7 Working From Home Tips For Success

1. Carve out a place to work. 

You need a space to work in, preferably one where you have some control over the environment. You want to be away from the normal flow of traffic so you’re not constantly being distracted. A spare room with a door is ideal, but the corner of a room that is less busy can work. Don’t discount closet space.

Pro tip: Think about changing the direction you face. Looking at a wall may let you concentrate or can be lonely. Looking out into the room can distract or could help you still feel connected.

2. Have A “Do not Disturb” Work Signal

  Having a way to signal to the other members of your house you’d rather not be disturbed can save your sanity. It is useless to think you will never get interrupted at some point. I’m sure it happened to you all the time in the office too. People will want to talk to you, only now it’s the other members of your house and not your coworkers.

Work out a way to let them know when it is and isn’t a good time to talk. If you can close the door to your workspace, that is perfect. If that’s not an option some other highly visible signal that you can display to let people know at a glance if you are busy or not. Be creative. You can use a door hanger, a light, a flag or even have a work hat you put on.

Pro Tip: This will only work if you use the signal. If you never signal that you ARE available people will soon ignore the sign. After all, if there is never a good time to talk, interrupting you now is just as a good/bad as any other time.

3. Keep your Normal work Hours

Try to maintain some consistent work hours. If your transitioning from office work you’ll likely notice you’ve added some productive time since you no longer have to deal with the commute in the morning or have to leave early to beat the rush. It can be tempting to just keep working past the time you would have normally left the office. It’s a bad habit to get into and you can burn yourself out when all those extra hours start to add up. 

Pro Tip: Try to stick to a similar lunch hour also and not eat while you work. It’s good to get up and take a break. You need to move around and mentally refresh periodically throughout the day.

4. Time shifting might work for you 

Depending on how much interaction you need with your coworkers, you may be able to move your work hours to a time that better fits with your schedule. Be sure to let your coworkers know when you’re available and when you’ll be away from your computer. As with most things, setting expectations upfront will save you a lot of headache. 

Pro Tip: Try to stick to a similar lunch hour also and not eat while you work. It’s good to get up and take a break. You need to move around and mentally refresh periodically throughout the day.

5. The right amount of Noise .

The noise level you’re comfortable with is different for everyone. I can’t work if it’s too quiet, others can’t concentrate with any noise at all.  In either case, a good set of headphones can really help. Pump in the sounds you want or wear them to muffle the surrounding noise.

Pro Tip: Over the ear headphones, can also double as a good “Do not disturb” signal for the other people in your house. 

6. It’s easy to get out of sync. 

You will need to over communicate and actively work to keep information in centralized places that everyone can see it.  It’s easy to have conversations in private chat windows that then never make it out to the larger team. You’ll be surprised on how much info you get from just overhearing what your coworkers are talking about. It will be easy for your or other team members to fall out of the loop in conversation.

Pro Tip: Establish regular check-ins to keep everyone on the same page.

7. Use Voice or video over text.

First for anything even slightly complicated it’s faster to talk about it than it is to type back and forth.  Set the context on chat and send over the supporting info, but just spin up a quick call to discuss it.  You and your teammates might not notice your message notifications, and no one checks their email. If you need answers that are time sensitive make the call. 

Pro Tip: Default to mute and video off. Better yet, have something to block your camera. Let’s be honest, you’re probably not going to put as much effort into getting dressed. And it’s best to do a “presentable” check before jumping into an online meeting.