Working from home has never been more in vogue. Though the practice has been around for decades, the current global health crisis has forced most organisations to take a look at what their workers can achieve from the comfort of their homes. It’s a jarring transition to make, and one that can be demotivating if it isn’t handled carefully.

So let’s look at some ways to smash out your work from home without caving to the temptations of that beautiful couch.

Organise Your Space and Your Self

There’s a long buildup to the point where you sit down at your desk in an office. You wake up, go through your morning routine, have breakfast, commute to work while listening to your favourite podcast, grab a coffee, say hello to your coworkers, and then finally start the day.

At home, you lift your head from your pillow and you’re already in the workplace. It’s a lot. So think of ways to organise yourself and both your physical and digital spaces to help ease that transition.

A popular way to mentally adapt to the change is to pretend as though you are going to an office. Set your alarm, make some coffee, do your hair and put on some work clothes. Work from a clean desk, not your bed or couch, and maybe even create a new user profile on your computer just for work.

Set yourself scheduled start and finish times and a proper lunch break. Keeping work and home life seperate in your mind takes a few steps, but it definitely leads to boosted productivity.

Keep in Contact

If you work in an organisation, you work with other people. That means, on a normal day in the office, you would be chatting and collaborating constantly. Human contact is important for more than just work reasons, so making sure you keep up your relationships with your coworkers helps keep everyone sane and productive.

There’s some great technologies out there to help with this, like Slack, Trello, or Discord for text communication, and Zoom, Webex, or Starleaf for video meetings.

One common way to keep up with your coworkers is to have what some call a ‘walk in’ or ‘stand up’ meeting first thing every day. This is just a quick ten minute video conference each morning to check in on each other and talk about what you’ll be working on that day.

Treat it like a real meeting, with an agenda and minutes, and be sure to keep it up every day. By announcing your intentions to achieve a particular thing in a given timeframe, you’re holding yourself more accountable, and tricking your mind into staying more focused on that task. Give this meeting style a try and see how it works for you!