by Scott Gillum
Estimated read time: 3 Minutes
Making Working from Home, Work
Barking dogs, crying babies, toddlers toddling, welcome to the reality of working from home.
Since our founding 3 years ago, our teams have been living this life. Here are 3 tips to help you make the adjustment.
- Get used to and learn how to live with working odd hours. If you’re accustomed to a routine of “working hours” in the office, you can kiss that goodbye if your children are at home.
Channel your “inner Gandhi” for patience and flexibility. Work when you can find the calm. Early mornings, evenings, and quiet moments in between.
Managers be flexible on your expectations on deliverables and due dates. You may see your team disappear during a good portion of the day.
- Count on technical issues, unplanned and spontaneous interruptions, and scheduling issues with conference calls.
In fact, you may be better off adopting the attitude that something will go wrong as the default.
- Everyone on camera for video calls…except when someone feels like they don’t want to be.
I’ve seen some posts that organizations mandate it, but the reality of our situation is that you, and/or your home office, may be a complete sh*t show at some point during the day. It happens…and we can deal with you not being seen on a call.
Part II – Now that you’ve been at this for a couple of weeks here are a few other things to consider.
- Wall clock to body clock work hours – You may be aware that your energy level and passion vary based on the time of day, now that you’re out of the office you can do something about it. Instead of reaching for another cup of coffee, go for a walk (and take the dog with you) change your work location — it’s spring now and the weather is great for working outside. Working will become more feel driven than time driven.
- Listen to your body – also by this point you may have noticed that your makeshift office isn’t exactly ergonomically designed. Pay attention to how long you sit and/or have your head in one position. Don’t worry if you forget, your body will remind you the next day.
- Reboot your modem and wireless router – you may have also noticed that your bandwidth has slowed. Consumer Reports recommends rebooting once a month, especially if you have added devices to the network.
- Update your work office – now that everyone is out of it, how could you use this time to your advantage. It could be a great time to paint, reorganize the furniture, update the lighting, etc.
Good luck and stay safe!
Making Working from Home, Work…
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