Working from home is not just about the tech.
There’s more to working from home than just getting the work done
As we care for your health and wellbeing now and into the future, we suggest that you consider the following points while working from home.
1) Good posture
Avoid sitting on your couch with your laptop for long periods. This creates an unnatural curve in your back and hips.
Try to adjust your table and chair as much as possible using books, blocks or whatever you can find and safely use to get the right square position while still keeping your elbows above the table and your feet flat on the floor (knees at right angles).
2) Good lighting
If your room is in shade, work with the light on. If your room has glare, ensure you position your work space to avoid any glare hitting your eyes or worktop (where it can reflect into your eyes).
3) Take breaks
Sounds simple but without those usual interruptions from coworkers, we sometimes can get ‘in the zone’ and forget to lift our eyes and stretch our limbs or re-hydrate. The est combo is 25 minutes solid work, then 5 minutes rest and refresh. Chunking up your work into 20-25 minutes blocks can help with this.
4) Talk to humans
Isolation is not just about being separated physically, humans also crave interaction and connection. Your mental health will do better if your team have a quick 9am pow-wow or 3:30pm coffee chat (online or on a conference call) to just keep in touch, stay connected and share those immensely amusing ‘camping in the living room’ or ‘best shows on Stan’ stories that we’re busting to share with each other right now. There’s only so many days you can make sarcastic comments at your cat before going insane.
5) Separate Work & Family Time
Many of us are also dealing with the added conundrum of home schooling while working, while figuring out the tech and processes for home school and remote working. (sigh)
One of the biggest tips is divide and conquer. Working at home with kids about is never easy. The biggest tip is not to try multitasking these two lives. Anything you can do to carve out clear timeframes for work and school, the more calm and less frustrated you will feel.
For couples, take turns managing the kids/house while the other gets solid, uninterrupted work done. If you need a top up in the evening, that might be the way to go.
For singles with kids, quickly learn which tasks get the most attention for the longest periods and set these in motion right before you need time for completing work tasks that also require focus.
Wireless, hands-free earpieces for your smartphone can also do wonders. Learn the ‘speech to text’ function on your phone and talk out full documents and large emails or take calls while being hands on with the kids’ activities.
6) Take Back Travel Time
Did you spend a decent chunk of time everyday getting pretty for work and then travelling there? What have you done with that time?
Say you calculate 1 extra hour per day that you’ve regained through not having to head out to work…instead of absorbing that time -use it!
That 1 hour per day could mean:
- Learning a new skill (or language)
- Reading that book that you shelved
- Finding your 30 of exercise everyday
- Re-starting a hobby
- Clearing out that home office you never use (LOL)
- Getting your finances in order including checking if all your bills and insurances are the most competitive rates on the market
- Chatting with friends you’ve previously disconnected with
- Unleashing your creativity through drawing, painting, craft, music, singing, writing or whatever
- Or if you’re really geeky…systemising your business processes so you’ll be smooth running and prepped to scale from here on out.
Credits: Rhonwyn Learner – Business in Training