5 tips to making your new home office a success

These past few weeks have been rocky to say the least, due to the current COVID-19 situation. With new developments unfolding on the daily, most of us that can, are now working from home. For some, this is nothing new, for others this is a luxury that is given a couple of times a month, and for the rest this is new uncharted territory. Now, while this may seem like a silver lining during these tough times and a step forward towards the revolution for the modern way of working, it is easy to get side-tracked and lose focus of the fact that you are meant to be working to the same productivity that you would if you were at the office.

Below are my 5 tips to making your new style of working a success!

Make a routine & stick with it – Even though you can now be somewhat more flexible with your hours, try to keep to a schedule as you would if you were going into the office. It is easy to sleep in or take a longer break and make up those hours later, but then you may find yourself feeling like you are working all day to reach your 8 hours!
Start early – If you’re anything like me, my internal clock is still set to waking up at the time I would normally get up to drive to the office. Well, now that you don’t have to commute anymore, you have additional time in the morning. If you can’t sleep in, why wait for the clock to hit 9.00am? I find that I’m more productive from home if I just start work from the time I wake up as it sets my tone for the rest of the day.
Get “ready” to head into the office – I find that it helps to do something to distinguish between “being at home” and “working from home”. For me, it’s getting out of my pjs and putting on some clothes I would actually wear out (although I do understand that one of the major perks of working from home is that you can stay in your pjs all day!). Doing something that you normally do before going into the office will help keep that feeling that today is work-day even if you’re at home.
Set boundaries – You may have found yourself in a tricky situation many of us are now in – working from home with your partner. You may think “how will our relationship survive this?” Jokes aside (but not really), try to set some boundaries to keep either of you from distracting each other. If you have the extra space, try to set up your workspace in a different area of the house – if you have them handy, noise cancelling headphones work great during your partner’s online meetings!
Spend some time in nature – Take the time to get out of the house during your break and take a walk. It will clear your head and help you to get back into it for the afternoon ahead. Afterall, they say walking increases your creativity by 60%!