More and more of us are now working from home, and that shift was already taking place before Covid-19 forced even more people to vacate the office and start working from home. If you’re new to home working and you want to work out how to do it well and focus on the work at hand, you’re in the right place.
No matter what your job may be, whether you are attempting to run your own business, hosting virtual classes or looking to Teach English Online, keeping your focus while working from home is one of the biggest challenges you’ll face. There are so many different ways in which you can improve your approach to home working, but you might not be aware of those things if this is all new to you. Below, we’re going to talk about all the things you can do to allow yourself to focus and be productive when working at home, so read on to find out more.
Create a Truly Dedicated Workspace
First of all, you’re going to need to make sure that you have a truly dedicated workspace. It needs to be a space that’s purely for working and nothing else. Creating that space will help you to detach your work life from your home life, and that separation is really important when you’re getting used to working from home for the first time. Sitting on the sofa with your laptop is rarely the right way to work from home, so try not to fall into that particular trap.
If you don’t have room in your house, it can be a good idea to look into self storage units to make space. You can move items that you don’t want to chuck but also don’t have space for here, then can access them easily when you need to.
Stay Off Social Media During Work Hours
You should put in place a social media amnesty before you start properly working from home. If you’re going to be sitting on your phone browsing Facebook and swiping your way down the Twitter timeless endlessly, you’re never going to be productive. And when you’re working at home, you don’t have anyone to tell you to put the phone down and don’t have any office social media bans. That’s why you should put your own in place, and make sure you stick to it closely.
Invest in the Right Furniture
Investing in the right furniture will make your experience of working from home a whole lot more comfortable and that’s a big deal. If you don’t feel comfortable as you sit and work, you’re going to get more easily distracted and be more likely to want to get up and do other things, and that’s the last thing you want. You need to have a spacious desk and a comfortable chair that offers good back support, at the very least. They’ll serve you well for a long time to come.
Make Sure You’re Prepared for a Day of Screen Time
If you’re going to be working from home alone, you’re probably going to be looking at a screen a lot of the time, and that’s something that’s worth preparing for. Getting your eyes tested and seeking out the right pair of glasses from www.eyeglasses.com will put you in a good position to ensure you don’t start to experience eye strain and other problems associated with working in front of a screen all day. Those problems can really distract you and stop you from being productive each day.
Dress for Work
Although it’s always very tempting to wear your pyjamas as you work from home, especially if you don’t need to be on a webcam call at any point during the day, it’s a temptation best avoided. Try to make it a habit to get up and dress yourself for work in a professional way, the same way you would if you were heading out to the office in the morning. It can put you in a more professional mindset and that can only be a good thing for you going forward.
Create a Schedule
Creating a schedule for your work can make your task a whole lot easier than it otherwise might be. Having a strong schedule will give you structure and that’s something that can sometimes be lacking when you’re working from home. Set yourself deadlines because no one else is going to be there to do that for you. It’s up to you to manage and structure your time as well as you possibly can. Taking the time to create a structured schedule will enable you to save time later on.
Automate Admin Tasks
There are certain tasks that you need to complete as part of your work that you might not need to spend as much time on as you think. Certain basic tasks can be automated with the right software. There’s a software solution out there for most basic tasks these days, so explore the options out there. You might find something that’s relevant to you that enables you to free up some time and automate admin. You’ll then be able to focus on other aspects of your work.
If Working with a Team, Interact with Them Carefully
If you are working as part of a wider team while working alone at home, getting your approach to teamwork and communication right will be essential. It’s something that you should think about very carefully and try to stay in close contact with your team even if you’re in completely different locations. There’s no excuse for getting this wrong these days. There are so many communication tools and software out there for you to make use of.
End the Working Day at a Sensible Time
Finally, you should make sure that your day ends at the right time. You can’t work from the moment you wake up until it’s time to go back to sleep because that provides a horrible work-life balance. Set a sensible end time for your working day and try to stick to it.
Working from home can be a real blessing, but it’s not as easy as a lot of people imagine it to be. There are lots of challenges and distractions to overcome, and establishing the positive home working routines and setup above will help you to get it right. So put these things in place, and reap the rewards.
If Running your Own Business, use the right tools
If you run your own remote business, the right tools will improve your focus and productivity. There are plenty of tech tools which can help you to remain productive. Try project management tools, and time tracking software. To optimize your marketing, you might use content creation or social media management software. You’ll also need a business account that offers plenty of useful features. If you’re not satisfied with the benefits of your account you might want to switch business bank account.
