Here we are in 2021, and alas, many of us are still working from home. What was initially thought to be a two week hiatus from the office has quickly transformed into a remote work revolution that, according to several sources, is likely to continue post-pandemic. The ushering in of the new year affords us an opportunity to reconsider and re-engineer our work-from-home habits and routines. Below are 9 quick tips to help you maximize your productivity and overall satisfaction while working remotely.
Pick a signature “work from home” scent
Now, I know I’m risking losing people by starting with a weird one, but I swear by this! Every morning right before I start work, I light the same candle in my office. I’ve been doing this for a few months now, and my brain has made the association between that particular scent (“Blush Bouquet” by Yankee Candle for anyone wondering – it smells amazing) and work. I swear it helps me remember things during the work day, and there’s actually some research behind this: neurobiologists at the University of Toronto identified a mechanism that allows the brain to recreate vivid sensory experiences from memory. Another study out of England suggested that the smell of rosemary could enhance memory – students working in a room with rosemary essential oil scored 7% better on memory tests vs. the control. I’d even heard this echoed anecdotally in college – my roommate swore by using the same cucumber lotion while studying and then again right before every big test. Suffice it to say I won’t be burning my trusty candle outside of work hours anytime soon, which is a great segue to Tip #2: Set normal work hours.
My WFH scent. 😊
Set normal work hours
This can be a tough one, particularly for those working in healthcare in the middle of a pandemic, but it’s really important. Try your best to set, and stick to, normal work hours. If you have a role that is flexible in this way, setting your own normal work hours can be a pretty big perk of working from home – one that allows you customize your schedule to meet the needs of you and your family. I typically stick to the usual 8-5, because that’s what’s best for me, but I know some of my early bird colleagues have shifted to 7-4. So long as you get the OK from your boss and everyone is around for important meetings, having staggered normal work hours across your team can, coincidentally, be a really nice way to have uninterrupted work time at either bookend of the work day, depending on when you’re most productive. That brings me to Tip #3: Find your flow (and plan your day accordingly).
Bonus tip: If you are someone who struggles with setting boundaries around your work hours, you can use the“My Analytics / Wellbeing Edition” email to hold yourself accountable and see how you did with after-hours email in the last 4 weeks.
Find your flow (and plan your day accordingly)
“Flow” is a state of being completely and utterly immersed in a task, to the point where you lose track of time. I was first introduced to the idea of flow in a book called Designing Your Life: How to Build of Well-Lived, Joyful Life by Stanford professors Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. It offers fact-finding exercises to help guide you to a life that’s meaningful and fulfilling, and one of the activities prompts the reader to take note of times they experience flow. Now, you don’t need to take formal inventory, but in the context of your work, try to think of times you experience flow. What makes you tick and gives you satisfaction in your role? For me, I get flow from new written projects and tinkering around in spreadsheets (dorky, I know), and tend not to look forward to things like editing or attending webinars. So each Friday, I look at the week ahead to see what tasks or projects I need to accomplish and the time I have available to do those things outside of meetings (my “work blocks”). Then, I fill the empty work blocks between meetings, and intentionally do so in that way that maximizes flow. For instance, if I know I need to sit through a 2 hour webinar on Tuesday morning, I’ll put a flow activity in the work block directly after it. Hacking your schedule to maximize flow is an easy way to stay motivated, energized and productive throughout the work week.
Define your workspace
No cool transition for this one! Tip #4 is to define your workspace. I recognize that this can be hard to do, particularly when you don’t have dedicated office space in your home. Luckily, I moved into a new house a couple months ago and quickly claimed the sun room as my office, but for the first several months of work from home I worked at a small desk in a high traffic area of a house with 6 people, 3 dogs, 2 cats and lots of commotion. I did a couple of things to define my workspace that I think helped. First, I made my desk feel like my office: I moved personal files elsewhere, organized some office supplies into a tray, and hung up a cork board to keep track of deadlines, etc. Managing the commotion piece was a little harder. If I knew I had important meetings during the day, I’d text my family to give them a heads up: “Hey, Board meeting at 10. Please don’t interrupt unless something’s on fire.” Another thing I did (which I am only slightly ashamed to admit) is lock the side door near my makeshift office. It was rude, but effective. If someone came home and that door was locked, they knew it meant I was in a meeting and they needed to use the front door. Lastly, I made my workspace feel like my office by bringing home the plants that used to sit in my windowsill at work. That brings us to Tip #5: Get a plant.
