Nearly 25 percent of all Canadian businesses say at least 10 percent of their workforce will remain working from home permanently, and that number is expected to increase as firms adjust to the sudden change in office locations. For professionals who focus heavily on their in-office life, these home skills can help you transition from the office to home.
Physically Separating Your Work Space From Home Space
Studies have shown that having a bedtime routine, such as brushing your teeth and washing your face, can lead to better sleep as it signals your brain that it’s time for bed. This is similar to work. When choosing where to work from home, always separate work from play areas. Specifically, it may be detrimental to your focus and energy, as well as your sleep, if a home office is located in your bedroom or work is completed while on the bed. Moving the office from the bedroom to another location can stop the association between work and relaxing, and instead focus the energy to be what it’s set up to be: productive. If possible, having a home office and a place to focus will be the most beneficial setup, and it should be entered only when work is being done to signal the need for creative and motivated energies to start flowing.
Create Focus Blocks
Focus blocks are chunks of time dedicated to specific tasks without any interruptions. This can be difficult at first, as short-term and long-term projects often have time trade-offs that are difficult to predict, but it should become easier over time to assess what can be postponed and what can’t be. 15-minute to an hour increment of shutting the door, turning off messages, and really focusing on a specific task can improve your productivity and workflow, and having the luxury to simply disconnect communications is certainly an advantage of working from home.
Maintain Communication
One trouble with working from home is the physical distance between an employee and their colleagues (which I guess is the whole point now). This can be an issue when trying to communicate effectively and build relationships with new people as there is less opportunity for face-to-face interaction. To counteract this, and reduce the need for lengthy emails or calls, one can use video messaging to quickly relay information to colleagues. This is nice because not only does it reduce the time and effort it takes to respond, it’s also an opportunity to associate a face with the work, making the sender more memorable in the long run, according to numerous studies.