Us working mothers have a problem. At the time of writing, in the middle of a coronavirus global pandemic, we are constantly apologising. For the last 13 weeks we have tried to balance our careers and working from home with childcare; looking after little ones who would normally be with grandparents, nurseries, childminders or at school, and attempting to maintain some sense of home schooling and normality for our children. We’ve tried to maintain our ‘normal’, expecting to be able to work at the same level of productivity that we did pre lockdown, then chastised ourselves when we ‘fail’ by getting distracted, struggling to home school or shouting more than we would like.
But here’s the thing. The Covid19 lockdown and enforced working form home IS NOT NORMAL. This whole scenario isn’t normal and we need to stop apologising for our kids being kids in their home, because lets face it, none of it is normal for them either.
In the last 24 hours I have seen two videos go viral of working women. Both professional, experienced working women doing live interviews on BBC News and Sky. The reactions to both women when their child interrupted their conversation was a stark contrast to the hilarity that ensued when, god forbid, a working father Robert Kelly got interrupted by his wife and children during a live broadcast some years before. Gifs, viral videos, memes – you name it. But not this time.
Yesterday, Dr Clare Wenham was on BBC News talking about the impact of local lockdowns whilst her daughter tried to clamber in for a cuddle. Remaining completely calm, Clare, popped her down and maintained the conversation, then her daughter Scarlett proceeded to entertain herself quietly in the background, moving an object from one shelf to the other. The relief on Clare’s face when the news reporter asked what her daughter was called and made a joke was clear to see. He acknowledged the situation but didn’t make Clare feel embarrassed or unprofessional, he simply accepted that she was there, in her own home, as are many children during lockdown. It was handled really well, and was a relatable breath of fresh air for many of us in the same boat.
On the flip side, an interview on Sky News was rude and humiliating. During a discussion about Hong Kong law, foreign affairs editor Deborah Hayne’s had her little boy storms into the room. She looks absolutely mortified, apologising profusely and saying how embarrassed she is whilst the boy asks for not one, but two biscuits (bless him). The reaction from Mark Austin? A rude “yes ok well we will leave this there’; making her feel, no doubt, upset and frustrated that for just 5 minutes of live footage her child couldn’t leave her alone. I am hugely disappointed that Sky took this approach, and failed to use the opportunity as a chance to ‘normalise’ the situation.
BUT here’s my view. We shouldn’t have to apologise for having children at home, particularly when for the majority, there is no alternative. It only highlights and reinforces that for the UK economy to work effectively, childcare is absolutely crucial, and that grandparents are having a far more important role in this than many may have thought.
A recent Guardian survey found that 70% of working mothers reported being completely or mostly responsible for home schooling, and 67% found that even in a household with two parents, they were the default parent most or all of the time.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) and University College London (UCL) interviewed 3,500 families and found that mums were only able to do one hour of uninterrupted work, for every three hours done by dads.
However, mothers in these households are doing paid work during an average of five hours a day, in addition to doing the same amount of domestic work as their partner.
So in a normal working day, we’re going to get intrerrupted at least 5 times on average. We can only hope that it isn’t during a live call.
I have written before about how the media affected our chances to work from home, and that working from home with kids is for the main impossible, but this wasn’t our choice. This collision between home life and work life has been tough on everyone, kids included.
We are parents at the end of the day, and we shouldn’t be ashamed of it. There is only so much screen time, shushing and bribing with treats I am prepared to do to keep my children quiet in their own home and in this unprecedented time; their mental health (and my own) comes just as highly, if not more so, than my career.
So do my kids interrupt my work calls, yes. Did I have Erin’s upside down head appear on the screen during a one to one with my manager yesterday? Yes. Did Neve tell me she needed a wee in the middle of a team zoom call? YES she did. But I haven’t apologised. I have asked to be excused, popped my phone on mute and quickly dealt with their needs. It’s a juggle, it’s far from ideal, but the good employers, the ones who you’ll want to stick with for the long term are the ones who accept that this isn’t normal and adapt.
My only hope, from all of this is that it’s an opportunity to assess what our new normal will look like. The jobs that we have managed to juggle from home WITH kids were the jobs that had previously been classed as ‘impossible to do from home’. For many working women, we have proven that working from home IS possible, even in extreme circumstances, so imagine how productive we could be with childcare!? With less commuting, smaller offices and more agility required going forward, could this be an opportunity to close the gender equality gap and readjust the balance between working parents? Watch this space!
