Tips for Working at Home: Routine, routine, routine.

As a part time freelancer/artist, I have some experience of lone working at home. Like many I will be spending even more time at home as my teaching roles go digital.

Here are some tips from me to you (the new homeworker), that I have used before and will be using in the next few weeks.

Disclaimer, a lot of this is common sense. However, sometimes it is nice to be reminded of these things.

Bad habits are easy to get into. So, start off right.

I have attached some really useful (other people's words, not mine) resource examples to help with this.

Start your planning now, start with the routine things. Use colour coding to help you see at a glance what it is you are supposed to be doing and when. By writing these things down you are making yourself more accountable to them and by making them more visual you are making them easier to remember.

Green: Life Admin

• Set yourself a time to get up and stick to it. Parallel to this, set yourself a bedtime and stick to it.
• It is easy to get into a cycle of going to bed later, getting up later and quickly becoming nocturnal.
• Get into the habit of getting up and getting washed/dressed. Try not to turn into a sloth.
• Set your mealtimes and any prep time. Ensuring that you have three real meals a day and not replacing them with snacking.

Blue: Work

• If you are working from home write on the hours you are expected to work, it is easy to end up over working.
• Make sure you schedule in your lunch break and sent a clear end time.
• If you are working at a computer usual rules apply, have regular breaks and look into the distance every now and then.

Yellow: Social Time 

• OK we might not be leaving the house, but you will want to find a way to communicate with others. 
• Schedule in phone calls, video calls or whatever works for you. 
• Make time for this thing that usually happens naturally in a work environment. Talk to colleagues throughout the day.
• Check in with others.

Purple: Health: mental, physical

• Make sure you make time for it. I
• In your lunch break stepping away from the laptop.
• Look at downloading some free fitness apps for hiit workouts, yoga or meditation. 
• Make sure you make time for you.

White: Spare Time

• If you find yourself without work or education filling the majority of the day take advantage of the time to learn something new. Schedule this is and dedicate yourself to it.
• There are loads of free learning websites to develop skills or download a book app and make a start on the classics.
• Once you have filled your calendar with these activities, see what time you have left and consider what it is you might fill that time with.
• We all need down time but avoid wasteful activities which are not going to benefit you in the long run, like watching the news on repeat or looking people up on social media.

Time management is the linchpin that everything else balances on. Get that right and you are halfway there. What you fit into your time will be individual, but if you start with what you know and work from there it is easy to manage.

I have facilitated time management workshops to a whole host of people in several different contexts. The one thing that I found if that the principles are the same if you are trying to get your life back on track, or if you’re an academic.

Now, back to wasting time. The below activity, Yesterday, is a great way to reflect on how you are spending your time and what you are achieving. But it also allows you to identify areas of improvement.

Give it ago…

You can repeat this activity daily. It also helps to add another layer to the activity if you get someone else to do the same and them share your answers. This can be particularly useful when trying to think of ways to overcome the ‘wasteful’ activity.

This brings me to my last point, setting aims. You can use your ‘wasteful’ activity as inspiration here. Or you can pick something more ambitious.

Whatever you do aim to achieve something and make it SMART.

If you have not come across SMART aims before let me introduce them to you. They are a sure-fire way to keep you on track, accountable and motivated.

To be SMART (and who doesn’t want to be smart?!) your aim needs to be;

For example, the below is not SMART

“Join the gym and go everyday”

This is SMART

Specific: Join ‘TheGym’ in Colchester

Measurable: Membership will be attained

Achievable: I have researched a number of gyms and this is the best fir for me, it is local, and I can afford the membership fee

Relevant: I want to improve my physical health

Time-based: Join the first weekend in May

As you can see, the ‘go everyday’ has not made it into this SMART aim. This is because it requires its own SMART aim.

I hope that this blog post can help you in some small way.