As various cities and states introduce orders to work from home, more and more people are doing so for the first time. For those of you lucky enough to do so, there are some simple things you can do to maintain normalcy, reduce stress, and enjoy it, even if this continues for more and more weeks. I say “lucky enough to do so”, because there are plenty of people who don’t even have a job right now.
I’ve spent almost half my career as a consultant working from home or client’s spaces, and quickly learned that there are three key things that can make all the difference in how to maintain productivity and and how to “stop working” when my day was done:
Separate personal from work space
You now have that once-dreamed-of option to sit on the couch all comfy and work, don’t. That comfort doesn’t last very long once you are bent over, tapping away on a laptop on a coffee table. The body position is much worse than even the worst office furniture. There’s also a secondary effect that will creep in over multiple days: your work is now invading your curl-up-on-the-couch comfort spot.
Carving out a work space is key for this. If you have the option of a separate room with a table or desk, great. If you’re in a small NYC apartment, working from the dining table or some other table in a corner is a good option. For the duration, keep this space only for work. If it’s the dinner table, don’t eat there, except for “lunch at your desk”. If you use your laptop for personal and work now, move it to and from the work space when you are “at work” vs. “at home”.
Maintaining this separation of spaces helps you to keep focus during work and also put work away when you are done.
Keep a routine; keep a schedule
It may seem like a dream to work in your pajamas, and go for it for the novelty (for a couple of days), but this will come back to haunt you if it goes on for long. I keep seeing “For those who need to know, it’s Wednesday” social media posts, when it has maybe been a week of shutdowns. If people are losing track of days this quickly, it’s a sign of lost time due to loss of routine.
Keep your routines. Get up, shower, groom, and dress for work to walk into your “work space” on time and ready to work. Sure, you can now have “casual Mondays” as often as “casual Fridays”, but just dressing for work helps put you in the mindset to focus and work. Stepping into your “work space” on time and ready to go will help you also keep work from bleeding over into your personal space and time.
If you maintain a routine, you will find you can be far more productive in the work time than you may have ever been in the office with its constant interruptions. If so, feel free to have a full two hour lunch as part of the routine, where you leave your “work space”, have lunch, engage with friends on social media, exercise, or just watch movie. But when that time is done, go back to your work space ready for the afternoon.
If you do find your productivity is much higher than when you were in the office, save that for discussions with your employer about work-from-home options when we return to the office life after this current time.
Exercise
Most of the “stay-at-home” orders in cities and states do not prevent you from ever leaving your home. Being outside is important for health, so add outdoor activities to your routine. This is not a recommendation to go around spending a lot of time with people or touching everything. Maintain distance, avoid touching things you don’t absolutely need to, and wash your hands the moment you return. Also, regularly clean doorknobs, light switches, handles on cabinets, your laptop and phone, etc. since you will likely touch these before you have washed your hands at some point.
Overall, be cautious but try to maintain normalcy as much as possible. I wish you all the best and we will get through this together.