Open-plan offices aren’t the only workspace innovation to become popular in the last few years: as Fifth Harmony makes clear, now you — yes, you! — can work from home.
This privilege (yes, privilege, and if you don’t believe me ask anyone born before 1982) can significantly reduce the time you spend commuting and dealing with in-office distractions. If you’re bordering on ill or rounding the corner on getting better, it extends your recovery time without the added stress of work piling up. Plus, it can save you some lunch money. Snowstorms, travel delays, and mental health days — all of these are opportunities to be productive from the comfort of your own home.
But that is the key word: productive. You’re still working, which means you’re still expected to perform at the same, stellar baseline (or above!) at which you’ve been making a name for yourself. If you’re asking yourself how to be your best self, in front of only yourself — we’ve got all the answers for you!
Communicate expectations with your team.
Prior to working from home, you should already have a good handle on what the expectations are for remote work. Are you expected to check in, and how often, and in what manner? Can you only work from home once a month, or is once a week the norm in your office? If you’re interested in working from home, discuss this with your manager and team as soon as possible. Working from home is often a good solution to a sudden, stressful issue, so having a clear set of expectations and boundaries at the outset can relieve a lot of anxiety.
Make a case for working remotely.
I’ll say it again — working remotely is a privilege that implies that you can be trusted to supervise yourself and continue to exceed expectations at HQ. If you’re capable of coming into the office but would prefer not to, make sure that there’s nothing you need to be in the office to do (meetings, interviews, location-specific responsibilities, etc.), and that there’s a strong justification for taking the day off besides “I really don’t want to deal with the subway this morning.”
Assume it’s business-casual as usual.
Waking up with your normal weekday alarm is extremely important, but with your commute out of the way, you can have a more leisurely morning. Get up and fix yourself a nice breakfast, walk your dog, floss and use mouthwash — you deserve it. Then slip into something comfortable but appropriate for a walk to the store or a restaurant — if you couldn’t wear it out, you shouldn’t wear it in today. If you’re in your favorite sweatpants or pajamas, it’s much harder to be in a professional mindset, take last-minute video calls, or just generally behave like it’s not a long, lazy weekend at home.
In fact, consider getting started earlier.
Eat the frog — getting up in the morning is the hardest thing to do, and once that’s done, checking emails, setting up your goals for the day, and getting your necessary resources in order isn’t so bad at all. Once your energy starts to flag, make breakfast, brush your teeth, or walk the dog, then return to work as usual. Interrupting yourself to do other minor, similarly productive things can keep the energy going.
Sit up!
When I get home from work, I’ll lie in bed to check my social media pages, catch something on Netflix, or read some of the articles I’ve been saving over the course of the day. This is my default “it’s over” position, and I’m sure the same rings true for many of you. Avoid being in the position of explaining to your manager that you fell asleep over the documents you were editing and sit at your desk or a dining room table.
Even better — get out there.
Some people just can’t work from within their home, and that’s perfectly fine. It’s not surprising that your brain may associate your apartment with a shutdown of work-related thoughts, thereby making it more difficult than ever to focus. Scour Yelp or Foursquare or Google prior to making a work from home request and find a good nook, coffee shop, hotel lobby, or library with reliable wifi that is open within your regular working hours, then pack a bag and work someplace new.
Don’t hoard water-cooler hours.
A colleague of mine used to say this, meaning that just because you weren’t getting the natural breaks provided by coworkers and other, normal workday disruptions, doesn’t mean you should feel comfortable taking off two or three hours at a time while working from home to go run errands, visit the doctor, or just veg out. Working from home is largely a trust exercise, and if you can’t be trusted to pick up the phone, finish assignments on time, or be responsive when you’re not in the office, expect future requests to work from home to be denied.
Avoid the fridge.
Being at the office with a limited food supply means that your attention is elsewhere. But at home, with cupboards brimming with your favorite foods, it’s much harder to keep from snacking all day long. Stick to the same amount of meals you eat per day by setting up the food you’ll eat throughout the day in Tupperware placed carefully at the front of the fridge, or set alarms for mealtimes and adhere strictly to them.
Consider saving interactive projects or phone calls for later in the day.
In the morning you’re more likely to get work done — you’re focused, the world gets quiet outside as people disappear into their offices or schools, and there’s a good chance you’re fully alone. As the afternoon gets longer, the time crunch becomes evident — people return home, you and your colleagues are probably getting antsy, and your concentration is likely to be waning. Let yourself be invigorated by lighter, more interactive projects that are a change of pace — even if it’s a conference call — from the more heads-down kind of work you may have tackled that morning.
Don’t overwork.
The hours become kind of malleable when it’s just you, your computer, and the barista making really good cold brew coffee. You might feel tempted to go more slowly or work later because you’ve “saved time” — on your commute, or interacting with your coworkers — but what you’re actually doing is robbing yourself of time. Stick to your normal working hour parameters to keep your work from home day from turning into a work from home all-nighter.