Make Remote Working Work For You

Remote working has become a new way of life for many of us and one thing for sure is that it is here to stay. Even post pandemic, most companies have recognised that employees don't need to be in an office every day of the week so have taken the opportunity to allow employees to work from home more often.

Since it is here to stay it is important to ensure you are making it work for you. As with most things there are pros and cons to working from home. Also each will impact individuals in different ways depending on their circumstances.

Here are 4 ways I believe you can help make remote working work for you:

Create a routines. One thing you probably don't miss from the old way of working is the commute to/from the office. However one of the things the commute allowed you to do is to give your brain that time to switch in to work mode in the morning and allow your brain to switch back to home mode on your way back. With remote working the time you have to switch from home mode to work mode, and vice versa, is nearly non-existent which means you end up merging the two together which is not healthy. The way to combat this is to create routines. It may sound silly but take a walk round the block before you start work and when you finish to allow your mind to switch on/off.
Plan your diary better. Remote working tends to mean you have more meetings or calls because you're not in an office where you can just walk up to someone to ask something. If you're not careful you end up having video calls all over the place and it can leave you exhausted and with not much time to focus on any other work. This is where you need to be strict with your time and plan better. One thing I do is I schedule at least two hours every day which I call focus time. This is blocked out in my diary so no one can put meetings in that time, and I use the time to focus on any key pieces of work that I need to get done. This is my time and working remotely means I can control no one interrupting me by turning off my notifications during this time too.
Take regular breaks. When in the office I found it was easy to just take a brief walk to the coffee hub to grab a hot drink and have a quick chat with a colleague whilst you do. When at home, I found that it was easy to just work non-stop and just go from meeting to meeting without taking a breather. I have tried to rectify this by ensuring when I book meetings in, I select 25 minutes instead of half hour and 50 minutes instead of an hour. This ensures I have a little break in between meetings and then I can stretch my legs or go get a cup of tea/coffee before the next one starts.
Create a work space. This is one I have realised is more important the longer I work from home. It needs to be a permanent space in your home and it needs to be dedicated to work. You want to separate your work space from your home space. If you are lucky enough to have a dedicated room then lucky you but even if you have a desk in the corner of your living room, make that desk a place that is obviously a work environment. Of course I know this is a difficult one if your lacking in space but it is one to try and do if you are able to.

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Thanks for reading,

Gav