To say that we are living in a new world is an understatement. COVID-19 has upended normalcy and routine for people around the globe. Many are finding themselves hunkered down at home in a “new normal” that involves homeschooling, working from home and learning just how many toilet paper squares are really needed for the job.
Last week was the first week of a very new, very different life for Americans who now find themselves telecommuting. It was all about figuring things out, like whether you should use your laptop mic or headset (always the headset) and the actual speed of your internet when everyone in your home and neighborhood is also using it.
This week is about getting the new routine down. As someone who has worked from home in public relations role for a large organization for about six years, and has had a remote team that entire time, I feel like I have unique insight into that side of the coin. Here’s what I can offer to make sure you don’t fall into the traps of working from home, stay productive and maintain your sanity.
- Keep your morning routine as close to normal as possible.
Go ahead and sleep a little longer – time that would normally be dedicated to your commute – but get ready just as you would if you were going into the office. Get up, shower, eat breakfast and get dressed – just maybe keep it casual Friday instead of business attire.
People will say this keeps you in a routine and helps you be more productive. That may be the case, but in practice, it also helps ensure you are still showering and brushing your teeth more than once a day. Gross, right? Yes. It is, but I’m not going to lie – when I first started working from home, this was a problem for me. I remember realizing one Wednesday a few months into remote work that I hadn’t showered since Sunday. Me. The person who was camera-ready going into work every morning, hadn’t showered in three days.
This will also help ease panic if you get a last-minute request for a video call with leadership, because you just rolled out of bed, started working and haven’t even gotten the sleep out of your eyes yet. Which brings me to my next piece of advice …
- Don’t just roll out of bed and start working.
There is nothing going on that early in the morning via email that can’t wait, and if there was, you’d be getting a text or a phone call. Even working in public relations for the last 17 years, that’s still my hard and fast rule.
Give yourself some time to wake up, get energized and do what you need to get into the “work mindset,” which can be tough to do when your new office is just a few steps from your bed. Because, in the essence of being real, no matter how much you love your job – and I love what I do – responding to work emails before your eyes are even fully open is just not a good way to start the day. Boundaries are important.
- Designate a work space, and keep your work there.
Don’t take the laptop into the bedroom and then the sofa and maybe outside. This isn’t because you can’t work in those locations – you can. I’m not here to tell you where you can be productive, but having a roving office does make it that much harder to find a stopping point and put it away at night when you say, “Oh, I’m already on the couch. I may as well keep working,” or, “Hey, I can bring my laptop into the kitchen and cook and work a little too.”
It’s one of those traps that feels like a convenience at first, until you realize that you’ve been working 16-hour-days for the last <fill in the blank> days. It was about a year before I made this rule. Don’t be me. Do this now. I promise it really will make all the difference in the world!
- Limit distractions that are within your control.
When I say “distractions,” I’m not talking about pets and kids, because honestly, a dog isn’t going to abide by work hours and a child isn’t going to understand that mommy/daddy is on work calls for four hours and can’t look at the pretty drawing they drew depicting grandma and grandpa as monster pigs.
What I’m talking about are those distractions we can control – the pull of Netflix, push notifications from news apps, text messages, social media. Put it away. Set designated times when you’ll check your phone for personal matters, maybe when you get a coffee refill or take a bio break. But otherwise, don’t get sucked into those distractions. In the span of a busy day, those seconds and minutes can add up.
- Find human connection, but don’t touch anyone.
Try to make a point to talk about what’s going on outside of work – things you may typically talk about at each other’s desks. I know people who work from home that have a video happy hour with their colleagues Friday afternoons. I know others who have morning touch-base video calls so they can start the day off “in-person” via video.
For me, I try to make every call that I can a video call. In my experience, video helps build camaraderie when hundreds or even thousands of miles may separate you. My team members over the years have told me how much they really feel like they have relationships with their peers and are part of a connected team, despite being in five states from the Pacific to the Mississippi, and I honestly think video helps with this. (The biggest reason is because I work with some of the best people you’ll ever know, but seeing those wonderful people’s faces goes a long way too.) I also find that ideas flow so much better when you can see each other. And, as a manager, I am able to gauge where people’s heads may be via their nonverbal cues – something I would miss if it were just a conference call.
And, while not specific to working from home and not an official tip, my biggest piece of advice is to give each other grace during a time as difficult as this. We are all adjusting to remote work and a post-coronavirus world, and the reality is that:
Someone’s dog will bark.
Someone’s kid will come in and ask a question while they are talking.
Someone will forget to hit mute when they blow their nose.
Someone will be late to calls because they had trouble dialing into a call.
Someone will have a poor internet connection.
Someone will forget their video is on.
Someone’s technology will fail.
Someone is going to move slower than you think they should, but since you can’t see them, you don’t know that three other people just dropped by their virtual desk with rush requests too.
Someone is going to make mistakes.
You’re going to make mistakes.
Treat each other with kindness and patience, and remember that we are all better together. Just not in the same room right now.
April M. Phillips, APR 