Things I Learned What Not to Do Working from Home
They say it takes 2 months for a habit to form.
Our team officially came into full WFH mode end of March, and I would have to say, my habits took a bit a bit longer than that. Earlier on (it feels weird saying that — it was just a couple of months ago, really!), I would try different things to get myself into a groove, some stuck, some didn’t.
There were days I felt very blurry, or overnight sleep felt like just a short break in between meetings — especially during total lockdown where there were I find myself not leaving the apartment at all for 3 or 4 straight days! It was becoming into a very bad habit that it was then I realised I’m beginning to get bogged down even more that I needed to stop, reset, go out and see anything apart from the computer screen, mobile phone, TV, or my bedside table.
Of course, I am grateful for all the people sharing their tips and tricks online about this new normal and how one can navigate into this disconnected yet connected times. Things I learned through chats and blogs online are what I was able to use to build this habit, so I decided to share what I learned not to do these past couple of months working from home. I’m sure all of what I’ve learned ain’t surprises — but I figured it might be helpful articulating again. :)
Don’t “go” to work with pajamas on.
I’ll start with something simple, almost mundane really, personal realisation. I know for some folks, one of the perks of working from home was the comfort, ease and not stressing about what to wear. I certainly found the novelty of it quite appealing — and for a couple of weeks, I subscribed to it.
Don’t get me wrong — by pajamas — I mean I still wear normal, outdoor shirts and tops, but I was wearing more and more jammie pants (I still need to do meetings! lol).
Eventually, though, when the novelty wore off, I craved for a bit of normalcy. I decided to start not wearing those uber comfy pants and came back to my office wear.
Somehow, it made me even more focused. That ritual of changing at the end of the work day into jammies in the other room gave me another thing to look forward to end of day, to mentally shut down from work, and have a nice evening after to unwind. I know this doesn't work for everyone, but to me — it helped a lot.
Don’t schedule meetings back-to-back.
Another realisation I had after a couple of weeks of working from home is — I miss those walks from meeting rooms to meeting rooms in-between meetings!
It’s inevitable that we get back-to-back meetings occassionally. The reason why I miss those walks is because it gave me the opportunity to mentally summarise the meeting I just had, and start context-switching and preparing for the next one. Whether it is 5 mins, or 10 minutes (including the wait for the lifts to get to another meeting room on a different floor), that time was very valuable!
With Zoom meetings though, it’s a little more instantaneous. You drop out of one on the dot and then dial in immediately to the next one. The first couple of minutes you’re still thinking about what happened to the previous one!
So now, as much as possible, I put spaces in between meetings, or, if I organise any meeting, I make it a point to set the meeting invite to finish 5 minutes earlier if their calendars are full. It gives myself and I hope the rest of the meeting attendees some time to prep for their next agenda and to debrief.
Don’t accept a Meeting Invite if you don’t know what it is for / what value you will bring.
This is obviously not working-from-home specific, but as a continuation of the previous learning and amplified by working from home, taking control of my calendar and making sure I don’t get bogged down with meetings left, right, and centre. It also does help me mentally prep for a meeting during the day, if needed.
Don’t order-in lunch 5 days a week.
Having lunch ordered online gave me the opportunity to schedule the ordering a couple of minutes before noon-ish and then wait for the order to arrive while doing some work. While it is good and convenient, I found myself not pausing and having a proper break at all. By the time the order arrives, and I am in a middle of something, I get the food and then end up eating while finishing whatever I was trying to do (more on that later below).
Thankfully to Steptember, though (a great cause!) — I’ve stopped ordering online for lunch and actually walking to the nearby restaurants / supermarket to get my lunch and do a bit of walking in the sun. To some folks, they follow a time schedule. For me, though — it’s not as strict (sometimes I end up stopping at 1PM, which is absolutely fine with me), but it does give me the opportunity to close off what I needed to finish before a break and then give myself a proper break, mentally.
Don’t forget to put non-work things in your to-do list.
I keep track of my tasks using this nifty little tool called Todoist. Before I officially start my day, I go through my calendar, and make sure even meetings have an item in my day’s list. I like it because the tasks can be grouped and organised.
When I started using the tool, I made it a point to put non-work related items in there, even if it’s as small as “go to the supermarket”. However, as we started working from home, I find myself less and less putting other stuff in there and just putting list of to-do’s for work. It became weeks of just “blue” (my colour for work-related tasks).
I learned that when I started putting non-work stuff in there as well, I found myself actually seeing the need to aim to “switch off” work at the end of the day so I can do other things.
Don’t eat lunch in your “work area”.
By now, you will notice that most of the learnings I had are along the lines of work-life balance / having a work-from-home boundaries. This is also a conscious decision I had to do to give me a proper break for the day.
Back in the working-from-office era, I occasionally eat lunch on my desk while I do work — but I do step away just for a little bit to get my lunch, whether outside in a takeaway, or to the common kitchen area to heat up my packed lunch. That walk to the kitchen is shorter now working from home, and not stepping away while I eat lunch means not having a proper break.
On a nice, side note, though, I noticed that after stopping from eating in my work area — I stopped having small snacks during the day a lot, too!
Don’t be afraid to talk about it with your peers.
Finally, I learned to acknowledge that it is okay to talk about with my mates about the challenges of working from home.
Initially, I tend not to, especially knowing that some were having it worse than I do (those stood down due to the pandemic, had to reduce working hours, or trying to balance working from home while supporting kids, etc) but knowing that we’re all in this together has really helped a lot, and it is a way of building trust, camaradie, and empathy in this disconnected but connected world.
That’s it from me! What’s your learnings of what not to do as we embrace more and more working from home?