I shared this with my team earlier today. A few suggestions for WFH for a month (lessons learned from working remote 100% in my previous job):
* Avoid working a 12 hour day. This will happen with having no more commute. 9-5 will turn into 7-7. Suggestion: Get an early start to your day but take a few hour long breaks in the middle of your day.
* Also set a hard stop to when you will stop working. Brain chemistry = your productivity spikes a bit around 4pm after the 2pm snooze; making you work longer into the evenings. Set a hard stop for when you are done and don’t look back. My plan is to stop working after walking my dog in the evening.
* Put your shoes on. Working barefoot at home is awesome but the act of putting your shoes on will subconsciously make you more likely to be active and less lethargic during the course of the day.
* Take a shower everyday despite us not being able to smell you on Hangouts ;-) No need to do it in the morning but might be a good way to use your first long break of the day.
* Make some Hangouts/Zoom/WebEx friends - try to do 1:1 sync with someone else on the team (not just your manager) once or twice a week. It’s basically the coffee break conversation with zero risk of virus spreading.
* Make dinner plans (also a good way to force yourself to stop working end of day).
* Ask yourself at the end of each day “when was the last time I went outside” - sounds silly but there was this one time when I had stayed at home for 4 days straight just working and crashing at the end of the day
* Lastly, set aside 1 or 2 spots at home for you to work out of. When you are done with the day, leave those spots. Do NOT work on your couch or bed if that’s where you will be after you’re done working; Will help you disconnect/re-connect in the evenings/mornings,
* Avoid working a 12 hour day. This will happen with having no more commute. 9-5 will turn into 7-7. Suggestion: Get an early start to your day but take a few hour long breaks in the middle of your day.
* Also set a hard stop to when you will stop working. Brain chemistry = your productivity spikes a bit around 4pm after the 2pm snooze; making you work longer into the evenings. Set a hard stop for when you are done and don’t look back. My plan is to stop working after walking my dog in the evening.
* Put your shoes on. Working barefoot at home is awesome but the act of putting your shoes on will subconsciously make you more likely to be active and less lethargic during the course of the day.
* Take a shower everyday despite us not being able to smell you on Hangouts ;-) No need to do it in the morning but might be a good way to use your first long break of the day.
* Make some Hangouts/Zoom/WebEx friends - try to do 1:1 sync with someone else on the team (not just your manager) once or twice a week. It’s basically the coffee break conversation with zero risk of virus spreading.
* Make dinner plans (also a good way to force yourself to stop working end of day).
* Ask yourself at the end of each day “when was the last time I went outside” - sounds silly but there was this one time when I had stayed at home for 4 days straight just working and crashing at the end of the day
* Lastly, set aside 1 or 2 spots at home for you to work out of. When you are done with the day, leave those spots. Do NOT work on your couch or bed if that’s where you will be after you’re done working; Will help you disconnect/re-connect in the evenings/mornings,