By Cassie Yontz, AAEA Member, Account Supervisor, Charleston|Orwig
For this Illinois ag communicator, it’s been a year since the initial stay at home order was issued by Governor Pritzker. That’s a year of working from home during a pandemic. Working from home 5-feet away from my husband, while juggling client meetings and parenting a now-15-month-old – during a pandemic. That’s enough to drive even the calmest of individuals a little batty.
But I guess I was one of the lucky ones. When the world shut down, I had been a remote employee for over 5-years and had collected some handy-dandy ‘work from home tips’ that I gladly shared with my husband and coworkers to help ease their transition into the world of leggings and long hours – also known as remote working.
- Your calendar is your best friend. Set reminders for important deadlines and upcoming projects to ensure you can stay on top of things.
Outside of scheduling meetings and touch base calls with your teammates, it’s also important to schedule out blocks of time for executing project work, and then be sure to use it for that project. This helps keep your day from getting away from you when you really need a dedicated chunk of time to focus on getting things done.
- Create a dedicated workspace that is tidy and organized.
I know it’s not always possible to have a personal office in the home. But wherever you are working from, make sure you feel like you can sit and focus without being distracted by the millions of things to do around the house (i.e., piles of laundry to be folded, that stack of dirty dishes in the sink, the messy playroom – we’ve all got ‘um). Find a room with a comfy chair and if possible, a door that can be closed. Close the door when you need to focus on work or take a call. And close the door when you are done for the day and need to focus on personal or family time.
- In my experience, you will NOT work nonstop when you work from home, and that is OK! The goal is to get your work accomplished, and I’d wager that you’ll find efficiencies at home you might not have elsewhere.
It’s important to take breaks, especially after a long conference call or you’ve been working endlessly on a project. Get up, walk around, go outside for some fresh air or fold that load of laundry we were talking about earlier. If you’ve got some little projects to do around the house (dishes, dinner prep, tidying up the playroom) odds are you can get to them quickly and that’s less mental baggage to worry about.
I do recommend letting your team know when you’re stepping away and/or keeping your phone with you in case someone calls, or urgent messages start coming in hot. It’s important to break up your day when needed, for the good of your health. But be respectful of your team and clients and be available during regular work hours.
- Set regular touch base meetings with team members to stay connected and don’t be afraid of video chat! We’re all hermits right now, odds are there’s a lot of messy buns and makeup free faces and that’s ok, we like you exactly the way you are.
You will be communicating with team members all the time regarding day-to-day project execution but set a short weekly meeting with your supervisor and/or direct reports and use that 15-30 minutes to check in on each other, discuss big picture items, your mental health, workload and how can you help one another. These types of regular connections are essential to creating a welcoming, transparent, family culture in the workplace.
- If you’re writing an email and it begins to drift into scrolling territory, make a call and discuss it over the phone instead (with the exception of meeting recaps/notes, of course).
After the call you can close the loop by sending out the resolution(s) and next steps determined from the discussion into an email to your team to make sure everyone knows where things are headed.
- When in doubt, over communicate. With your boss. With your direct reports. With your spouse. With your kids. This one is simple and to the point. Seems a bit ironic.
- Try making your bed every morning. I know it sounds silly. But I swear you’ll start your day feeling like you’ve accomplished something. And that’s a great way to get the ball rolling when pandemic life starts feeling like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day.
- Set your alarm to wake you 10-min. earlier than when you want to get up. You don’t have to get out of bed, but use that time to reflect on what you’re thankful for and it will start your day off on the right foot.
- Look at your calendar for the next day the night before. If you’re working from home with your spouse and kids, discuss when you’ll be in meetings or unable to watch the kids and identify who will be covering so it’s not a huge scramble or surprise to them. Consider sending a calendar invite (remember that ‘best friend’ we talked about earlier?) so they remember you’re busy at that time.
- Make a to-do list of your goals for projects to accomplish that day, that week, and even further out if needed. I use the Sticky Notes widget on my computer to keep track of what is hot, roles and responsibilities, what my clients are reviewing, etc. and I always keep them in plain sight on my desktop to help organize my time.
BONUS TIP
- This is probably the most important tip for working from home. At the end of the day, do your best to sign off and walk away.
Close that door to your workspace and make time for you. Give your family the best of you for a few hours before they go to bed. If you must pick work up again, we’ve all been there, do so once they’re off to bed (but try to not make a habit of it). You’ve got to do what you can to keep your time at home sacred. I’m sure after a year of working from home, you have all started to realize that working around the clock is not a very sustainable practice and burnout can set in quickly. You’ve also probably noticed time begins to blur together and your home life can suffer if you don’t set clear boundaries for yourself and your work life.
Remember to be flexible. Your work environment will evolve over time. You will learn things about yourself and how you work that you probably never realized before. For example, some experts suggest that you get dressed up for work as if you were going into the office because it helps you get in the right mindset. In the beginning, I tried “dressing up” for work, sporting jeans and sweaters each day. But over time I found that I worked just as well (maybe even better) in yoga pants and a sweatshirt and saved my “nice” clothes for client meetings and trips to the grocery store – because that’s literally the only place I go now.
But it pays to check out what works for others and implement the ideas you believe work best for you. Stay vigilant my friends. You won’t always be working from home – or if you’re like me, maybe you will. Either way, invest in a good pair of stretchy pants, close that door and get back to work.