working from home | amotherworld

Many people who’ve been used to working in an office environment are now suddenly finding themselves working remotely. How to work from home effectively?

How can you make the transition smoothly? What are some tips to work from home efficiently and productively? I’ve been working from home for the past 15 years so I’m offering my tips on working from home.

How to Work From Home Effectively

Create a dedicated working space.

While it may be tempting to work from the comforts of your bed, it would help productivity to have a dedicated working space. A home office is ideal, or even an area set up in a part of a room, for example, a desk by your living room window will suffice. If you don’t have a home office, create a space at your kitchen or dining table that you can leave undisturbed when you’re not working.

Get up and stretch.

Because of my back issues, I must get up and stretch often, about every hour or so regardless of what I’m doing. When I’m working, I tend to switch work positions – I go from sitting at my desk to working from my standing desk, to working on my couch. During that stretch time, I’m always sure to grab another cup of coffee too!

Get dressed.

While it may be tempting to stay in your pyjamas all day, you will feel better by sticking to your usual morning routine of getting washed up and dressed in the morning. Obviously there’s no need to dress in business attire! But getting out of your PJs and slipping into clothes will help you feel more refreshed and ready to start your day.

Stick to your regular working hours.

Avoid burnout by sticking to a regular work schedule. While it may be tempting to check your emails after hours or early in the day, work will inevitably take over. Start at a proper workday time, and finish off at a reasonable hour. Don’t forget to take your lunch break as you would in the office. I like to use my lunch break to exercise. Working with a structured schedule will keep you motivated and productive. But…

Don’t worry if you don’t stick to a strict schedule all the time.

One of the benefits of working from home is flexibility, and there will be days when you sometimes you need to work later or in the evening or start early to accommodate a colleague’s time zone, personal appointments or your children’s schedule. Be gentle with yourself knowing that some days will require more work than others but that the number of hours of work will even out over the course of the week.

Keep the TV off.

You may be able to multi-task but don’t think that means you can put the television or Netflix on! You will likely end up being distracted thus leading to less productivity. Stick to your usual radio station or playlist as background music.

Stay in touch by phone or video call.

Working from home can be incredibly isolating! You’ll miss collaborating with a team, chatting with co-workers and simply being around other people. It’s important to stay in touch with your colleagues by phone or better yet, video conferencing.

Take a mental health break.

Working from home means that there is no separation of work space and home space. You’ll need a change of scenery and some fresh air often! Read through this article to help keep your mental health in check.

How to Keep Your Mental Health in Awesome Check

If you’re working from home with kids? Here are some additional tips to keep them busy while you work.

Here are 50 Fun Activities to do with Kids at Home.

I hope these tips on how to work from home effectively will benefit you!

We are half-way through the summer school break! The kids have been off school for a while now, but you’re still working from home! How to work from home in summer with kids? It seems impossible!

But you can make it happen without pulling your hair out. It takes some organization and strategy – here’s how to do it.

Reading

Set aside reading time every day, even just a half hour. If you have a reluctant reader like I do, let them choose one or two books to read before the end of summer, and have them write up a book report afterwards.

Writing

While they’re writing their book reports, have them also write in a summer journal. Ask them to share their thoughts about their day, or vacation, or write a creative story about anything!

Create a craft bin

If you don’t already have a craft bin or creative/art area, go to the dollar store stat. Have supplies at the ready including construction paper, paints, markers, playdough, coloured pencils, and other kid-friendly art supplies so they can create and “work” right alongside you.

Workbooks and Colouring Pages

Most kids enjoy colouring workbooks and coloring pages as well. Have a variety available so you can pull out a different activity each day.

Create an outdoor play area

For younger kids, make sure to have some space in the backyard where your kids can play and explore while you work (and while you can watch them). A backyard playground, sand box, water table, lawn bowling, can provide hours of fun.

My kids are old enough to ride their bicycles and scooters outside on their own, and go to the park, and play basketball at our school across the street.

Look for activities

If you’re working from home, it might not make sense to enroll your children into full-day summer camps. Check with your town for half-day activities; some local businesses such as gyms and dance studios may offer lessons a few hours a day. Also check with your local community centre for half-day activities as tennis, golf, or swimming. My kids have done a morning basketball camp, and a two-hour hockey clinic during the summer break.

Playdates

If you need a couple hours of totally uninterrupted work outside of naptime, consider creating a sort of babysitting swap with other moms. You each take a turn scheduling a play date with all the kids, and use that time to run errands or do something fun alone.

Take breaks to play with them

I find blocking time into hourly increments helps to keep productivity up, and kids busy. Say you block an hour or two in the morning, and warn the kids that that is mom’s working time; when you’re done, then you can do something fun together. They can then manage to find something to do during that time frame too, knowing that mom will be free soon.

Screen time

Television or screens in small doses is okay, as long as they’re not watching movies or shows all day long. Putting on a movie or allowing your kids to watch a couple episodes of their favourite cartoon doesn’t make you a neglectful parent. Don’t feel guilty about some screen time, just as long as they have equal active time too. They’ll be entertained and you’ll be able to get things done.

Hopefully these tips will help you juggle working from home and taking care of the kids this summer! And if your kids utter the words, “I’m Bored!”, you can point them in the direction of cleaning their rooms or better yet, the toilets!

More fun ideas: 50 Fun Things for Kids to Do Outside