Advice and Tips for Working From Home

This article was written by one of our artists, Jordan, who has been working remotely for our studio for 8 years.

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Over the past few years, I’ve learned a lot of different things to help maintain both productivity and mental wellness while working from home. I’d like to share those tips with you now as we embark on this new situation together. I know that personally following this advice has allowed me to successfully do this for many years, and while your mileage may vary depending on circumstances, I hope you will find some value in a few of these points. The biggest takeaway is that you want to maintain a separation of home and work in your mind, and these tips will help you to achieve and maintain that separation.

1.) Maintain a routine/schedule as if you were going to the office, whatever that means for you.

Do a typical morning routine for yourself as if you were going to work at the office, because that’s the mindset that you need to maintain. Wake up at a consistent time, eat breakfast, do your morning hygiene routine and get dressed every morning before work. Avoid rolling out of bed and getting right in front of your computer while still in your pajamas. It may seem convenient or nice at first to give yourself lots of time to sleep in and jump right into work, but it is actually a mental trap that will hamper your productivity and personal wellness long term.

2.) When you are done work for the day, find a way to leave your workspace.

What you want to try to maintain while working from home is a separation of work and home. When those two things become muddied together, it can cause you to feel additional stress because you are subconsciously always at work. I recommend using this time to quickly step outside or on a balcony and get 5–10 minutes of fresh air or a quick walk (as long as you are not self-quarantining because of sickness) and then re-enter your home. You will feel as though you have left work and come back home, and this will do wonders for your mindset as time goes on. If leaving your home is not an option or you have limited space, try shutting down your work laptop, closing it and putting it aside somewhere else when you are done work for the day.

Avoid checking work email and other tasks in your downtime unless they are critical. Now that you are working from home, your downtime is more precious than it was before to maintain home and work separation.

3.) Treat work time as if you were at the office.

This is about trying to limit distractions, of which there are a lot more of while you are at home. Try to avoid things like having the TV on while you work, or other things that wouldn’t be happening at the office. Those are easy productivity traps to fall into that will cost you time and focus. Save things like that for during your coffee/lunch break.

4.) Screen share is your new best friend.

While on a Slack/Skype/Teams call with others, you can share your screen through one of the options, which will display whatever is on your current monitor. This is incredibly useful for group presentations and situations where you want to discuss specific information, review a document or provide notes for content. As a professional artist, I’ve been using screen share for a long time for my reviews of artwork and it makes communicating about subtle things so much easier. Most people benefit from visual reinforcement of information and find it helps with retainment. Don’t assume someone is following along in their own document. Share your screen so you can highlight important information while talking, just like how you would during a group powerpoint presentation.

5.) If you are having trouble focusing, step away for 5–10 minutes and do something different before coming back to your work space.

Take a quick walk and check the mail. Make yourself a coffee. Do something to break up the current situation and re-center on coming back with your goal in mind. It will help to get you focused when you find yourself drifting off into distractions.

6.) Don’t forget to take lunch and coffee breaks.

This one seems simple, but there are times when I am deep in focus and have tight deadlines to hit where I will realize it’s already 4 pm and I haven’t had lunch. This is another trap that’s easy to fall into and will affect your personal health, so try to stop and take a lunch break around the usual time that you would in the office. The point is to maintain a work routine that is consistent, and make sure you are taking care of yourself.

7.) If you live with family or roommates, remind them of work hours.

Parents of young children know how kids would love nothing more than to come and talk and play with you all day if they could. Letting everyone in your home know that during certain hours is work time and you can’t be disturbed during that time can help establish some boundaries. Don’t be surprised if people sometimes forget that you are working because you are at home and therefore available. Having this conversation can be helpful because even though it should be obvious to everyone in the situation, it’s very easy to forget. Once the conversation has been had, if someone starts to disturb you while you work again, you can provide a gentle reminder that you are on the clock and send them on their way with less conflict.

8.) Set up your workspace in a manner that will keep you focused and comfortable.

Ideally, setting yourself up in a private room is the best way to minimize distractions while working from home. If that is not an option and you are in a common area (for example, your dining room or living room) I suggest facing yourself at a wall as much as possible and avoid looking out into the openness of the room. The more you can narrow your focus into your work setup, the better.

Get yourself a good chair to sit in. You will be sitting in it all day, and you want to avoid back problems or struggling to focus due to an uncomfortable seat. If you can situate yourself near a window, do so. The natural light will help your mood and from feeling overly isolated. If you have others that share your space (particularly children), noise cancelling headphones will help keep out distractions.

I hope some of these tips will help some of you out there with the new reality many are facing working from home. Some of these may seem obvious, but when your home and work life are blurred, it’s easy for things to start slipping without realizing it. The good news about working from home is that for many people, it will allow you a degree of focus and productivity you could only dream of before, as you are now more in control of your space. We’re all in this together, so never hesitate to reach out to others if you’re having a hard time.