10 tips for Working from Home (WFH)

Here at LogOffice, we udnerstand you need to get your work done reliably and to a high standard, and in today’s climate that often means working from home. Soak in our top 10 tips to WFH and remember there’s lots to think of when planning your cabin. Contact us to dream your dream log cabin today.

1. Build a Permanent Work Space

Pre Covid-19, it was easy to separate work from home. These days for some, it might be a much more difficult task. Our homes may not have been built for a permanent work from home base that was once perhaps a once off luxury.

Rather than lazing around on the couch or even lying around in bed, find a dedicated space in your accommodation to work and act as if you are in work. Invest in quality technology like headphones for those work calls or simply to block out any sound will do wonders. If possible, speak to management and enquire if you can bring a screen home temporarily or a your work chair to make yourself more comfortable.

2. Stick to your normal morning routine

If you normally wake up at 7.30am to get ready for work, keep doing this as you’re staying in tune with your normal work pattern. Keep to the routine of eating cereal or fruit at your desk at a specified time if this is what you normally do or before you make the commute to work.

Also think about your work attire, it’s easy to fall into the trap of putting on sweats but by changing into your usual formal work attire, you’re setting up to work as you would psychologically and into that work mind frame.

3. Make to do lists

Working from home is new to the majority of us and will take some getting used to. By creating to-do lists in work, this will help you to achieve daily and weekly goals to make you feel like you’re on track to achieve a number of ongoing successful tasks.

After completing each task, make sure to cross it off the list, give yourself a tick to get ‘closure’ on the task. This can also be extended to personal life to keep ourselves motivated to do shopping trips, a walk with the dog or deciding on who is making dinner!

4. Stay Connected with Your Colleagues 

Social interaction with colleagues plays a huge part in our daily work life and something that should be continued even with our new surroundings. Important meetings should become important phone calls made possible via Zoom or Google Hangouts. These meetings can allow you to re interact with colleagues to feel once again part of a team.

For ongoing work, there are plenty of tools to help you communicate easily and improve your work efficiency like Slack, Yammer, Skype or the old reliable WhatsApp.

5. Take Your Lunch Break as Normal

Just because you’re working from home shouldn’t mean you either skip lunch, or take it early/late. This again keeps your mind and body in routine and can help to separate that work and home life balance. It can also be easy to continue to work throughout your lunch break but remember to take constant breaks as this helps with concentration, creativity and efficiency. A big advantage of working from home is that you can also ‘meal prep’ for dinner during your lunch break that might save you time later in the day.

6. Avoid Checking Your Phone and Social Media Accounts

When in the office, given the mentality of actually being at work with colleagues around you or perhaps office rules, workers are generally unlikely to be on their phone for personal use a lot. Whilst working from home, there won’t be the same level of scrutiny around using your phone and we need to be more self-aware. Using your phone for personal messages or checking social media will distract you from tasks and could potentially delay important projects or make the quality of your work significantly worse.

The ‘Do Not Disturb’ feature on most Smartphones mutes all calls, alerts and notifications on your mobile device. You also have the option of customizing which notifications, alerts or calls you wish to have go through when the ‘Do Not Disturb’ option is selected. Even doing this from when you start working until your first break and again until lunch time will be excellent for your concentration.

7. Make Plans for When Work is Finished

We all enjoy the feeling of finishing work, whether it’s an hour countdown because you’re meeting with friends or going to the cinema, these might feel redundant when working from home during these unprecedented times.

However we should continue to make plans, plans for dinner, plans to watch your favourite Netflix show, plans to have a catch up call with your friends. Again this allows the routine of ‘finishing work’ and allowing a balance between work life and personal life.

8. Avoid family, friends and pets during the working day

This can be tricky depending on where you are working and the amount of people in your home. However, family and friends will need to understand that when you’re working your daily hours you should not be disturbed for things that are not essential. Again, it’s the need to separate your home life from personal life.

The same goes for pets although they mightn’t be as understanding. Should you be creating your new workspace, make sure to accommodate the fact that pets will want attention and you to factor that into any decision making.

9. Listen to music, get fresh air

Inevitably when we are traveling to work, we’ll get some well needed fresh air and oxygen into our lungs. Working from home however we may have a tendency to wake up, shower and sit down at our new work space. Small things like going out to your backyard for fifteen minutes or a brisk walk around your estate or apartment block will get you mentally prepared for the day ahead.

Our new workspace may also be noisy and something we’re not used to. A pair of good headphones is very useful to drown out these sounds even with some of your favourite music or simply white noise to help you concentrate.

10. Finish Work on Time

Another consideration working from home is the ability to finish work on time and shut off for your own well-being. It can be easy to continue working past the hour as you get so caught up in your activity, in a relaxing environment, that you lose complete track of time. Colleagues in your normal office environment who are packing up to go home may remind you to do the same so in lieu of this, you should set an alarm to finish working each day. You don’t have to stick to this rigidly but it reminds you that the working day is over, to save your work and remember, tomorrow is another day.

Here at LogOffice, we are your turnkey, start to finish solution to make that happen. From initial site clearance, foundations and fences, landscaping and paths up to the finished outdoor cabin, wooden or metal - and then hooking up its power ready for you to take on the world from within. Contact us here and we’ll be in touch asap.