Staying Sane When You Work From Home

Preface: I wanted to work a little more on putting together a concise guide for working from home, but in the light of the situation with Covid-19 and so many more people forced to telecommute who never have before, I thought getting this up quickly should take priority over getting it up perfectly. I should also add that while I have been working form home for years now, I do not have children that are also home to manage and work into the equation. I can empathize with those of you now working from home with kids also at home, but I unfortunately can only offer solutions that would work in that situation in theory since I have no practical experience with that environment.

On one hand, so many people practicing social distancing by choice, or telecommuting now due to a directive from work, can feel overwhelming. On the other, I actually think that in the long term this might lead to a happier work force with better balance as companies who think they need their employees at desks from 9-5 every day in order to get things done find out that no, people are just as productive (if not more so) from home. Perhaps it leads to fewer people stuck in stressful commutes, workdays that are actual hours opposed to 10-12, and more time spent at home with family. Here’s hoping that we get a silver lining at the end off all of this.

Many people think that if you work from home, you’re dicking around all day. This is why so few companies have telecommuting as their primary job structure. I do not work at one of those companies. We have a very small percentage of our staff actually in an office. The rest of us work from home, and come in when necessary for in person meetings. I started at Hunterdon Distributors in 2010 as a sales rep - working my route from my car and home. Later, a brand manager for a few of our breweries (again, the car was my office). For the last three years I have been in the position of Senior Project Manager. 90% of my work is don’t from home, with exceptions of 4-5 days a month where I will go to the office fort meetings. This varies, and there are times of year where I am at the office 3-4 days per week - but for the most part of am a ‘telecommuter’.

While the assumption about working form home may be that you never work - the opposite can often be true. When your home is your office, it is very easy to allow the lines to blur and find yourself essentially always on the job. Answering emails at all hours. Taking calls 24/7. Trying to find that report you printed under a stack of laundry that you started. It is surprisingly easy to let working from home take over your life and actually lead to more stress instead of more balance.

Below are my tips for working from home: staying productive and staying sane. I recognize that some of these suggestions are not going to be feasible for everyone. Some of them are possible because I have the privilege of the space in my house, or an additional phone plan available to me, and the financial freedom to do so. That said, if you are able to take the idea behind the suggestion and implement it in a way that works for your situation and budget, I believe that you will still find a benefit.

Have a morning routine.
When you go to work in an office, you probably have a morning routine that is the same every day. Wake up, get dressed, make coffee, drive to work, etc. When you work from home it’s easy to just wake up and start doing whatever needs to be done. You could find that you are starting at 7am, or get caught up and don’t even see your email until noon. Here’s my morning, every morning: Wake up, get dressed, make coffee, let dog out, feed chickens, make breakfast, open work email at 9am and reply to anything unread or outstanding. You’re essentially creating your ‘morning commute’, that starts shifting your brain from ‘I’m at home’ to ‘I’m at work’.

Get dressed.
I know it’s tempting to stay in your PJs all day, and sure I’ve done it plenty of times. Over the last two years, though, I’ve realized that I definitely feel more organized when I get up and get dressed for the day - even if I’m not going anywhere. I’m not talking a business suit. Even something as casual as what you would wear to run errands. Just don’t stay in your pajamas.

Set time boundaries.
When you work in an office it’s easier to keep things separate. When you leave for the day, you leave for the day. Working from home removes that separation. Setting firm time boundaries is probably the best thing I ever did for myself when it comes to working from home. I’ve held them firm for long enough that my colleagues know when I will and will not be available. Not to mention, most of my colleagues hold similar time boundaries. We’ve all worked outside of an office for long enough, that we quickly learned the importance of these time limits and we hold to them pretty strictly for the most part. I will not open my email or pull out my work phone (next item) until 9am, and I shut it all down at 5:30. Now, that’s not to say that if I have time-sensitive work that needs to get done that I won’t work past that deadline - I just won’t do things that involves contact with other people outside of those hours (unless circumstances require it for whatever random reason - which is rare).

