Tips for Working from Home: Establish a routine and use the right tools

A home office may seem like a great idea. But after a few days, you may notice a sudden drop in productivity and realise that you miss the stimulating office environment and talking to colleagues. How to avoid this? And how best to manage work from home? Read tips to work from home from experienced employees working remotely.

Bring order to your daily regime

One day get up at six, the next at nine. You begin your day watching a little bit of TV in your pyjamas and get around to the actual work around ten or simply once you feel like working. Sometimes you might not feel motivated enough to start at all. To make up for the lost time, you keep working well past midnight. Sounds familiar?

This is the road to hell. You can be sure that you won’t get a quarter of the work done that you would get done during a day at the office.

Working from home? Yes. From your bed? Rather not…

Tip from Nathy, Webnode Social Media Manager: Arrange a schedule with your family

My husband needs to go to his office several times a week. During those days we try to organize our time like this:

I work from 6 to 9am and my husband leaves for work. I take care of our children between 9am and 2pm and try to keep them as active as possible to tire them out. Around 2pm, when it’s finally quiet enough, I get back to work and keep at it ideally till 7pm. My husband comes home at around 5:30pm and takes care of the kids until I wrap up all my projects.

Whenever he can stay at home, I try to trick him into helping with kids as much as possible. We’re a team, right? I really couldn’t handle this situation without him.

Working from home, you can’t avoid regular online meetings with colleagues and supervisors. In Webnode, we hold a daily online meeting at 9am, where we share what everyone is working on. Other companies have similar virtual meetings twice or even several times per day. The timetable of online meetings must be strictly followed.

Set your own workspace

Your brain likes a workplace to look like a workplace. Whether it’s a full-time remote job or just a temporary solution, a desk, keyboard and computer are much more associated with work than a comfy bed and laptop on your legs. You’d rather sit in a chair than lounge on the couch.

Tip from Zuzana, Webnode HR manager: Keep yourself active

I exercise daily. Mainly because I enjoy it and it also clears my mind incredibly. I’m already used to this routine, plus I can put on some good music.

Move your body regularly to get your heart rate going and bring more oxygen to your brain. It will make you think better and stay fit.

Use effective communication and organisational tools

Use G-suite from Google to create and update documents. Text documents, tables, e-mail, calendar, everything is online and available for free. You can also use the storage space on Google Drive. These features are accessible through any computer, all you need to do is sign up online.

The ideal workplace

What if you want to watch the progress of your projects or even supervise all the processes? You need a good project management tool. The most popular tools out there are Trello, Jira, Asana or BaseCamp. Their basic versions are usually available for free while full versions need to be paid for.

To interact with your colleagues and quickly solve any issues, try Zoom for video conferences and webinars. Microsoft and Google offer their own communication tools called Teams or Hangouts Meet which you can use for chats and conference calls.

In Webnode we also use Slack for a quick chat. If you want to stay informed even on your smartphone, Whatsapp or Viber are great solutions.

More Webnode work from home tips:

• Act like you are going to the office
• Eliminate distractions
• Take regular short breaks
• Work when you are most productive
• Make daily notes and a to-do list
• Establish repetitive tasks
• Stay in touch with your colleagues
• Don’t forget to eat and drink
• Live outside your home office
• Get some fresh air
• Set aside time to deal with emails and learning
• Communicate with your professional community (and learn from them)

Would you rather work and travel than work from home? Digital nomad lifestyle will suit you.