We know that a lot of you have embraced working remotely to stop the spread of the Covid-19 virus, and it’s not always easy to transition from office to home office.
Half our team at Rencore have been working remotely since the company was founded. Therefore, we’d love to share some tips on how to work from home successfully – to make your start a little less bumpy.
So, without further ado, here are our TOP 10 tips for home office success. ❤️
While sweatpants might be the more comfortable option, you should consider dressing just like you were about to go to the office. It will help you to get into the right mindset and make you feel professional and ready to go.
It’s tempting to have a later start when you’re working from home but it will help you so much in structuring your day when you stick to a schedule – at the very least, make sure you start and end your day at the same time.
Breaks are so important! Since in your home office no one will come and take you to the cafeteria or interrupts you for a chat, you have to make sure to take those breaks yourself.
I get up in the morning, and the first thing I do is hit the shower, get dressed and then have breakfast. For me this has been the key factor for successfully working remotely for these extended periods of time. Whatever works for you on a normal business day when commuting or going to the office, works from home as well. Personally it’s all about the attitude, and when I am ready for work, which I am from the get-go in the morning, everything else comes naturally.
If you can, try to have a dedicated work space where you get things done. For me, this is a dedicated room or area where I have a permanent desk, equipment and anything I need to get things done. I keep this area tidy at all times – every morning when I get into my home office, it feels awesome and it’s a clean slate on the desk and the room itself, and I’m not mentally distracted by anything else floating around in that area/room.
Part of my every day routines includes both eating healthy and exercising.
Food: Again, whatever works for you, but working at home it can be easy to just order-in or grab some fast food and eat at the desk. I’ve done that a lot as well in the past. I take time to either cook my lunch every day, or go out to get great food at any local lunch restaurants available. In these times of the Corona crisis and lock downs, I stay at home and cook lunch every day.
Exercise: It doesn’t have to be a lot, and it doesn’t have to impact your day or availability. I do 200 pushups per day, 200 situps, and after lunch and in the afternoon I go for 10 minute walks around my area (suburbs, mostly nature and no people).
This part is all about time management and priorities. The higher I prioritize my own physical health, the more productive I am and can get more things done in a day without stress.
Stay healthy, stay active, don’t overdo it.
Just as for Carolin and Tobias, sticking to a schedule helps me a lot when I’m working from home. That being said, I think it is very important to not only start your day but also to end your workday according to that schedule. It means shutting down your computer, taking a deep breath, walking away from your work area, and not touch your computer again until the next day. Do something fun and/or completely different right after work to disconnect.
You will spend the majority of your day in that work space, so make it worthwhile and as pretty and comfy as you can.
One of the best things about working from home in my opinion is to get focused on your tasks 100%. Don’t feel bad turning on that DND mode on your communication apps and services for specific times of the day to get fully into the zone.
I know it can feel isolating sometimes to work from home like you’re on your own. But you actually aren’t! So, take the chance to talk to your colleagues as much as you can. Schedule meetings about specific topics but also meet up randomly for a cup of coffee. Not only is this important for bonding with your team members but it will also give you room to create, share and work on new ideas.
At Rencore, we use Microsoft Teams for most of our internal communication and meetings. As great as the tool is, I know many of you have had to install Teams in a rush, so I recommend checking out my colleague Lee’s blog: Office 365, Teams and beyond to understand the link between Teams, Office 365 and governance.
Furthermore, we offer free professional development sessions at Rencore. Don’t miss our upcoming webinar: Cloud Governance – How to stay in control of Office 365 in 2020 with 11-time Microsoft MVP Waldek Mastykarz and host Bjoern Erkens.
We hope this post gave you some ideas on how to improve your home office.
Stay healthy!
Chrissi