My top 3 Tips about Working from Home

If you are new to working from home or have been doing this for a while but feel overwhelmed, here are my top 3 tips about working from home and doing it successfully. These are things I have discovered to be working for me over the years and that allow me to spend my day in a balanced yet effective way. As ever, not everything that works for me will work entirely for everybody else out there and I cannot claim that. What I do hope is that you will at least find a few ideas and inspiration to help you navigate through this lifestyle and find those things that work best for you.

1. PLANNING

Probably one of the most important things I have learned over the years while working from home is planning – taking the time every day, or even once a week to plan and schedule my time for that particular day or week. Now the way you do that is less important. My preferred way to plan is to do that directly in my Outlook calendar, by blocking particular intervals of time to do email, to focus, or to run errands. I decide when I want to start and end my day. In addition to that, for the blocks of time that have a less precise outome, I go the old fashioned way and I use a hand written to do list. That is because I find pleasure in crossing things my to do list. This also helps me keep track of all the short term as well as long terms goals.

As mentioned, there are multiple ways you can plan: to do lists, bullet lists, mobile phone apps like the Notes and Reminder apps, or more advanced ones like OmniFocus, Monday.com, Todoist, Pocket. Also, nowadays more and more use their AI assistants like Siri, Cortana or Alexa.

Choose your favorite and whatever works for you. The goal here is to make sure you at least:

• Decide when to start and end your work day – otherwise you will end up working way too long hours
• Decide what are the key tasks you need to complete on that day or week
• Plan enough time for yourself. We will come back to this later in this post.

2. DESK SPACE

Another aspect that is key to my effectiveness while working from home is making sure my desk space is clean and well organised. Clutter makes me nervous and less productive. I then get distracted by things I feel I need to put back into their spot or by realizing I am missing items I use regularly. And this prevents me from really focusing on completing my tasks effectively.

So I made it part of my every day morning routine that I clear out my desk and get it ready for a great day. I put back all the things that do not belong there and I only keep my essentials: laptop and mouse and my docking station, my agenda, my phone and wireless charging stand so I never run out of battery on my phone and I am alwaysready to go without worrying if I have enough battery left to finish a conference call. Then I have a few “feel good” items I like to keep on my desk: my coffee cup, a scented candle, my water bottle and flowers.

3. BALANCE

Last but not least, make sure you keep your day balanced. Be sure to set some time asside for yourself and plan for that with intention. If you enjoy going to the gym, then plan for a workout break every day or every other day. If you prefer yoga, then set aside time for a few poses. Plan for meditation time, or a run or whatever helps you recenter. At the end of the day you want to feel content with what you have accomplished and not feel that you only “wasted” your time on fixing other people’s problems.

I learned this from one of my former managers who used to book time in his agenda for a daily workout during the lunch break. He would also encourage us, his team, to take an hour every day to work out or practice a sport that helps us get energized. Thank you, Simon 😉 And that was because studies show that when you exercise, your brain clears out and you become much more effective than without that workout.

All in all, working from home has its perks – the flexibility, the quiet time, the lack of commutting time – but at the end of the day, it is what you make of it. So be mindful and plannful. And enjoy every day.

Until next time,

Laura