Work from home? Create your own routines!

Work from home? Create your own routines!

I have been lucky to have worked from home since I started my business nine years ago and have managed to develop a routine which works for me.

When I started out, I felt that I should set working hours and stick to them. I tried all the ‘train your brain’ tactics to trigger my ‘servant’ response and fool myself I was attending a regular workplace. I’d had practice in being an employee, so I knew the drill. I got up in the morning showered, dressed, grabbed breakfast and left by the front door. Then I walked off the porch along the driveway and back up again, let myself in and turned left into my office.

I’m not sure who I was trying to fool, but it ended up making me laugh at myself and I gave up after a week.

Then I used a time book. Clocked myself on and off. I had normal morning tea and lunch breaks, but I would go back into the main part of the house to grab a coffee and a sandwich. Then I went through a phase of using an old coffee maker in the office and keeping a tin of biscuits on hand.

I was strict on myself. Housework was left until after hours, despite my longing to stick a load of washing in the machine or soaking some dishes in the kitchen sink. My only exception was taking the dog outside for its usual needs when my husband wasn’t home to do this.

Who was I kidding! I was at home. I was my own boss and the only person I needed to answer to was myself. My clients didn’t care if I worked away at their projects in the evening or at weekends – only that I got the jobs done.

I had swapped one inflexible workplace for another.

Before the madness got the better of me, I came to a realisation. Despite many work-from -homers insisting the only way to manage a day was to treat the situation as if we really were working in someone else’s office, I know this to be nonsense.

We work from home. It’s a fact. All the trappings of a household are around us and instead of ignoring them until a designated workday is finished, we need to build them into our day and be happier and better for it.

You don’t even have to get dressed for it!

Mind you, I’d recommend putting away the PJs for something slightly more grown up if you are meeting with clients face to face, but these are the tips I have come up with which work for me:

1.      For Zoom meetings: brush your hair, put on lipstick if that’s what you’d normally do face to face and a clean top – don’t worry about pants or shoes. Wear your slippers and trackies because no one will see!

2.      Clothes: If you feel more professional and more ‘worky’ by putting on proper work clothes, then do it – keep your slippers on if you want though. If you want to work all day in your track pants and a t-shirt, then do that. No one will see. Just brush your hair in case a neighbour calls!

3.      Housework: Do what you can when you feel like it. Pop a load of washing in the machine and walk away. Walk back later and hang it on the line or stick it in the dryer. Go back again later still and put your lovely clean laundry away.

4.      Meals: Think about easy to plan and make meals during the week. Do some pre-prep, pop something in the slow cooker.

5.      Breaks: Make sure you take proper breaks. Get up and stretch. Take the dog outside. Eat a proper healthy lunch.

If you have a To Do list keep working through it, but don’t feel you have to sit at your desk all day without moving around. Take a few minutes to do some minor housework if it’s bugging you, work your day around the notion that you are at home and able to do some things in the background while you get on with your client work.

Working from home is the most amazing game changer, but only if we take advantage of it!