Top 10 Tips for Working from Home

1. WAKE UP

Yeah, duh. But honestly, wake up early, give yourself time to ease into your day and get your brain ticking before starting work. It’s very, very easy to slip into a routine of going to bed late, waking up late and rolling into ‘work’ 5 mins later. Routine and process is your friend when working from home. If you can get outside for a walk or run, do, if not it’s very well worth working out or doing some yoga.

2. SCRUB UP

Get up, shave, shower, brush your teeth and get in the mindset to work. Spray some perfume and feel great for the day. If you don’t, before you know it you won’t have showered in three days and those you live with will wonder why you live together. And those you don’t live with won’t want to see you!

3. DRESS UP

For some this is a mental one, but working in your pyjamas will only make you feel gross by the end of the day. Plus, you get to ‘switch off’ your mind properly when you finish your work and get back into your PJs.

4. SIT UP

Working from bed, from the sofa, or even from the dining table with non-ergonomic chairs and height of your workspace will eventually lead to increased stress and back pain. So our work from home tip would be work hard at making your workspace work hard for you.

5. SHOW UP

Another top tip for working from home is iIf you and your team start at 9am, say good morning at 9am via whatever communication tools you use to work remotely. Ask about weekends, ask how your team are, and ask again how they really are. Chat a bit and then each share what your priorities for the day are. Also, you’ve got up, scrubbed up and looking damn fine, so switch that video on and show your team you’re ON IT.

6. TOOL UP

Please for the love of remote working, please don’t use email to communicate with your internal team. Slack is your friend for internal comms, it’s transformed businesses around the world. Also, check out the following:

• Slack (honestly, just trial it and you will thank us later, or you’ll be left behind otherwise)
• Google Meet (really easy, free, no login or app needed, plus you can dial in)
• Whereby (free, no downloads needed, opens in web browser)
• Zoom (video calling, needs a download, other things like making your face look ‘nicer’)
• Blue Jeans (similar to above)
• Skype (obvs)

7. EAT UP

Every damn day I work from home, I get stuck into work, and I end up leaving lunch later and later and by 3 or 4pm I remember I need to eat. Set an alarm, close the laptop, leave your workspace and eat a good meal. An even better working from home tip is if you can, go for a run, a walk round the block or something to free your head. You’ll work better in the afternoon for it.

8. FINISH UP

Like with lunch, the hardest bit I find is to finish on time – I’m drafting this at 8pm for example and my wife is angry because I said I was going to make dinner. Set an alarm, finish on time and put that work to bed. Boundaries are very important, especially with your time, but also with your workspace…

9. PACK UP

Shut that computer down, close the laptop and pack up your stuff. If you’re at a fixed desk working from your home office (lucky you) then tidy your desk. If, like me, you’re at a dining table, breakfast counter or desk in a bedroom, then pack that shit away and get it out of sight. Get that room doing what it does best, being a dining room, living room, kitchen or (wink wink) bedroom.

10. LAUGH IT UP!

Absolutely do not forget to have a laugh when working from home. Just like you do in the office with your colleagues. At YesMore Agency we always ask how each others weekends were, but when someone says “fine” it’s worth digging a little deeper with a follow up question like “what did you get up to?”. Additionally, it’s worth actually scheduling video call socials and announcements, or updates from the senior team. Here’s a pic of the few of the team yesterday having a LOL in 5 different parts of the world!

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