My home office survival tips
You may are running into the situation when you are able or forced to work from remote or from home.
Working from home can be a big improvement in the quality of environment for a few people, but also have some nasty stumble stones on the road to successfully tackle the challenge what is home office.
#1 Plan more lunch time
You will most likely make use of the fully functional kitchen in your home to save money and food expenses. This is a wonderful opportunity to cook more and healthier and overall improve your quality of life when working from home. But cooking does cost time and you should incorporate and appreciate that you will spend more time preparing your food - therefore spend more time on your lunch.
#2 Have fixed breaks
When working from home, you’ll suddenly find yourself not needing to move as often. You may bring a bottle of soft drinks to the table, you don’t go out for lunch, you don’t have to go to another floor to prepare your tea / coffee. You overall will move less. When your job is all about sitting, this can be rather harmful so plan in to take fixed breaks at a good time, stretch your legs and may even plan in a walk in the afternoon.
#3 Have a distinct working computer
If you are prone to procrastination or get easily distracted, you should really not do your business and work on your private computer. Risk is there that you will just click on that game or open that tab which really has nothing to do with your work. Have a separate, distinct working environment which does only allow you to do what you are paid for.
#4 Reorganize your desk
When working from home, you have to consider that you will spend a substantial amount of time at your desk if that is your primary area of work. Your desk should be as comfortable and organized as if you where in an office environment. This doesn’t mean that you can’t have fun with it and put up little minifigures and collectibles all around the place, but have it so that you do have a good distance to monitors and keyboard, can move the mouse freely, not being obstructed by food and places and leftovers. Keep it neat and make sure to sit comfortable.
#5 Beware of social isolation
Whilst you may just be sitting there with your headphones on and not really talk a lot with your colleagues, it is a difference of having people around you which make noises, irritations and you are able to just quickly turn around and have some small talk over a cup of tea and not having anyone around. A lot of people may underestimate the isolation which your own home may brings and how this impacts on your as a person if you don’t have regular chats and people to talk to.
#6 Get your communication straight
Working from remote or home means you will have to pay extra care with your communications to your team mates and your superiors. Not seeing them and having a direct line of communication may impact on how certain things come across when they have to be done via text. You may experience that you don’t get the same level of information any more from people when you work from home rather than being in the same office. Make sure that you have a plan how to tackle communication gaps and how you are communicating with your team mates when working from home and remote. Think about what do you want to communicate through text and what is better done through a quick call / skype / teamspeak / ventrillo session.
That’s it for now.
I hope those tips will help people who are considering to work from home or already do.