10 Tips for Working from Home
With the recent COVID-19 outbreak, several organizations are advising or directing their employees to work from home — if they can.
At Rubric, most of our team members have worked remotely since day one — from Los Angeles to New York, to Ukraine. We understand the challenges of working remotely and finding the sweet spot between wellness and productivity. So we’d like to offer our help for those that are doing this for the first time. Here are some key pointers, based on our experience, that will hopefully allow for a smooth transition to working remotely.
1. Have a morning routine
Psychologically, it’s helpful to start your day off right, put your shoes on, get dressed, make breakfast, etc — as if you were headed to the office. Even though you’re not, it will help you to feel productive and purposeful.
2. Create a dedicated space
If you can avoid it, try not to work from your bed. Create a workspace at home that is designated specifically to work. When the work is done for the day, if you can walk away, it will allow you to mentally refresh from the stress of work.
3. Over Communicate
Losing the clarity of face to face will require you to explain more and potentially repeat yourself. Schedule check-ins with teammates, send screenshots, record video screencasts, be more descriptive with feedback — any way to help ensure everyone is on the same page.
4. Assume good intentions
Similarly, the less face time you have with coworkers, the harder it is to interpret each other’s tone of voice when typing an email or message. Try to stay positive and assume good intentions when reading messages from coworkers. It’s easy to misread tone as aggressive when someone is just trying to type quickly and to the point.
5. Take breaks
Allow yourself time to step away from work to refresh your body and mind — get up and stretch, go on a walk, cook a big lunch, call a friend, or play with your dog.
6. Take advantage of less distraction
At home, you don’t have to worry about chatty co-workers or office antics interrupting your workday. Take advantage of this by instituting blocks of time dedicated to difficult tasks that require deep attention.
7. Try the Pomodoro technique
The technique uses a timer to break down work into intervals, traditionally 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks. It helps stay focused, organized, and have a sense of accomplishment throughout the day.
8. Use video chat
Each day at Rubric, we have standup meetings that are always conducted via video chat. It's essential to figure out how much interaction you need to feel connected and included in your team. Maybe instead of a slack or gchat conversation, hop on a quick video chat to get some face time.
9. Reduce notifications
There may be more notifications coming in if your team is fully remote. From emails, Slack messages, Gchats, texts—whatever the tool—hopefully you don’t have to jump on every notification as soon as it arrives. This will pull you right out of the focus or the flow state you were previously in and make for a stressful workday. Try turning on ‘do not disturb’ mode to help silence the notifications for certain stages of the day.
10. Create a “shut down” routine
One of the most difficult aspects of working from home is knowing when you’re “done”. Walking away from your work is difficult when you have unfinished ideas or tasks still lingering. Try taking a few minutes to account for all open items, a plan to address them the next day, and then...walk away.