by I’ve been a freelancer for over twenty years — seventeen of those years being a full-time freelancer. Working from home was an easy decision for me to make, but not necessarily an easy task to pull off.
It takes discipline and practice to maintain consistent productivity while working from home, but it’s not all that difficult once you get the hang of it.
With so many people finding themselves suddenly working from home as the world deals with the COVID-19 pandemic, here is some advice on how to make your time away from your office work for you.
The Great Motivator
Your first hurdle is going to be getting off the couch and getting to work. That’s entirely understandable. If you’re new to working from home, you’re going to find the transition a little difficult and you may have a tough time getting started.
For that reason, you need to remind yourself of The Great Motivator:
If you don’t get to work, you won’t get paid.
It’s as simple as that. If you need a reminder, leave a stack of bills out where you can see them and remind yourself that if you don’t do the work, you won’t get paid. Sure… you may get away with being lazy for a short time, but you’ll fall behind. The more you fall behind, the more work will pile up. The more work that piles up, the more will remain unfinished.
Eventually, someone will notice and you may not have a job at all before too long.
Get paid. Get to work.
Have a talk with the people you live with
If you live with other people such as roommates, family members, or even spouses, you are likely to learn that not all of them understand that you’re not on vacation. You’re working from home.
The operative word is working.
Just because they may have the day off doesn’t mean that you do. Sit down with them and explain to them that while you’re working from home, you’re working. This isn’t the time for chores, video games, or chitchat. Ask them to please respect you trying to get work done while at home.
That said, you may have to be prepared to make some accommodations as well. If you’re working from home due to the 2020 COVID-19 situation, you may have to deal with children home from school. With many libraries and other community services closed, a lot of these kids are stuck at home much of the time with little to do.
Try to have a plan in place. Many schools put remote learning procedures in place. Make sure they are taking care of that (ideally in another room). If children in your home are at more loose ends, see if another family member can help keep them occupied.
You can also talk with the children themselves. Let them know that this is a special situation and everyone has to do their part to make it work. Kids are pretty good at entertaining themselves. Leave them to it, but ask them to keep the noise level down.
Carve out a dedicated workspace
It’s going to be tempting to set up shop on the living room couch. Why not? It’s comfortable and you can spread out as needed.
Maybe too comfortable. And maybe a little too close to the TV.
And maybe a little too full of traffic and noise from other people.
You’re better off staking out a spot in your home as your private work niche. It doesn’t have to be a permanent spot, but should at least be a place where, while you’re sitting there, indicates that you are there for work alone. One end of the kitchen table will usually suffice. A card table and chair set up in the garage or basement could also do the trick. Pick a place that doesn’t get a lot of foot traffic in the middle of the day.
Your temporary workspace doesn’t need to be huge. It just needs enough room for you to be able to sit comfortably at a stable working surface for your paper, electronic devices, and coffee cup. There should be adequate lighting as well, and a minimum of background noise.
The point is not to try and work in the middle of a busy, noisy household or someplace that feels too casual.
Work without distractions
There is a strong temptation to combine work with binge TV viewing. That’s understandable. Most of us think we can multitask with greater ease and effectiveness than we actually can.
I’m here to tell you that you’ll be more productive by switching off the TV. If you need something on in the background, go for some low-volume music or perhaps some podcasts — ones you don’t need to pay too much attention to in order to enjoy. Freelancers who usually work at the local coffee shop can try this great hack for mimicking that environment.
There will also be a strong temptation to browse the web from time to time.
Resist.
If you’re working on a computer, turning off the Internet may not be a viable option. That said, try to leave open only those pages or windows on your computer that are directly related to your work. No Facebook pages. No games. No webcomics. If you decide to take a break, set a timer for your non-work computer usage and stick to it.
Scheduling your day
For most of you who are new to working at home, you’re coming from a work environment that revolves around a set schedule. Some of your work may involve coordinating with other local businesses, vendors, or customers who expect you to be able to quickly respond within normal business hours.
If your regular job requires you to be on call from nine in the morning to five in the afternoon (with some time off for lunch), then your work-from-home situation should match.
Don’t be caught short. If your boss calls you with a question, they’re going to expect you to be available during agreed-upon working hours. Pick up a day planner — most are 50–75% off these days — and fill it out with your list of tasks for the day and when you expect to have them accomplished. Check off items as they’re completed. You could also download and print blank day planner pages from the web.
