Maybe you’ve been flung into the world of remote working because of the pandemic, or maybe you’ve just “always done it” through having your own business. In this post I’ll look at 5 tips to set yourself up for remote work and finish with some inspiring home office setups.
1. Choosing where you work.
Remote work doesn’t always mean working from your home. In the height of lockdowns there wasn’t any other choice – but lets assume in this post there’s some freedoms in where you can work from. The longer you work from home the more stale the environment will get and the more lonely you’ll become. It’s key to mix it up a bit and here’s some suggestions:-
- Join a co-working space and work from there every now and then. Be sure to talk to people if you do, even if it’s just offering to make a coffee for the person next to you (then, you might get chatting).
- Take a trip to a coffee shop and work from a corner there, drinks that you’ve not made for yourself and maybe even a pastry might cheer you up.
- I’ve not tried this yet, but a craft beer place near me offers all day free wifi, unlimited coffee and of course, there’s beer nearby if you’re feeling risky.
Taking this a step further, you could choose to work from somewhere exotic. For folks like me in the UK, this could be somewhere like Thailand for a month, spend the time enjoying the culture and work a bit later to join up for any meetings.
2. Set clear limits between “work” and “home”.
If you go into the office, then you have defined hours at work and at home. You don’t work at home and you spend time commuting. As soon as you’re catapulted into remote work – don’t let these boundaries change.
Do this through your calendar, block out events in the evening such as “gym” or “dinner with friends” so people don’t try and book too late in your diary for you. If you work at a globally remote company like Automattic, doing this can help people see when you’re not around for calls.
It’s also important to actually clock off when you’re done. Having a separate work / living environment is totally worth it so you can shut the door and not see your macbook staring at you.
If you’ve a spare room, then perfect. Set up in there, and then you’re not seeing your work when you’re in your living room, kitchen or trying to go to sleep at night.
3. Take breaks throughout the day.
Get up and move! I have a feature on my smart watch which tells me if I’ve been a bit too inactive in the day. When it buzzes and tells me to move, more often than not I’ll listen.
You may not believe this, but since doing just that small thing (getting up and moving) my productivity has increased and I’ve not been having as many aches and pains at the end of the day.
4. Maybe even take a nap.
Working remotely can boost your productivity if you manage your time correctly, but it’s also easy to burn too hot and make yourself sick. If you’re feeling tired – a quick 30 minute nap could work wonders for the rest of your day.
5. Setting up your home office.
It’s temping to just put your macbook on the side of your bed, and in the morning just open the lid and work from bed. Remote work’s great. You don’t even have to get changed (unless you’ve got those pesky Zoom meetings). If you do this, I guarantee that you’ll end up reading my make sure you move post.
Bonus: Some inspiring home setups.
Here’s a gallery of some home office inspiration. My main take away from this post is to make sure you setup a space which is dedicated to work. Take a look at some of these gorgeous setups below.