Do not use your personal email for work, and have a separate phone number if you can.
It’s free and easy to set up separate emails if your work doesn’t provide you with one. Having an email that is strictly business and one that is personal allows you to log out. It prevents getting caught up in work emails during your off time. The phone number is different. If you are able to add an additional line to your phone plan and are financially able to support that, I cannot recommend it enough. I added a personal line 6 years ago or so and it was life-changing. In my opinion, the ability to put my work phone in a desk drawer every night/weekend was huge. Only friends and family were given my new personal line (My immediate boss also has it in case of emergencies which is has used maybe twice in five years. He refers to it as my ‘burner’, and the only reason I gave him or anyone else at work the number is because I’ve worked with him/them long enough that I trust them to only use it if absolutely necessary and time-sensitive information is needed). Now, I completely recognize that not everyone has this ability. ‘Do not disturb’ is another option on iPhones. You can create a contact list of Friends and Family, and set your phone to automatically silence all calls from anyone not on that list between certain hours. Google Voice is another option that my husband utilizes. You can set up a Google Voice number to direct to your phone that you are then able to essentially turn off when you are ‘off the clock’. Last I checked, it is $20/month for one number.

Create a designated work space.
I believe that this will become critically important for both working parents and kids during the coming weeks with more schools shutting down and kids getting into home study. Having designated areas for work and study helps keep things in order, but it also helps keep you in the ‘work’ mentality when you’re working, and ‘off’ when you’re not. We have a two bedroom house and no kids. Last year, I turned our second room into my office and it not only made life easier, but I felt less anxious and got way more done day to day. Prior to that, I worked all over the house. Kitchen, bedroom, TV room. My stuff was everywhere and I felt scattered all the time. Having an area that was my work space allowed me to keep everything in one spot. When I’m in my office, I’m working. I’ve decorated in in a way that is clean and comfortable. I don’t hate being in that room at all. Keeping work to one space stops it from taking over. I would imagine that for kids newly studying from home, setting up a designated ‘school work’ area would create similar benefits. I know that not everyone has access to an entire separate room, but even if you can turn a corner of your living room or kitchens or bedroom into an area that is specifically your work space - it makes a world of difference. Having this space also provides the other people in your house with a physical boundary to identify as a sort of, ‘when mom/dad/spouse/partner/roommate is in this room/at that desk' they’re working and I need to ask if they have time for what I need right now instead of assuming that they do’..

Shut it down.
Depending on your industry and job structure, this time will vary, but whatever time it is that the work day ends - end it. Shut that shit down. When you’re not leaving an office at the end of the day, it is SO easy to just keep working. Force yourself to stop at quitting time and go enjoy your evening. You can come back to it in the morning. Remember - tie boundaries.

Take an actual lunch break.
Don’t work through lunch. Wether you go out, or make it yourself, give yourself an actual lunch break away from work. I might have lunch at my desk, but I will shut down my email and close out work tabs and probably watch an episode of Brooklyn 99. During spring and summer, I’ll eat on the porch. Occasionally I’ll go out for lunch. Whatever you do - break up the day and give your mind a time out and relax for a time while you enjoy a meal. If you’re kids are also home, this could be a great opportunity to bring the whole family together for a meal in the middle of what probably feels like a crazy day.

Get up often, drink water, move around.
A huge benefit of working from home is that it’s so much easier to stretch your legs throughout the day. Try to remember to get up and move around every hour. Go into the other room, get a drink of water, have a snack, step outside.

GET OUT OF THE HOUSE
Go for a walk, sit outside, go to the gym, go for a hike, drive around, I don’t care what it is but for the love go god GO. So many people just go from home to work to home. Maybe it’s home to work to gym to home. When you remove ‘work’ from the equation, it’s a slippery slope before you find yourself a hobbit who hasn’t left the house in six weeks. Make it a point to leave the walls of your apartment or house daily, even if it’s just to walk around the block or drive for a coffee, and make sure you keep the other things in your routine like going to the gym intact.

You may have noticed a theme in these tips: create separation and boundaries. That’s pretty much it. The hardest part about working from home is how easily everything can bleed together, and before you know it the thing that sounded so great (no more office to drive to), is the thing that is slowly driving you to insanity. Creating boundaries, setting limits, and sticking to them is the most valuable thing that I have learned in almost a decade of working without an office to go to.

If you have other tips, I’d love to hear them in the comments.