Five things you need to consider when working from home

Solid advice from industry professionals.

Set specific guidelines and expectations for yourself and those around you.

Set and keep a routine

It’s important to treat a workday at home very similar to a workday in the office. Have a schedule. Get up and get ready for work as you would if you were going into the office (although you don’t need to dress up quite the same). Keep to standard ‘office’ hours. Minimise home chores to lunch breaks so as to not get distracted. And make sure you log off at a reasonable time. You may be able to squeeze in a bit more work without that commute, but keep it in check.

Dedicated workspace

If you have a spare room you can use as your home office, that is great. But it doesn’t need to be that elaborate. Set up an area of your home/ apartment/room as your designated work space. Start each workday there. If you like to move around, you can do so as the day progresses and you get into the workflow, but oftentimes it’s easier to get your day started when you are in a designated work area.

Clear boundaries

Being home during your workday means it’s easy for the lines between your work life and personal life to blur. Set specific guidelines and expectations for yourself and those around you. Discuss with your spouse, roommates, children exactly when you’re available and when you’re not and make sure that’s clearly communicated at all times. On the flip side, be sure to know when to sign off and put your work away.

Personal needs

Do you get stir crazy? Does ‘watercooler’ chat get you through the day? If you’re craving that extra bit of stimulation, listen to yourself instead of pushing through it. Build yourself a ‘work’ playlist, schedule team check-ins and 1v1s, and let yourself step away during the day when you feel burnt out. Consider virtual team/co-worker lunches, with Zoom/Slack/Google Hangouts video conferencing on, to get some lighter social time in. The key here is listening to your own needs to make sure you don’t burn out and can handle this system of working long term.

Always communicate

Particularly for those of us used to working in office environments, the adjustment to working from home can be significant. If you work on a team or your work requires a great deal of collaboration, remember that (over) communication is key. This will save time and energy for all parties and make your entire team more efficient. If your team follows Agile practices, stick with your daily Standups and routines. Meet in the morning to go over what you did yesterday, what you are planning to do today, and any blockers you are facing. If you don’t follow Agile, now is a good time to incorporate some elements into your routine to help improve your remote communication.

When you’re working remotely, it’s easy for time to become a sort of amorphous blob. But to actually be productive, it’s essential to keep to a routine as much as possible. Setting a start time and an end time for your working day helps you to focus, adds structure, and ensures you don’t get so lost in a task that you end up overworking and burning out.

Dave Walters, Chief Technology Officer at Vettery, a data-driven, AI-powered hiring marketplace

Peter Coppinger, co-founder and CEO of Teamwork, a work management platform used by companies like Disney, Spotify and Netflix

Jean Hamon, CEO of community network Hivebrite.