when you end. If there is work left undone, it would be good to communicate with your manager for an extension of the deadline or clearly state that you are extending your hours. However, working overtime on a daily basis is harmful to you as it keeps your body in a stressed out state for a long period of time.
Although it is good to hold yourself accountable, it is also equally important to recognize when enough is enough and it is time to rest. Remember: All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Let’s not be Jack during this already stressful time!
4. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
Working from home means barely socialising with anyone aside from your household. It also means being unable to ask help from your colleagues especially when you need it ASAP. Therefore, always keeping in contact with your superiors and coworkers is incredibly important, especially during deadlines and critical projects. Ensuring that the line of communication is always open prevents misunderstandings from occurring and makes everyone available in times of crisis. You should not hesitate from answering their calls for help either even though they are not physically in the same office as you.
Of course, communication also pertains towards your household members. It is difficult to adjust to a work from home setting, especially if there are distractions around. Thus, communicating with the people you live with is important to ensure there is no tension or misunderstandings in your home. Establishing boundaries is equally necessary during a workday in order to prevent disruption from your workflow. Only after hours should you give your full attention towards the people that matter to you. Try your best to tackle domestic matters that require you to abandon work only after office hours (unless it’s an emergency of course) just like in the past. Of course, this does not mean you should cut ties with everyone and revolve your life around your job; friends and family are still important and as long as it does not interfere with your tasks, conversing with your loved ones is still encouraged.
5. Catch Up With Loved Ones
By having stipulated working hours, you will also be able to spend time with people you care about. Being in the office has some sort of social element in it as you are able to talk and exchange pleasantries with your colleagues. At home, the only presence you feel are yourself, your computer and occasionally your household members. I understand how incredibly lonely this could feel. Therefore, keeping a line of communication with your friends and people outside of your household is important to break up the monotony of work. Chatting with them through social media, texts, calls or even Zoom will help stimulate your brain and keep you from feeling overly stressed and unmotivated during this phase. If the city or country you are in allows it, making plans and going out with a small group of friends will allow you to have some real human interaction and decompress.
6. Eat And Sleep Right
Working from home can mean full access to your kitchen and a stocked pantry. Do you know what else that means? Snacking 24/7. Hungry? Munch. Bored? Munch. Stressed? Munch. It is an unhealthy habit to form as you continuously reach for biscuits, sweets or anything readily available in your pantry. Not to mention that eating unhealthy, nutrient-deficient food actually makes you hungrier which leads to even MORE snacking. The result would be you consuming extra empty calories everyday, leading to weight gain and sluggishness while working. Thus, maintaining a healthy diet and knowing your limits is essential when you are working from home. Eating the right food will help you function better instead of continuously being in a state of food-coma, affecting productivity levels.
Next would be an addition to tip #3: Prevent your body clock from getting ruined! Keep your sleep schedule the same as when you were going to the office. Not only does this ensure you have enough time to rest but it also makes transitioning back to your workplace easier. Not having enough sleep will lead to lethargy in the middle of the day and affect your mood during work. Taking the time to rest and decompress will result in better productivity and ensure you are ready to tackle another day when you wake up.
7. Prepare A To-Do List/Planner
This is not only a concern during this WFH phase but also when we transition back to our workplaces. Having a planner stating all the tasks that needs to be done is a good habit to have. Listing them according to their order of priority will keep you organized and up to date with what needs to be done or which tasks are more urgent than others. This allows you to be more flexible with your own schedule and make time for things that matter to you.
8. You Are Not You Without Your Break
In the office, it is normal to yearn for a break from work once in a while. However when you are home, the environment is much different. Your home is a place of rest but, due to the pandemic, it is now also a place where you work. Thus, the possibility of your work-time getting entangled with your breaks is high. To counter this, you should set a precise time for breaks. You can do whatever you want – take a walk, watch an episode, a quick game – basically anything that does not pertain to your workload. Doing this prevents burnout and feeling unmotivated with your work.
And that’s our 8 WFH tips to help you survive this pandemic
We hope the above tips help boost the productivity of those who are currently working remotely during these unprecedented times. Balance your efficiency with self-care- if you are not mentally well, you cannot give your best. There might be a lot of work to do in a short schedule or previous work left undone however be disciplined enough to take a rest when you need to. There is no doubt that WFH is here to stay, even if it is just for a short while.
Hence, keeping yourself in tiptop shape till this storm blows over is the best tip we can ever give you.
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The Minimalist Society is a brand that focuses deeply on purpose and social good for our society at large. We do so by crafting experiences that makes people’s lives simple through interior design. We have been featured extensively by renowned online portals, in print and on screen, such as The Straits Times, Business Insider, Lianhe Zaobao, The Business Times, Singapore Home and Decor, Lookbox Living, Houzz, Cromly, Qanvast, Vulcan Post, Yahoo and MM2 Entertainment Singapore. At Team Minimalist, simplicity is a goal, a work style, and a measuring stick. By leading a life of purpose, our home owners can embrace only on the things that will add to the mission of significance and ultimately living their best story.
