Top tips for working from home
Working from home is an odd blending of two aspects of life that are usually quite separate. Whether you’re a mechanic, a nurse or an office administrator your home is organised differently to your workplace. They each have different functions, or they used to. In the past year the home and work environment has begun blending into one, particularly for office administrators. This blending has caused an uncomfortable feeling for some, a feeling they’re never quite at work, or quite at home. When working from home, if you don’t manually put some punctuation on your day, it simply won’t be there. It’s likely you’ll end up starting at slightly different times each day, taking mini breaks to hang out with the dog, half interacting with family and trying to run some home related errands during your mini breaks.These mini breaks will also result in you working later, in order to compensate. If this sounds like you, we’ve got the three most important tips for working from home.
Tip #1
Avoid Family Friends and Pets.
This one is tough. It’s hard not to give the family pet a little attention throughout the day, or have a conversation with a friend housemate or family member. The attention that you can give to these companions isn’t undivided, because it’s work time. There are deadlines, emails and issues swirling around your head along with that feeling that you are on the clock. Concentrate on your work so that when your free time comes, you can concentrate on having fun with the family pet, fully! This tip will also help you clearly define what is work time and what is home time, ridding of that uncomfortable limbo feeling.
Tip #2
Set real working hours.
One thing that really defines a workplace mentally, is that we generally arrive and leave at the same time every day. That routine helps us organise our work, our hobbies and our relaxation time. Without set working hours you might find by and large that it isn’t actually your work that suffers. It’s your ability to relax and engage with pass times that suffers.
Tip #3
Bring normality through interaction with colleagues.
Working from home can be tricky for a lot reasons. A workplace isn’t only a physical place, it’s a place where we interact and grow with colleagues. It’s important to find time to virtually catch up with or be creative with colleagues. A great way of doing this is organising a virtual quiz or event with your colleagues. If it’s something that you feel might help the working from home lifestlye, enquire with your team leader or HR rep about organising a virtual event for you and your colleagues.
Creative Events are here to help you and your team connect and interact! Get in touch today at hello@creativeevents.ie for more information on all our Virtual Team Building Events!