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if you’ve been following my stories over the last few moths you will know that we have been on quite the renovation at our family home. Not only are we in the middle of a big kitchen extension but we have just finished having an office built at the end of our (VERY long) garden which going forwards, will be a home office and snug room space.
One of the biggest advantages for me is that I will be able to create a working from home space that meets all of my needs – no more navigating my way through children’s toys to reach my desk; no blurring of my work and home space and no sitting at the dining room table where I should be eating my tea.
One of the things I was most excited about was designing a space that was entirely mine, somewhere that reflects my personality and is aesthetically pleasing, striking and unique.
If you are looking to create your own working from home space, here are some of my working from home / home office essentials!
Drinks Station
Whatever your drink of choice and particularly if you are planning a garden office like ours, it’s crucial to maintain easy access to liquids to get you though the working day. Whether its a fancy coffee machine such as the Nespresso Lattissima (which got rave reviews from Mike) one or the more traditional ‘water cooler’ style drinks – find a choice that works best for you.
In the same way that you need to have access to delicious food to give you enough energy to work, you need access to a drinks station to hydrate you while you work. You’ll be a much more professional and productive individual when you start your day with Growli and then have access to drinks and snacks in your home office all day. You get the chance to eat delicious food all day long when you’re at home; just ensure that you are equipped for it!
I am making a real effort to drink more water at the moment and step away from the Pepsi Max. It’s easy said than done, but having a large jug like the ZeroWater 5 Stage Advanced filtration is a great option. Not only does the ZeroWater reduce 99.6% of all total dissolved solids in your drinking water, but performed better than the Brita Maxa in tests, delivering the purest tasting water within minutes. Get yours here.
Suitable Heating
Working from home all the time can certainly have an impact on your heating bills,, so something like the Google Nest Learning Thermostat is a really sensible option, allowing you to have far more control over your room temperatures and working conditions.
Not only can the Next thermostat help ave money on heating and cooling costs (normally around 10% in heating costs) but it actually learns and adapts to your schedule. If you working on a hybrid basis and coming home earlier than planned, you can even manually adjust the temperature on your phone so that it’s nice and toasty on your return/
That’s not all – this super smart thermostat can even alert you on your phone if something is wrong, such as low temperatures that can cause frozen pipes or a furnace that is malfunctioning! Get yours from Very here.
Suitable lighting
I have a real issue with some office lighting – the fluorescent over head lighting often gives me a headache and I hate the lack of control over the brightness of my surroundings. It’s important to ensure you have regular eye tests (you can pick up new frames from Silver & Rose Opticians Formby) but you need to consider your room lighting too. Top of my list in the garden office was ensuring no glare from windows by purchasing bespoke shutters or blinds and adding dimmer switches and focused desk lighting that can create more localised lighting and simply be turned on and off as required.
For office lights with a difference at Floately – these are a great way of combining lighting with meditation, calm and green plants too.
Prints
If you want to add some personality into your room, Desenio are a great option, having absolutely loads of modern, on trend designs to choose from and always at really affordable prices too. There are even a few discounted options at the moment, meaning you can save even more off their already very reasonable prices and update your living spaces without needing to spend a fortune!
If you’re struggling to picture how the prints will work in your space, you can even check out Desenio’s inspiration rooms for lots of ideas on how to combine prints into gallery walls, centre pieces and themes to match the rest of your interior.
You can see the prints I have chosen in the pictures above and below. Our office room is going to be fairly clean and bright, with white walls and grey soft furnishings, so a monochrome colour scheme was ideal. With wood panelling being added to the back wall, the plan is to create a picture rail on the top for some of our larger prints to stand pride of place and be the first thing that catches your eye as you walk in to the room.
Ergonomic Home Office Chair
As someone who works in HR by day, I know just how important it is to look after your physical and mental wellbeing when working in an office – whether that’s a traditional office space or when working from home.
Factors such as taking regular breaks, making sure your screen is at the right height and sitting at an ergonomic workstation where you can adjust how you sit really is key.
For the last 18 months I have sat on a dining room chair to work. Whilst great for eating and lounging, a chair such as this is not designed to be sat at for 8 hours a day, meaning I often found myself crossing my legs, folding up one leg or sitting cross legged to raise up my height. None of these things are great on my physical wellbeing, neck or back. I would often feel tense and uncomfortable at the end of the working day.
