Hacks for working from home !!!

1. Schedule : Draw up a schedule, try waking up the same time you are used to, for commuting to work. Use the “commute” time to spend extra time with family and also to do some exercising / stretching (and you could ask your kids / significant other to join in, would be more fun & not to mention family bonding too). Quite a lot of you might be used to hitting the gym in the evenings, but with the gyms out of bound, you need to do it at home, and morning is more apt for exercising at home. You should also have breakfast with family, maybe taking turns with your significant other on alternate days, making breakfast. This is a luxury bonding time you are getting with family, don’t miss it.
2. Plan : Work out your calendar based on the meetings you have and ensure that the meeting alerts are set, to ensure you do not miss any (meetings tend to overrun as almost all participants are #wfh and have interesting snippets on personal experiences to share). I would strongly recommend spending 10 minutes before the start of your day / meeting schedules, to list down the “to-do” list for the day. One piece of advice on this, don’t overdo it, as its very easy to stretch your working day beyond the routine and end up working for over 12 or 14 hours. You could do this for a few days, before the fatigue sets in, so please don’t do it. Decide on your cut-off time, which could be based on your last meeting of the day or the time you finish you “to-do” list. There could be a tendency to jump back into work after dinner again, refrain from it unless you have a meeting with another time-zone, and that too as exception.
3. Set-up : Lay out your work area in a well-lit but quieter part of the house, your meetings should not interfere with those of you significant other and at the same time does not intrude into the kids study / play area. Use headphones / earphones for your meetings to avoid disturbing the family. Try keeping the windows open so you have air circulation in the house.
4. Segregate : Keep your work schedules from interfering the family time. Don’t carry your calls (even on headphones) to lunch / dinner or family time. You should set an example for your kids about not compromising on family time, they would respect you for this, in the long run (and you would thank yourself too).
5. Hygiene : There is a general tendency to jump from one meeting to another, ignoring the need for a break, please don’t do that. Firstly keep a bottle / flask of water with you and keep sipping on it during your meetings, you need to be hydrated to focus on the discussions and meetings. Try taking a break in between meetings, walk around the house / apartment, stretch yourself, try walking on your toes with your hands stretched up, should help with the blood circulation. You might want to step out for a walk, if feasible, for some fresh air and to get your eyes some break from the screen time.
6. Cognizance : We need to be aware of the environments we might be working in, participants might have kids interfering in the calls, accept them rather than frowning. If your kids come into the room, don’t get upset, maybe your work space is intruding their play area, so let’s be accommodative. I was on a call with my EMEA lead and he went on to introduce his kid to everyone on the call, another colleague proudly showed us his cat. Let’s accept our demography or eco-system, and co-work rather than draw boundaries for the family (we are all in it together).
7. Close : You need to do a check on your to-do list to ensure you have ticked off the list, or moved to the next day / schedule. Once you have closed your work day, ensure that the rest of the time is spent with family, playing with kids, helping with cooking dinner, running an errand, fetching groceries, or anything else you need to. Spend time with the family on the dinner table, asking them on how the day was, sharing experiences (like meeting a new cat) with them. Also share with them some best-practices you might have learnt during the day and make the kids aware of the new work environment, also telling them not to feel guilty about stepping into your work area.
8. Sleep : Have a schedule for hitting the bed, this could be after your post-dinner family time, which could be watching TV together, reading stories to kids or anything else you might have. You might want to take turns with your significant other to tuck kids in and doing the dishes. I would strongly recommend a 15 minute meditation / breathing exercise, before you sleep, this should unclutter the mind and get you a good sleep (sometimes it gets difficult after the whole long day at home). Ensure you get 6 to 7 hours of sleep to prevent fatigue setting in, and this should not be compromised.

Let's endeavour to take this opportunity to build better family ties. Try reaching out to extended family / friends to check on their health, this is also the time to rebuild that bridge with old friends, you have not been in touch for long.

We should be seeing a new work order when we get out of this, together. Till then, be safe, be healthy !!!

#wfh #workfromhome #hacks