You may have already made the transition to working from home, or perhaps it’s on the horizon. There’s lots of great advice from people who have been doing it for years. You should definitely check out those resources. But what’s important to remember is that many of those people likely chose to work from home. You may prefer to work in an office, so we polled some members of our team who share that feeling and wanted to give you our advice. There’s some tips, some things to avoid, and a look behind the C2IT curtain.
Tips For Working At Home:
Chet (CEO): Find a routine / schedule that works. For me, it’s probably going to be something like 6-8, 9-12, and then 1-5 (with some early exits and evening work sprinkled in).
Phil (Project Manager): Keep your morning routine basically the same. Get ready for the day as if you are going into the office.
Ryan (Business Development Specialist): Go outside before you start working. It helps create some mental separation between work and home that you’re used to getting on your commute.
Things To Avoid:
Chet: Don’t imagine that productivity will be the same as when you’re at the office 8-5. Breaks will look different, interruptions will look different, etc. Productivity is more than hours logged, but more time well spent. This will be different.
Phil: Refrigerator runs (we think this is only a half joke).
Ryan: Carrying your work into the evening. It can be really hard to shift gears when you’re used to changing your physical environment. Go for a walk or drive to reset your focus.
Benefits:
Chet: Close to family / home. Short breaks mean I can get real things done at home, which is both relaxing and productive time.
Phil: Extra sleep (is this why you were late to our last call?) Gas consumption (Preach!)
Ryan: Making midday memories with my wife and two year old daughter who are also both working from home.
Disadvantages (and how to overcome)
Chet: No more commute! I use my commute to disengage, listen to music / podcasts, and make phone calls.
Phil: Lack of contact with the business team. (Zoom calls help somewhat. But not being able to get up out of my chair and go to see others with my questions is distracting to me.)
Ryan: Balancing my workload with needing to take care of a very energetic toddler. (Taking turns with my wife -who’s also still working full time-, getting as much done as possible during her nap time, being honest with our team about my current capacity, and getting laser focused on the most impactful activities.)
We hope you’re staying safe during this time. We hope you’re being creative in solving problems for your team and customers. And we hope you’re having some fun through this where you can.
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