How to f lourish while working from home

The benefits of working from home are obvious – from the gloriously brief two-minute commute from bed to desk to being able to whip up a loaf of banana bread or put on a wash between Zoom calls. But, for many people, working from home has entered a new phase. At the outset, it may have been enforced for the short term due to coronavirus whereas now, a growing number of us are doing it ‘for real’. Extracting the maximum benefit from the situation isn’t going to happen by magic.

For a start, certain people thrive working alone while others flounder. ‘It’s important to know who we are, and to take time to consider this,’ says psychotherapist Kathryn Kinmond. ‘Some people are naturally happier working in a busy environment, and I don’t think it’s quite as simple as saying introverts like working alone while extroverts don’t. Only you know which environment serves you best. Give yourself the space to adapt and, over time, notice what’s working and what isn’t.’

Kinmond suggests that if someone previously had a frantically busy life – dashing out to work at 6am, on the go all day, followed by a social whirl in the evening, they are more likely to struggle with working from home. And, for many, the new normal may involve working alongside a partner or adult children.

‘There’s an intensity about working from home, especially if you’re new to it,’ says Harriet Griffey, author of From Burnout To Balance (Hardie Grant, £12.99). ‘You feel you’ve got to be busy and productive all the time and it’s easy to feel guilty about “bunking off”. A lot of people have reported that their productivity has gone up during lockdown and that might be because they’re not wasting time with endless meetings and office chit-chat.’

It’s also important, says Griffey, that we’re not too hard on ourselves while adapting to the situation.

‘If you find it hard to concentrate or notice yourself procrastinating, know that this is a normal response to stress. Set yourself small tasks that reinforce your ability to stay on track. Break down big pieces of work to get them done.’

One of the perils of working from home is forgetting to put boundaries in place between our personal and professional lives, particularly if we don’t have a spare room that can serve as an office. ‘It’s essential that you create your own structure,’ says Shann Nix Jones, founder of Chuckling Goat kefir products and author of How To Start A Business On Your Kitchen Table

(Hay House, £14.99). ‘If you don’t do that, it’s way too tempting for everything to get sloppy. I call it “the bunny slippers syndrome”. If you don’t set your

A number of us are working from home ‘for real’, and extracting the maximum benefit isn’t going to happen by magic