What I’ve Learned from Eight Years of Working Remote

Photo by Andrew Neel on Unsplash

Since the Coronavirus outbreak, a number of companies have been encouraging their people to work remotely in order to reduce exposure risk to the illness. While a sound strategy for dealing with an illness of this nature, working remote has its own complexities.

As someone who has worked 100% remote for the last eight years and worked partially remote prior to that here are some of the lessons I’ve learned to keep yourself productive and most importantly sane if you are new to remote working.

• Create a dedicated space. When I first started working remote, my desk was wherever I landed that day. Sometimes it would be the dining room table, other days the couch, and other takes the bar seating in the kitchen. When I had driven myself crazy there, I would migrate to the local Starbucks. Not the best idea when you are trying to avoid crowds. What I found was that I was moving so much because I was trying to escape the feeling of being disorganized that came from having to pick everything up at the end of the day so that meals could be eaten or relaxing could occur.
• Don’t skimp on your space setup. While this might be a temporary situation for you, make sure you are taking care of your body. Ensure that you have your desk setup so that you have good ergonomics and are using a chair that is going to support your back rather than give you serious kink in your neck or pain your back. Make sure you aren't looking too far down to your monitor by using a computer stand or a stack of books to elevate your computer.

Photo by Samule Sun on Unsplash

• Make your space appealing. Nothing kills the desire to work from home if you are in a space you hate. Take time to add good lighting, appealing items to look at, and a space stocked with the items that you commonly use. This will not only make you feel prepared, but will keep you from wandering off to find a pen and find yourself 15 minutes later doing something completely unrelated.
• Create time boundaries. You have a time that you start work and a time that you leave work to go to the gym, pick up kids, beat traffic, start dinner, etc. Set your office hours, set a reminder or timer and stick to those hours as much as possible. This will keep you from experiencing one of two spectrums — either working all the time or struggling to work at all. While I do frequently have times that I have to work late, I make sure to balance this during my week to avoid working all the time.
• Create transition activities. When you go into an office environment you have a transition period between your home and your office space. When you work from home that disappears and it is too easy never to fully transition into or away from working. For me, my transition is picking up the kitchen, making myself a cup of coffee, grabbing water, and sitting down at my desk for my daily brain dump and prep. This allows me to get all the home and work items out of my head, allocate them to my calendar and then start my day focused on the big tasks I need to get done.
• Get dressed to feel put together. This is different for everyone, but after working at home for a while I found that was wearing the same uniform of athleisure every day. While comfortable it wasn’t making me feel like I was ready for the day. Making a point of putting on makeup, dressing nicer and avoiding the ponytail helped a lot.
• Set dedicated time for home chores. Working from home can be great for sneaking in those chores that end up falling to the evenings when you work in an office. Unfortunately, if your not careful these can be the distractions that turn into significant drains on your time. I found household items to be incredibly distracting and I had to define times when I would focus on these tasks so that they didn’t override what I needed to get done for work. Two lessons I learned here: 1. Don’t do home tasks during your mental breaks as it still feels like work. 2. Identify those areas that you just have to have clean in order to be able to focus on work. (for me, it is having all dishes in the dishwasher).
• Get outside. Unless you are under quarantine or isolation, make a point of getting outdoors during the day and preferably to stretch your legs. When I first started working remote, my “getting outside” consisted of hopping in the car and going to get Starbucks. This got to be expensive quickly and didn’t really give me what I needed. Focus on getting outside and stretching your legs. This will get you exercise and a change of scenery that will reduce any cabin fever you might be feeling.
• Take breaks. I will admit, I am still miserable at this one. I have a tendency to sit down at my desk and only stand up to use the bathroom or grab a snack. I also have a bad tendency to eat meals at my desk. Don’t be me! Force yourself to take breaks that involve more just a quick run to the bathroom and eat somewhere else than your desk.
• Use your webcam. If you work with others, make sure to take advantage of the camera that is more than likely built into your computer. We are humans who love interaction and a big piece of that interaction is seeing each others faces. It also forces you to pay attention as it is easier to switch task if you are hiding behind your name icon or an avatar.
• Do a daily wrap up. While this technically falls in the transitions space, I felt it was worth calling out separately. Every day, I go through the process of cleaning up my space, ensuring emails are sent, reflecting on what I learned during the day, and noting items I need to take care of the next day. I then either lock or close down my computer and close my laptop. This mentally reminds me that I am done for the day.