Communicating with coworkers
Communication is important. There exist any number of tools you can use to make sure you’re in step with what your coworkers are doing from their own temporary home offices including group messaging, Slack, Discord, and Google Hangouts. Most can be set to Do Not Disturb if you’re in the middle of an intense task.
Take advantage of the collaborative options available on the cloud as well. Services such as Dropbox, Google Drive and Apple’s iCloud allow you to easily share documents of all sizes with other employees. Most of these services are free to use with limited (but generous) space for file storage. Upgrading to a more professional level account is fairly inexpensive.
Look into tools such as Google Docs and Dropbox Paper for ways to share and update documents being used for group projects.
Basic computer security at home
Most people don’t think about securing their computers or smart mobile devices while at home beyond password-protecting their Wi-Fi and letting their computers handle built-in firewall and virus detection procedures.
For most situations, that’s fine. If you’re working with particularly sensitive data such as health or financial records, you’re going to have to step up your game. Most workplaces are going to provide you with company-issued laptops or devices if there is private information being worked on. These devices will usually have the privacy-related software it needs to keep compliant with local privacy laws.
Use them. Don’t be tempted to use your home devices for private work. Doing so could not only inadvertently expose sensitive data, but could also expose you to fines and/or loss of employment.
If your business does not provide you with work computers to take home, and do not make use of overly-sensitive information, you’re still obligated to protect your company’s work-related files and emails. Get in the habit of:
- Password protect your computers and mobile devices
- Don’t allow anyone else to use your devices while you are working
- Be suspicious of email attachments from unfamiliar sources
- Do not provide any private information in an email reply. Call or visit the source’s secured website instead
- Be careful downloading any files from websites you do not have 100% confidence in
- Run virus and malware scans at the start and end of each workday
- Back up your work files to the cloud or the company server daily
Wear shoes, dammit!
Like many folks this past weekend, I was standing in line at the local grocery store purchasing supplies. While in line, I heard someone say the following:
“I’m so stoked about working from home this week. I can wear slippers and PJs all day!”
Uf.
This is a misconception about working from home we freelancers hear all of the time. The truth is that while working in slippers and PJs sounds comfortable, it’s going to kill your productivity.
Don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against comfort, but most freelancers — usually early in their career — start off being too casual in work attire only to find that we just don’t feel as productive or professional wearing a bathrobe and slippers.
I recommend dressing much the same way you might dress for a regular day at work. I’m not saying you have to don a suit and tie or anything like that, but clean pants, a clean shirt — maybe something button-down with a pocket, and a good pair of shoes will go a long way to reminding yourself that even though you’re working from home, you also have a job to do.
Staying healthy
Take a break. If you’ve been sitting at your temporary workspace, hunched over your keyboard for an hour or more, get up and walk around for a little bit. Stretch. Do some knee bends and stretches. Work out the kinks.
Chances are, you haven’t had a chance to make your home workspace ergonomic. Take a little bit of time sprinkled throughout the day to get some exercise and work out the kinks.
While we’re on the subject, be careful of what you eat as well. With the fridge in such close proximity, it’s going to be tempting to snack all day. Pick healthy snacks such as crunchy vegetables instead of potato chips. After your first cup of coffee or two, switch to water.
You’ll last longer, you’ll feel better, and you’ll be more productive.
Everything within reason
We’ve talked a lot about how you can productively work from home by avoiding distractions, setting up boundaries with housemates and children, keeping to a schedule, and so forth.
With all of that said, it’s also important to approach all of this with a sense of proportion.
How much work do you actually do at your regular workspace? A lot, I’m sure, but you also take time throughout the day to socialize with coworkers and take microbreaks. You can do the same at home. In fact, you should.
Kiss your partner. Hug your kids. Tell Chad how impressed you are with this Call of Duty score. Stand up and stretch. Walk the dog. If you want to wear slippers instead of shoes, give it a go.
Do whatever you need to do to stay sane and not burn out.
For many of you, working from home is going to be a temporary thing. For others, it may end up becoming a recurring option you can take advantage of in the future. A lot of it depends on you and how well you do with the whole work-from-home thing.
There are many advantages to working from home and the tide may be turning in how companies view working from home. Be productive. Be sensible. Be good to yourself.
