Quirks from home
Remote workers share their most unique productivity hacks for toiling from home
Knocking out some or all of your 40-hour workweek from the comfort of your home is becoming increasingly popular. A recent Gallup survey found that 43% of Americans work from home occasionally. Gallup’s 2017 State of the American Workplace report found that engagement is boosted when employees spend part of their time working remotely and part of their time with their co-workers. The optimal engagement boost occurs when employees spend 60% to less than 80% of their workweek -- or three to four days -- working away from the office, the report said. Clearly, there are benefits to telecommuting, and there also are creative ways to be productive and successful while working from home. Some veteran remote workers share how they make the most of their workdays.
“(I)f I really have to concentrate hard while working at home, I put on earphones. I don’t listen to music or podcasts, or talk on the phone. I simply put them on my head. It somehow keeps me focused on what’s directly in front of me and also helps drown out any noises around the house.”
— Lisa Torelli-Sauer, editor,
Sensible Digs
“I take a 10-minute nap for every two hours I work when I am working from home. Within the two hours, I usually take about three glasses of water while slowly sipping a cup of green tea. All the while, I am listening to death metal tracks in the background.”
— Joe Bailey, business development
consultant, My Trading Skills
“When working from home, I love playing R&B and hip-hop music and periodically begin to sing and dance to songs I love, like I’m performing on stage. This is a great stress reliever, helps when trying to draft that complicated email and sparks inspiration for blog posts or a project I’m working on.” — Tommia Hayes, digital communications manager, Community Health Charities
“I like to play Christmas carols when I’m working. They sound so lively and wholesome. I’m also addicted to podcasts, so I can easily listen to hours of podcasts a day if the silence gets to be too much.”
— Anna Rider, food writer/recipe developer, Garlic Delight
“To get motivated, I have my team on a Slack channel where we banter on and off throughout the day about projects
and just for fun… Twice a year, I have an in-person retreat. Next month, we’re meeting at a villa in Arizona that I rented on AirBnB . ... I also have a network of other women in my area who work from home, and we get together for lunch or coffee at least once a week to chat and get some social interaction.” — Mary Kole, founder, Good
Story Company
“When I start feeling tired or unfocused during the day, I’ll roll my chair back, plug my Oculus Rift into my computer, and take 10-15 minutes to escape and recharge. … There really is no better way to recover from a bad conference call than VR boxing.”
— Josh Braaten, CEO,
Brandish Insights
“My personal unique habit when working from home is to manage chores when I’m burned out. For example, I wake up and work two to three hours. When I feel like I need a break, I’ll go do the dishes and go back to work two to three more hours, and then I’ll take a break and listen to a business lecture as I do the laundry...”
— Eric Even Haim, CEO, Stilyo Apps
“I always get dressed every day and try to never work in my pajamas. It’s easier to get in a productive frame of mind when I’m dressed in clothes I didn’t sleep in.”
— Anna Rider
“For the last five years, I’ve worked from home. Over the first few months, I struggled to get started in the morning and remain focused. … One day, I forgot to take my shoes off after running a morning errand. For some reason, I felt reinvigorated that workday, and the weekend vibe was gone. … I made wearing shoes while I worked from home a habit.”
— Christian Banach, outbound sales coach/ vice president/business development director, Genuine Interactive
“As soon as I wake up, I start the coffee maker then I roll out my yoga mat and do 30 pushups, 100 sit-ups and three rounds of one-minute planks followed by a quick stretch. … Then I grab my coffee, crack open my laptop and begin the entrepreneurial grind already 200 calories lighter.”
— Lori Cheek, founder/CEO, Cheek’d
“I use running to manage depression and anxiety. While I do much of my best thinking while running, some days mild agoraphobia keeps me indoors. I’m also terrified of treadmills. So, I run around our house. … I go up the hallway into our bedroom and through the bath, then back down the hallway into the living room and through the kitchen.”
— Nita Sweeney, author of “Depression
Hates a Moving Target”
“One of the hardest parts of WFH can be creating and maintaining healthy boundaries from work and the rest of my life. So I try to make rules to support those boundaries. … One such strategy is what I call my ‘faux-commute.’ When I’m ready to work, I leave my house and go for a 10-minute walk around the block. This commute helps make a clear transition from my personal time … to work time — when I have to be on the clock.”
— Elyssa Kirkham, freelance finance
writer/founder of BraveSaver.com
“My unique work-from-home habit is always heating up and having a glass of hot water in front of me while I work. I like to hold it and sip on it, and it is one of my favorite things about working from home.”
— Stacy Caprio, founder, Growth Marketing
“I allow myself to whip up a morning brew only after I have consumed at least one liter of water. I adore coffee and tea, so I use my love of cozy, hot beverages to motivate myself by treating them as rewards rather than as requirements.”
— Kimberly Back, senior job data content producer, Virtual Vocations