These are certainly interesting times and for many of us working from home is new and for some, perhaps challenging so here are some tips to help ease the transition and help you focus in your new working environment.

• If you can, stake out a space away from the rest of the household, ideally a separate room with a door you can close if needed.
• Make sure the household knows, you are working between 8 am and 5 pm, or whatever your hours are. Tell them to pretend you’re not home otherwise you may get more distractions than you think. My family texts me as if I am working at the office.
• I also put up a sign on the door, to let the rest of the family know when I was in a meeting, especially if it’s a video conference.
• Make sure the space has some natural light. It’s amazing how natural light can help your mood.
• Maintain the same or similar routine as you had when you went into work. Although the idea of working in your jammies may be appealing, there is some psychology behind performing the same routine as you did previously, it will help you get into the swing of things.
  • Set a consistent start time
  • Take a shower
  • Prepare your coffee
  • Prepare your breakfast
  • Or whatever else was part of your former routine
• Remember to take your breaks (coffee break, lunch, etc) as you would have if you were in the office.
• Remember to get up and move around regularly, in the office you likely got up to see a colleague or refill your water or coffee. Working from home, there is no colleague to go see. I used to set an alarm to go off every hour to remind me to get up and walk around, or I used time on the phone to walk and stretch out.
• Give yourself a time out, take 5 minutes and go outside and get some fresh air. You’d be surprised how much that helps to re-focus.
• Working from home can get lonely, instead of emailing someone, pick up the phone and ask the question, this will help ease the loneliness.
• Stop working at the end of the day, it’s very easy to keep working well past your usual end of day. The occasional urgent work is fine, but you need to keep consistent hours.
• If you’re easily distracted don’t turn on the TV, it is too easy to get caught up in a good show!
• At the end of the day, shut off your computer, again, do all the normal routine tasks you used to do at the end of your work day.
• Many of us used to use the commute time home to clear your head and decompress. Keep that same routine. Leave your office, take 15 minutes to clear your head of the days work. You and your family will be happier for it.
• If you think you may be working from home for an extended period of time, consider investing in a few tools:
  • Good quality headset if you spend a lot of time on the phone
  • A second monitor to connect to your computer
  • Sit/stand desk, you will find that working from home you may spend more time sitting, a sit/stand desk allows you to work sitting or standing. I invested in one and probably spend 50% of my day standing. I found it very helpful, I was less tired than whenI spent the entire day sitting at my desk.

At NSA, we’re here to support you during this difficult time. If your business needs assistance, we can help. Whether it’s implementing work from home solutions or addressing business continuity and security, count on our team. Please don’t hesitate to reach out and contact us.