I have recently worked with Summit At Home on a review of their home office chairs. With over 45 years experience, they really are the experts when it comes to finding the right chair for you.
Summit chairs are designed with safety and comfort in mind. Their chairs offer Dynamic Sitting, meaning each of the chairs can be adjusted whilst you are seated, enabling you can constantly move positions whilst you work and keep your spine healthy and happy.
Summit At Home home office chairs are made to order here in the UK with a free 10 day delivery turnaround time. They even come with a 5 year guarantee! You can see our full review of their chairs here.
AD – This post is in collaboration with Summit At Home
As I’m sure is the case for many of us, as much as I fully embraced the benefits of flexible working pre covid, working from home full time was never part of the long term plan. Suddenly here we are 18 months later and I have yet to step foot back in my office.
When we first went into lockdown back in March 2020, like many people across the UK I started working from home and our offices were closed to all employees. With a small 3-bed semi and no separate room or garage to use as an office, we simply had to make the most of what we had available to us at home. This left me working at the dining room table, trying my best to successfully work (and homeschool!) whilst maintaining a normal work and home life balance.
With my employer now adopting a hybrid / blended model of working going forwards and the fact I also run my own business from home, we decided it was about time to invest in our own home office space. A space not surrounded by LEGO, without the constant background noise of two small humans and with the benefit of a very short eco-friendly commute down my garden. I can finally free up my dining room table to, you know, EAT at, and enjoy sitting by day in an environment far more conducive to working!
If you’ve been following my Instagram stories as of late, you’ll know that our new garden office is approaching its final stages and I am so excited to have been able to work in there for the first time this week.
Why is an ergonomic office space important?
As someone who works in HR by day, I know just how important it is to look after your physical and mental wellbeing when working in an office – whether that’s a traditional office space or when working from home.
Factors such as taking regular breaks, making sure your screen is at the right height and sitting at an ergonomic workstation where you can adjust how you sit really is key.
For the last 18 months I have sat on a dining room chair to work. Whilst great for eating and lounging, a chair such as this is not designed to be sat at for 8 hours a day, meaning I often found myself crossing my legs, folding up one leg or sitting cross legged to raise up my height. None of these things are great on my physical wellbeing, neck or back. I would often feel tense and uncomfortable at the end of the working day.
Who are Summit At Home?
I have recently worked with Summit At Home on a review of their home office chairs. With over 45 years experience, they really are the experts when it comes to finding the right chair for you.
Summit chairs are designed with safety and comfort in mind. Their chairs offer Dynamic Sitting, meaning each of the chairs can be adjusted whilst you are seated, enabling you can constantly move positions whilst you work and keep your spine healthy and happy.
Summit At Home home office chairs are made to order here in the UK with a free 10 day delivery turnaround time. They even come with a 5 year guarantee!
Our Experience of the Ovair Office Chair from Summit At Home
I found the Summit At Home website really easy to use. I will be honest that when it came to choosing a home office chair I didn’t really know where to start. I wanted something that would tick all the boxes in terms of health and safety, but also wanted something that was aesthetically pleasing and was going to be comfortable whist fitting in with the colour scheme in my new office.
I took the handy quiz on the Summit At Home website, which asked a range of questions about my working environment, how long I would be sitting for. whether I had any existing back problems and budget, and this helped recommend the most suitable chair from the range.
I opted for the Ovair Office Chair for a variety of reasons. Firstly the Ovair comes with built lumbar support to help maintain a healthy S shaped spinal curve. It also has dynamic sitting which responds to your movement and helps you maintain a suitable seating position throughout the day.
From an aesthetic point of view, I also absolutely loved the soft mesh back of the Ovair chair. Not only did it look less formal in a modern home office environment, but helps to keep you cool and comfortable temperature all day long.
In terms of features, The Ovair Chair from Summit At Home has a gas lift for chair height adjustment (which can be done whilst sitting), Height adjustable lumbar support and caster wheels to base. It also comes with optional extras including memory foam seat pads and height adjustable armrests.
The Ovair Office Chair is also available in 15 different colours (with colour swatches available if you want to try them out first). These range from traditional office colours such as shades of black, grey and blue, as well as more striking colours such as lime green, calendar pink, and coral.
