How to make working from home, work for you

With some of our people experiencing prolonged work from home arrangements, it’s worth considering how adjustments to your daily routine and behaviours can support health and wellbeing in the longterm.

Building some regular exercise and social connection into your daily routine are just some of the strategies outlined in this micro-learn video below.

It’s important to find a routine that works for you and your circumstances. Maybe you prefer to exercise at lunch time, or perhaps you live alone and the perfect time for some socialising is a chat with your neighbour after work.

Fresh air and the opportunity for seeing other people out and about (in addition to the exercise itself) are incredibly positive for mental health and important given many of us are adjusting to reduced daily movement and step-count. We are also more likely to get stiff and sore if we’re sedentary and not sitting at ergonomically designed office equipment.

 

Video transcript:

For everyone around the globe thanks to Covid-19, the world has been turned on its head.

So much so that many of us have been forced to swap the commute to the office to working from home.

How is this making you feel? Maybe you’re loving it!

With no more stressful commute you can enjoy a bit of a lie-in or have more time with the family.

And now your day isn’t filled with meetings, you’re able to really focus.

Or maybe you’re feeling guilty, because you don’t feel you’re getting as much done, lonely or isolated – because you’re not seeing your work colleagues, or overwhelmed trying to balance work, home, and kids all at the same time.

Or maybe, like many of us, it’s a rollercoaster of all these emotions and more.

Does this look familiar?

So how can you make your time at home positive and productive?

Meet Sally!

She found the shift to working from home tricky.

But after a few rocky days, she’s settled down and is more productive than ever thanks to two things.

Having a good routine and staying connected with others.

Let’s take a closer look at how she’s done it…

The first thing she tackled was getting into a routine.

But not just the usual stuff of setting an alarm and getting dressed, you’ve probably heard all that before!

What really cracked it for her, was when she started doing particular types of task at particular times of the day.

To understand this we need to get a bit scientific.

Everybody has a body clock – where everything from light, food, drink and sleep patterns interact and can impact your energy levels at different times of the day.

In the absence of a previously established workplace routine, following a routine that instead aligns with this body clock (or if you want to get technical, circadian rhythm) can help.

So, what does the science say and how has sally turned this into an effective routine?

Because of the light, the morning is the perfect time for focussed work.

Sally spends about 2 and a half hours in the morning focussing on core tasks that require concentration.

Sally has a standard body clock cycle, so she feels alert and ready to go at nine am.

60% of us have this rhythm, whilst some of us are larks who feel fully alert at seven and others are night owls, still bleary-eyed at ten.

Being aware of your type can help you better plan your day.

At lunch time, Sally know’s it’s important to step away from her computer screen, and have a proper break.

Ideally, with a bit of social connection from friends, or family.

After a meal, it’s completely normal to feel a bit lethargic.

So Sally uses this time for tasks that don’t require too much concentration, like admin and emails.

Once lunch is digested energy levels will peak again so for about an hour in the afternoon, Sally turns back to the high-concentration work.

Heading into late afternoon, is a good time to schedule any virtual meetings and catch ups.

The social communication helps keep Sally energetic and focussed till the end of the day.

In the evening? You guessed it, she steps away from the laptop and puts the phone down and it’s a good time to head out for some exercise before having a healthy dinner and relaxing.

Looking at this routine you might be thinking, “Sally is only doing three and a half hours of focussed work. How can that be enough?”

Well actually, studies show that due to things like business as usual meetings, distractions and interruptions, on average, people in offices only spend 2 hours a day on core tasks and concentrated, productive work.

At home, there can still be distractions but it turns out that Sally is getting more things off her plate than she used to!

But it’s not just moving to a good routine that’s helped Sally.

Giving herself time to collaborate, connect and learn from home has also helped ensure she’s just as effective at home as at the office.

One of the biggest downsides of working from home is the lack of social interaction and we need this to be productive.

Collaborating with others provokes creativity, critical thinking and problem solving.

This also helps us to learn better.

Learning from various sources and having access to different environments to learn and share information improves recall.

Whilst connection, which are those informal interactions with colleagues promotes wellness, bonding, and innovation.

In fact, work teams that have a meal or drink together are 10-50% more productive.

Obviously, all of these are difficult to achieve when at home, so how has Sally done it?

She has built in multiple regular times for collaboration and connection into her week and importantly her team and peers know it is not an opt-in activity.

Aside from the usual conversations about day-to day project and task updates there is time made available for sharing recent learnings, and an open forum for discussing current challenges and encouraging ideas.

It’s also an important opportunity to talk about how everyone is coping.

The team is encouraged to reach out to one another for support if they are ever struggling.

And of course, they always make time to have casual, informal chats as well.

There’s even been the odd Friday after work drink!

Given how critical these social connections are, Sally has learnt to make sure is set up and ready for them.

That means making sure she has the right software open with her settings checked for audio and video.

It also means doing what she needs to, to be comfortable and ready to have her camera turned on.

Sometimes that involves checking lighting other times it’s a quick tidy of the background. But she doesn’t go overboard.

Her working from home space doesn’t need to be Instagram perfect it just needs to be good enough.

And actually, letting some of your real life into your work, builds that all-important connection.

That’s it!

By focusing on these 2 critical things: routine and effective social collaboration and connection, Sally has made working from home work for her and she’s become more productive and healthier than she has for some time.

Who knows, we don’t know how this thing is going to play out, when things start getting back to normal, may be ‘normal’ will be a couple of days a week at home for everyone and a more productive and connected working life as a result.