Working from home isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and millions of Americans are about to find that out first-hand. Here are tips on how to make it work.
By Leslie K. Hughes
Sex. Snacks. Sleep. In the minds of many, these three “S”s are synonymous with three other letters: WFH.
But millions of Americans are about to find out that working from home is not your triple S dream come true.
How do I know? Because I’ve been working from home for three years. Sure, some days are fab and you feel like you’ve found the loophole in the game of life. But many days you feel like you fell into a wormhole where you’ve lost track of what’s up and what’s down. And finding solid ground to stand on is entirely up to you.
This is not to say that I take my freedom of working remotely for granted. I loathed working in an office so much that I let nothing stand in my way of creating a career where I could work for myself from home. However, three years into the remote working life, and the rose-colored glasses have been replaced with blue light glasses, leaving me with a more realistic look at making your living from the comfort of your couch.
. . . three years into the remote working life, and the rose-colored glasses have been replaced with blue light glasses.
What right now may sound like a dream can become a clusterf*** of your worst nightmare if not done correctly. Unless you have meetings at a specific time, you are free to set your own schedule. But that also means you have to set your own schedule. Unless you have a video conference, you can remain unshowered, in your pajamas. But that also means you are unshowered, in your pajamas. And that is merely the beginning.
In order to come out of this working-from-home experience alive and resembling at least a shell of your former self, here are some tips I’ve learned the hard way over the last few years, and the things I now do to stay (mostly) sane while working at home.
Here’s how to master working from home
1. Workout before working
If you’re anything like me, working out isn’t happening unless you make it happen first thing. By working out right after waking up, you keep yourself from falling into the Groundhog Day trap of realizing it’s 4 p.m. and you have been sitting in the same spot all day. Occasionally, that kind of work day will feel great. But when it becomes your norm, it loses its luster and just becomes sad.
Instead, get up, get out, and get your sweat on. Exercise is proven to boost your mood, and there is no better way to start the day (okay, a morning sex sesh is better, but working out is a close second).
2. Take a shower
Being told to take a shower may feel reminiscent of a scolding from your mom. But after clocking some serious time at home, you’ll see how easy it is to roll out of bed (after oversleeping, naturally), get right into work, and avoid a shower completely. And that’s gross.
Even if it’s just a quick rinse, freshening up in an absolute must. Then, put some clothes on. Don’t reach for your robe or a fresh pair of pajamas. I’m not asking you to go so far as to put on “real” clothes that you would wear to the office, but they should at least be a pair of workout pants and a sweatshirt; something that differentiates what you wear inside and what you wear outside.
3. Avoid bored snacking
It will only take a couple days of working from home to realize how quickly your snack selection disappears. Yes, one of the other challenges of working from home is finding a way to not put a constant stream of food in your mouth all day. Snacking is something I would never shame someone for, but keep it to healthy snacks, and to limited ones as well. And eat a legit lunch. At a legit lunch time. None of that “Oops it’s 4 p.m. and I’ll I’ve had today is 5 cups of coffee and a bag of chips.” Try to keep some sort of semblance of a normal eating schedule and give yourself the time away from your couch/computer combo and eat it at a table.
(If you need tips on how to eat healthy, check this out.)
4. Keep podcasts on while working
If you’re like me, most days you’re working from home alone. Which can get eerily quiet and lonely. The best way to combat this is to play podcasts while you’re working. You don’t actually have to listen to all of them. Choose some that you truly want to listen and learn from, but also find others that serve as background noise to simulate co-workers. As lame as this sounds, give it a week or so, and you’ll be thanking me for giving you a way to escape the sound of silence.
5. Hide your phone in the other room
With no one to keep you from picking up your phone every two seconds to refresh your Insta/Twitter/Facebook feeds, things can get out of hand very quickly. So take the phone out of your hands and into a separate room where it will sit in silence until it’s time for a break. WFH means setting boundaries, and most of them will be between you and your phone.
6. Fight the urge to clean all the time
If you have zero concerns about this ever becoming an issue, check back in a couple weeks after you’ve found yourself with a Swiffer in-hand while your computer stares at you from the other side of the room. Spending this much additional time at home will make you realize how much of your home needs a little bit of help. But save that for after-hours, or before work. Starting your workday with a clean slate is known to keep your head clear of clutter, and ready to focus on work. So, try spending 20 minutes in the morning straightening up the things in sight, and worry about the other stuff later.
7. Create a workspace
Your bed is not a desk, and neither is your couch. Take the first few days of your new WFH life to enjoy lounging in bed while you work, but don’t let it go past that. In order to stay productive and not get depressed that you work, eat, and sleep on the same mattress, you need to create a space to work from. Kitchen tables make for great desks, and with little things such as the right lighting and some candles, you might just find yourself making magic, or at least getting sh** done.
There isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution for successfully WFH, but by implementing some of the above tips, and sprinkling some of the things you learn on your own journey, you will survive.
