I know, I know, I know! I should have written this post long time ago, but it’s only now that I feel I have settled in my WFH environment. I’ve moved from one room to the other, shuffled my desk about and swapped sides of the room. Now I am happy where my work station is & what I have around to support me. Items to keep me motivated and happy. So here are my working from home tips I have found to be useful. And I hope you’re able to incorporate some of these as well.
I know a lot of people were working from home part or full-time before Covid-19 hit, but now the number is so much higher. I think my ‘working from home’ tips can be applied to not just people working from home now, but also to people who used to work from home. Or maybe you’ve started your own business, blog or other creative outlet recently and want your day-to-day environment to inspire you. A place that will make you happy & excited to go to work.
Physical Set-Up
This is a biggie and the most important step of making your WFH environment work. Make sure you have a desk, comfortable chair, height adjustable monitor. If you are working from home now due to Covid-19 and this will possibly be the way forward (at least partly)- make sure you check with your employer what they are doing to support staff to WFH. If you are self employed, you need to invest in these basic things, so you enjoy doing all aspects of your job.
Natural light
Either you’re working from home or in the office- natural light is super important. I love the day light, sunlight- the more the better, so I have got the sunnier side of the room for my WHF environment. While my husband is a bit of a vampire and has got the darker side of the room (his choice). But not every day we have bright & sunny skies, some days are much darker than others. You will obviously have an overhead light, but maybe you will need a desk lamp as well. Before you go out buying one, just pinch one from another room to test it out to make sure it works.
Positive environment
If you are anything like me, you will l.o.v.e. to have positive affirmations, quotes, postcards stuck on a cork board near your desk. I have my board stuck on my desk (with pinktac so it doesn’t slide down) and leant against the wall. I have various postcards that my friends have sent me, quotes I have come across. Anything that makes me feel happy. It could be a concert ticket, photos of you & your friends, funny memes. The options are endless. Whatever cheers you up. Makes you happy. (which you will notice, will be a theme for this post and all working from home tips).
Pretty things
Anything cute & pretty cheers me up. I always have a candle lit on my desk. I have battery operated string lights around my cork board. Every now & then I’ll get some fresh flowers and put the vase on windowsill. I have 3-4 plants in the room as well. I am an absolute stationary geek- so cute stationary makes it feel much nicer & better. Even new set of pens or new stack of post-it-notes.
Separate the room
If you are working with someone else in the same room & you have enough space- then separate the room into two. Divide the room up, so you ‘have your own’ work space. I cannot recommend this enough. We are lucky that our big spare room is big enough to accommodate both of us in there. I used couple of IKEA Kallax units (link here) to separate the room in 2. I’ve tried to fill each shelf with as many things as I can to limit the noise travel.
The perfect playlist
I absolutely love to have music on whatever I do, it just makes it so much better. And having a sing-along or dance-along always lifts my mood. Buuuut… if you are working with another person in the same room, be considerate about having your music on too loud. I just mostly have my earphones in.
Break up your day
I am sure your workplace is remind you of this as well, but you have to break your day up. If you are prone to not get up as much and have a breaks, you have to schedule them. Either set a reminded on your phone to ping every hour or 90 minutes for you to get up & stretch your legs. Taking regular breaks will benefit your greatly. It’s not just to stretch your legs & give your bum a rest from sitting. But your eyes need time away from the screen. Your brain needs to have a break as well. When you take your 5 or 10 minute break- the world will not fall apart.
Take your lunch break & get out
This follows on from the point above about taking breaks. It doesn’t matter how long your lunch break is 30 minutes or an hour- have it. We will go out for lunchtime walks every day. Sometimes a long walk, sometimes a shorter walk, but we go out. I would either have my food for lunch before hand or after. If you are really struggling to make yourself take your lunch break, then here is the long & short of it. You are not getting paid for your lunch break, so… why aren’t you taking it?
Have a routine
Same with everything else, it is much easier to do things when you have a routine. When working from home, it is very easy to start earlier and earlier every day. Or stay that little bit later, because you just need to get this one thing done & you aren’t commuting. And it soon snowballs. I am sticking to the following rule- if I wouldn’t do it in the office, I’m not doing it at home. And don’t get me wrong, I would stay late or get in early when I needed, but not every day. I would only do it during super busy times.
I am sure you have your own list of helpful tips, so drop them in the comments below & shoot me a DM. I’d love to hear yours and share with with other people.
And here is another working from home tips from me- keep your workspace tidy. If your environment is neat & tidy, so will your mind. Random things that are ‘just there’ stress me out, as everything needs to have a place to live.
Overall- how do you think you have gotten used to working from home? Is there anything you still find difficult? Or are you like me and absolutely L.O.V.E. working from home & find it being lot more productive?
x
A
Leave a Reply