Our Experience of Summit At Home
I am super impressed with the ordering and delivery experience from Summit At Home. The chair arrived quickly and in line with their suggested turn around times and was really well packaged, coming in a large box already assembled! This was a real bonus for someone like me who gets ‘the fear’ whenever anything comes flat packed or requires any kind of piecing together. .
I was really pleased with the look and feel of the chair on unpacking. The Forecast Grey colour is absolutely perfect for the colour scheme of our new office, and unlike other chairs I have had previously with a solid back, the mesh back looks really fresh and modern and a little less formal.
The chair is really easy to adjust (one handed), being able to quickly and easily raise and lower the height of the chair as required. You can lower using the gas lift lever whilst sitting, which is really handy if you are working on multiple screens and need to occasionally adjust your seating position. The lumber support is also easily adjusted using the small lever under the chair.
The chair is fairly lightweight 11.3kg in total and with a tiled floor, the casters move freely and easily. With a larger size desk, this means I can easily move around and twist and turn as required and have feet both flat on the floor without the temptation to fold my legs!
Overall, I am really pleased with my choice of office chair. Whilst they are a significant investment into your home office, you can’t put a price on working in comfort and looking after your long term physical health. Whilst I think about it, it’s probably time I arranged an eye test too!
Would you like the chance to WIN a Summit At Home Office Chair of your choice?
Thanks to the team at Summit At Home, we are giving one lucky reader the chance to upgrade their home office chair and wave goodbye to back pain or discomfort when working from home!
Entry is using the rafflecopter link below.
The winner will be contacted by SummitAtHome and can pick any chair from the entire Summit At Home collection (excluding the Brinkworth Air) in their choice of 15 fabric colours. (You can check out the full range here). The chair will be made in 10 working days and delivered fully assembled. No cash alternative. Delivery within the UK only. Our full terms and conditions are here. Giveaway runs from the 7th November 2021 to the 21st November 2021. Winner will need to provide their email address for Summit At Home to contact them and must select their chair within 5 working days of being contacted. GOOD LUCK!
Don’t want to wait? If you’re not feeling lucky or would prefer to get your hands on a SummitAtHome chair sooner, you can currently get 20% off their entire range with their Black Friday offer! Use the code BF20A at checkout to get 20% off everything until the 29th November 2021.
Working from home as a mum can be chaotic at the best of times, so having a home office that meets your every need is essential. If your current workspace is lacking in both equipment and style, this blog could give you the inspiration you need to make some much-needed changes. For many families, working from home has become the norm, so if you’re going to be juggling kids and your career in the same space, you’ll need to think carefully about your setup. Before you head to the shops, check out this list:
Printer
Having a printer can help you focus at work. Long hours in front of a screen can be hard on our eyes and mind, so print out some essential documents and go over them in the garden on nice days. A printer can be helpful for your responsibilities as a mum as well. If your kids are at school, they might need to print homework or permission slips. It’s much easier to do all of this in your home office rather than heading off to the library, so invest in a printer and some good quality printer inks for canon machines. Your printer doesn’t have to take up much space and can be tucked away somewhere until it’s needed.
Planner
Planning your work and your home life is a challenge, so equip your home office with a big family planner. Lots of calendars and diaries now allow you to split your family commitments and your work commitments, giving you better visibility. Alternatively, if you really need to keep your personal and professional life separate, have two smaller planners you can switch between. You can sync these with your Google calendar and set alerts, ensuring you never miss a thing.
Ergonomic equipment
Mums have lots of aches and pains. Lifting your children, tidying up and carrying the shopping will take their toll, so don’t let an uncomfortable home office add to your discomfort. Sitting in a poorly made chair with a monitor that’s not the right height can cause back and neck pain in the long run. Ergonomic office equipment typically lasts a long time, so you’ll have it for years to come. Even if you don’t work from home forever, you’ll have it there for your partner or kids to use, making it a worthwhile investment.
Good lighting
Not everyone is lucky enough to have big windows in their home office, but that doesn’t mean you have to suffer in darkness. A single yellow bulb won’t give you the light you need to work comfortably, especially in the winter months, so make sure you have a desk light and some spotlights to brighten your space. Consider using a bright daylight lamp to help you focus and lift your mood when you don’t see the sun for days on end. But remember to adjust your monitor to suit the light levels of the room to avoid eye strain.
Hi, I’m Lucy, a thirty something mum of two from Birmingham. A memory maker, tradition keeper, stationery addict and Mr Men fanatic. HR Advisor by day and sleep deprived Mama by night!
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