Working from home has been a real blessing to many people during the course of the pandemic. Instead of needing to commute for hours a day, people can instead just sit at home, in the comfort of their own environment, and get their work done peacefully.
However, despite how pleasant working from home is, it can be insanely difficult to actually stick to a working routine.
The concept of a routine is usually reserved for workout and diet plans, but when it comes to regulating your time for working hours, it is absolutely necessary to remain effective at home while at work.
Here’s how you can easily create a great work routine while at home.
#1: Know Your Goals
Perhaps one of the most difficult aspects of working in any environment is knowing what is expected of you. While you can pretty easily learn the ropes after a few weeks, moving to working from home changes everything.
With no one to watch over your every move, and everyone at work doing the same thing as you, I can feel a bit confusing and daunting when trying to predict how your bosses feel about you.
The best way to get started with working from home routine is to know exactly what is expected from you when it comes to your work output.
Ask for clear guidelines about the volume of work you are expected to produce while working from home. This can be everything from amount of code pull requests to emails sent, but the key is to know precisely what is expected of you.
You can't really plan your days without first knowing what you need to do and how long it will take you.
#2: Plan your Breaks
The other key thing you need to consider when planning a routine for working from home is when you will take your breaks.
While at regular work, every break you take is timed and managed so that there is never really guesswork around when you take your breaks.
While at home, though, there is nothing stopping you from taking a break whenever you want.
While this is pretty great, care should still be taken that you don’t overuse this privilege, lest you start getting questions asked of you.
The best thing to do is to plan your breaks yourself. Consider using the Pomodoro method of taking 5-minute breaks every 25 minutes, with a 20-minute break every 3 times. Or, take the more standard 15-minute breaks at consistent hours every day.
Even if no one is checking up on you, if you start taking breaks and stepping away whenever you feel like it, you will probably find yourself struggling to keep up with your workload.
Try writing out precisely when you will be taking breaks, either on a word document on your computer or even with a pencil on some notepaper or a whiteboard. Seeing the concrete time right there in front of you is a great motivator and helps to encourage you to work harder and get your job done more efficiently, leading to better quality, more enjoyable breaks.
#3: Take Consistent Lunchtimes
Similar to the importance of taking regular, consistent breaks, you need to make sure that you are taking consistent lunchtimes as well.
While it used to be the case that 2-hour lunchtimes were tolerated when working in office environments, these days, you are lucky to get an unpaid hour. Now that you are working from home, it is definitely tempting to take a really long lunch break or even just skip lunch altogether and keep working.
However, even if it means you can get off work early, don’t be tempted to do this – taking a lunch break is important!
Not only is it a vital source of calories and energy to keep you going through your workday, but it is also critical to your motivation and focus. Without a longer break to divide up your day, you will struggle to keep going throughout the afternoon and find yourself quickly burning out.
A lunch break isn't just food; it is time to decompress and take your mind off of your work. Don't rob yourself of some valuable personal time – it's good for you and makes you better at what you do as well.
#4: Clock Off At The Same Time
You can’t be expected to work a consistent routine if you don’t have something to look forward to at the end of the day.
When working normally at the office or wherever that reward is the promise of going home on time. But, with working from home, that line blurs very quickly, so much so that you might find yourself not signing off at the same time every time.
To fight against this, make sure you are finishing work on time at the same time every single day. Turn off your computer, switch off your phone, and just relax.
If you let your work bleed too much into your home life, you will find it impossible to have any routine at all.