Get a plant (science says so!)
True or false: a 2010 study found workers who had plants introduced into their workspace experienced a 37% reduction in tension and anxiety, a 58% drop in depression, a 44% decrease in anger and hostility and a 38% reduction in fatigue? Answer: True! And, plants don’t just decrease the bad stuff – plants in the workspace have been linked to a 15% increases in productivity, wellbeing scores and even higher creativity scores. If you don’t have a green thumb, fear not – here’s a list of 25 indoor plants that are almost impossible to kill. See also: a list of 21 plants that are safe for your four-legged friends. Before I get off my soap box about the benefits of plants in your workspace, keep in mind that watering and tending to them can be a really nice mental break, which brings me to Tip #6: Plan pockets of peace in your day.
My little productivity boosters!
Plan pockets of peace in your day
My next tip is to be intentional about taking breaks in your day, which I like to call “pockets of peace.” Your pockets of peace can be productive (changing over the laundry, prepping dinner, etc.) or just for fun (15 minutes of free reading, playing fetch with your dog, etc.) – whatever makes you feel refreshed and recharged. A 2014 study indicated the optimal time for breaks is about 12% of the workday, and showed that short intermittent breaks are better than longer ones. You can use the Pomodoro technique, which entails 25 minutes of timed, uninterrupted focus on a single task followed by a 5 minute break, or whatever other method appeals to you. The important thing is not how to structure your breaks, but that you take them. Breaks help reset your mood, reduce stress, and increase productivity. Guess what else helps increase productivity? Music! See Tip #7 for more.
My break of choice is walking (read: being walked by) my dog Chloe.
Make a productivity playlist
Another perk of working from home: you can listen to music, and it may even make you more productive. A recent study tracked 56 software engineers while either they listened to music or worked in silence, finding that those who listened to music increased both mood and quality of work. However, there’s a caveat: you may not want to listen to songs with lyrics you know, as it can be distracting. One study found middle school students who listened to songs from the Billboard chart during a test scored lower vs. the control. Thankfully, you don’t have to start a productivity playlist from scratch (unless you want to!) – here’s a list of the 7 best office music playlists for productivity, which ranges from classical music to video game soundtracks.
Overcommunicate with your team
Up to this point, we’ve touched mostly on the perks of working from home. Tip #8, overcommunicate with your team, is intended to help remedy one of the barriers of working from home, which is fewer touch points (and therefore less communication) with your colleagues. Remember the good ol’ days, pre-COVID, when you could catch a co-worker in the hallway or during morning coffee to check in for a status update or ask a clarifying question? In a work from home world, it’s important to be really to replicate those impromptu communications we’ve lost with things like Teams or ad hoc 2 minute phone calls. You can also institute systems to make sure little things don’t fall though the cracks. For example, over the last couple of months, our 3-person department has implemented weekly Friday emails where we gather all of the outstanding documents, items, questions, etc. that still need review to ensure each item is either resolved or prioritized early in the next week.
Commit to a 10 minute tidy at the end of each day
My 9th and final tip is to commit to a 10 minute tidy at the end of each day. At the close of my work day, I spend a few minutes looking through my written notes (who else scribbles everything on a legal pad?) and emails to see if there’s anything outstanding I need to take care of. I follow the 1 minute rule, meaning if I can close the loop on it in the minute or less, I do so. Anything I can’t take care of right away I put into a to do list in OneNote (side note: OneNote is amazing! Here’s 10 tips and tricks to help you make the most of the application) and take care of it later in the week depending on urgency. I find this really helps me safeguard against forgetting action items from meetings, which I’m particularly susceptible to when they are back-to-back-to-back. My 10 minute tide routine also includes a quick wipe down of my desk, taking care of any dishes that may have accumulated during the day, making sure my laptop is plugged into the charger, etc. Sometimes it’s tempting to skip the 10 minute tidy, especially if it’s been a long day, but I never regret doing it and it prevents those sneaky 10pm “Crap! I forgot to do that” thoughts. The 10 minute tidy also offers a nice bookend to transition out of work mode and into home mode, which is particularly important without the buffer of a commute.
Thanks to those who have stuck around – I hope you find these tips helpful as we all collectively navigate working from home in 2021.
