For many, working from home is a whole new experience with many challenges: physical, mental and emotional! Whether you live alone or with others, there is a lot to adjust to. You’ve made it through the first few weeks, but now that it looks like it could go on for a while, here are some tips to help you make it as positive as possible.
Get comfortable! Ergonomics are important:
- Use a chair that provides good back support.
- If you have to use a kitchen chair or other straight chair, add a pillow or rolled towel for lumbar support
- Keep your feet and elbows at a 90-degree angle if possible. Use a stool or some support under your feet if needed to accomplish this.
- A computer that fits you and your chair at the right angles:
- Monitor should be at eye level (+/-)
- Fore arms should be at right angle when hands are on keyboard.
- Knees should be at right angles, with feet on the floor (or on a low bench/step if needed).
You’ll note that a laptop makes this impossible! When the keyboard is at the right level, the monitor is below eye level. The easiest solution is to get an external keyboard and raise up the laptop to eye level. (You can also use an external monitor, but that costs more.)
- Make sure you have enough light to work comfortably, and with natural light, that the sun isn’t in your eyes.
- Be sure to reduce glare and shadows whenever possible by adjusting shades, lighting and your screen.
- If you are on the phone often, get a headset to provide handsfree talking, enabling better alignment and also to be able to multi-task if preferred.
- Move! Some people like to work standing up – if you have that option, that might be good to switch back and forth. If not, be sure to get up and walk around every 45 minutes to an hour. Just 1-2 minutes – walk over to get a drink of water, stand up and stretch, and change your view from close up on the monitor to more distant – look out the window.
Sounds of silence: Be aware of the sounds in your workspace. You may be home with young children. As the weather warms if you open windows, sounds of traffic, lawn mowers, loud radios… can all drift in. You may find this distracting, and using ear plugs, headphones, white noise generators, or fans can all help reduce the distraction. However, NONE of these will help if you’re on the phone or a video call – these sounds will come through, often quite loudly, when you are not speaking. The mic will be searching for sound and pick up the background sound for everyone else to hear. So, try to find a quiet space, mute your mic when you’re not talking, and stay aware of your surroundings.
Background view: If you are on video calls, be aware of your visual surroundings – what will the camera pick up while you’re seated? What about if you have to get up? Take a few minutes to be strategic about what people will see.
Stay connected: it’s critical to stay in touch with family, friends and co-workers when you are sheltering at home. If you are a leader, it’s very helpful to reach out to your staff on a daily basis for a quick check in. Even if you’re not a leader, consulting with your peers gives you both a chance to feel more connected. Use your break time to chat with family and friends as well as get some brief exercise/stretches.
Pay attention to and manage your stress constructively.
Manage distractions. There are many distractions when working from home – others in your home, the TV, the kitchen, sweets… It can be hard to stay focused. Here are a few suggestions and read our blogs on Time Management for more ideas.
- Make a daily list. Break it down into small bits of 15-30 minutes.
- Edit the list each morning to keep it to a reasonable limit – factor in time for meetings, calls, and emails that will take your time. Don’t overload your schedule!
- Prioritize – review your list and make sure you put the important things earlier in the day so they don’t get pushed off by unexpected interruptions. You may think you have 8 hours to work, but often others impose on that and you may only have 2-3 hours of time to work on what you want and the rest may be spent responding to others. So plan realistically!
- Figure out what times of day you are at your best for concentrating – are you a morning person or does your brain rev up closer to lunch? Schedule tasks you’re putting off or that require deep concentration for those times and tell the people you live and work with that you won’t be checking email during that time period and to hold calls and texts if possible.
- Reward yourself – after you finish a challenging bit, get up and walk around or make a quick call to someone. Do something that makes you feel good and only takes a few minutes. Then get right back to the next bit on your list!
- Schedule in breaks to connect with friends and family. Too much isolation can make it hard to stay focused. Monitor your energy level and attention and when it lags, take a short break – you’re not getting anything useful done anyway, so might as well do a quick recharge – some stretching, quick exercise or a friendly phone call can all do the trick.
If you have tips you’d like to share, we’d love to hear them. If you have some challenges you haven’t been able to resolve, email me and I’ll try to give you some suggestions: alan@kriegersolutions.com