WFH redefined: tips for living and working in the next normal
The concept of working from home wasn’t taken too seriously not so long ago. Many would imagine us sat at home in our pyjamas watching daytime television with our feet up, which as more and more of us have realised, is far from the truth (most days). Covid-19 has accelerated the trend and whilst some of us are excited to get out of the house and head back to the office, WFH is increasingly becoming the norm for some businesses.
One of the issues we’re facing is the novelty may start to wear off and we’re not enjoying being at home as much as we used to. Rather than appreciating working from the comfort of our own homes, we instead feel like we’re living in work and struggling to switch off. Home is supposed to be a place to relax. So how can we improve this scenario for ourselves as we move forward into the next normal where WFH is still very high up on the agenda?
Keep similar schedules to those in your household
If you’re constantly working around the clock, you’re going to feel like ships passing in the night with whoever you live with. Work when your partner/housemate is working, or when your children are at school/doing schoolwork. It’s important to be able to spend quality time with your loved ones rather than consistently splitting your attention between family and work obligations. Know when to switch off so you can enjoy your ‘off time’ with zero distractions.
Have a transition ritual
Having a routine that you do every day when you finish work sends a signal to your brain and body that work is officially over. Now that we no longer have the commute or the change in environment, it’s important to create some form of cue so that you can relax and enjoy your personal time. It might be as simple as making a list for the next day, switching off your computer and closing the door, going for a walk, or sitting in front of the television with your feet up. It doesn’t matter what you do just as long as you do it every day, so it becomes a habit.
Create variety
Workplace life can be hectic and varied, with lots of hustle and bustle and noise. The home environment can become very monotonous, especially if you’re staying cooped up in your office all day. So, make sure you build variety into your day. Take plenty of breaks, get up from your desk regularly, even if just to stand up for a while. Leave the room – go downstairs, make a cup of tea, go for a walk, or move to a different area of the house.
Diarise home/personal time in the diary
Schedule ‘home time’ and ‘me time’ in your office diary. We always do whatever’s in the diary, so by making it official, you put more accountability on yourself to get it done. You wouldn’t normally skip customer meetings so treat this schedule like your most important customer. After all, the better we look after ourselves, the better we can be for our customers, colleagues, and family members.
Work smarter and outsource
Free time is precious and without the distractions of the office, productivity should be soaring, and our workloads should be lighter. But that’s not always the case. Replace longer meetings with half-hour slots instead and figure out which meetings are actually essential – many of them are not. Not only are we giving ourselves more work, being at home 24/7 we’re even more focussed on our personal tasks such as cleaning, doing the laundry, and cooking. If you have the means, start to outsource both work and personal errands – the tasks that are essential but are draining the hours out of your day when you need to focus on the bigger picture.
We need to reframe our relationship with work, and we’ll be able to work smarter and happier once we do that. Now is the time to use the pandemic work-from-home experience as a way to identify what’s really important to us, where our priorities lie, and how we want to work going forward.
To find out more about how blue umbrella Virtual PA Services can help your business, please contact us anytime on 020 3021 0503, or info@blueumbrella.co.uk
“Even when I worked in an office, I would often bring work home with me. When I started working from home it was just a recipe for disaster. Over time I found two things to be very important. This is a bit cliché and everybody says this, but it’s really true:
Rest is very important.
And time off is very important.”