Typing by the pool, submitting a piece overlooking the sea, being productive in shared work spaces while country hopping - working remotely sounds like a dream.
Due to the corona virus being a reality in 2020, most people who never had remote work experiences before had no choice but to adapt to a home-office routine.
Personally I enjoy both ways: working in an office gives me the opportunity to meet and greet, socialize and get fresh air while WFH teaches me about discipline and focus. Besides, who doesn’t want to skip the commute sometimes? From experience I recommend:
- Setting up an alarm as if you were to go out so you can organize your day well, prepare yourself for any meetings, etc.
- Invest on a good headset that blocks external noises and provides top notch sound quality.
- Try to create a home-office environment with a traditional chair and table set-up (working from bed/couch isn’t a healthy option in the long term). As most people don’t own ergonomic chairs, controlling the environment can be a bit challenging but this video from Upright Health has some pretty resourceful tips.
- Give yourself breaks and drink plenty of water (it can be easy to overlook hydration when you’re busy which leads to a splitting headache in the end of the day).
- Do your best to communicate well and connect with your workmates. Besides team calls, ‘coffee sessions’ that enable you to let your hair down and have a bit of a chat are also useful ideas for team building, even if you are far from each other.
- In your free time, do exercise. I follow videos like this one from Popsugar. As I’m an art lover and all museums and galleries are currently closed, I also read about this topic in websites like ‘The art newspaper’, ‘Frieze’ and ‘Artview’.