The impact of the effects of Coronavirus has brought WFH (Work From Home) culture into the spotlight. For some developers that I’ve talked to, working from home was something that they’ve already been doing for a while. However, a lot of us are new to the idea of it, and have come across our own challenges that we’ve had to overcome. Things like staying productive, collaborating with others, separating work from play, etc. Here are some things that I’ve learned from working at home for a few weeks.
I know it sounds a little crazy, but dressing up like you’re actually going to work just puts you in the mindset that you should be working. To me, if I just put on some comfortable clothes, my mind is going to think that I’m in comfort mode, and will want to slack off without doing anything productive. Wearing my work clothes is a good way to make me feel like I’m in the office, and keeps me focused on working on only the tasks that I need to be focused on for work.
This was probably the most important thing I’ve learned to keep myself productive. On a normal day, you have school, working in the office, etc, and all those involve going to physical locations. I feel like those physical locations kind of provide you with an artificial “time block” of your day that schedules it for you. However, when you’re working at home, you don’t really have that sense of urgency or the need to be in a particular place, as everything is at home! This is extremely dangerous, as you could just waste an entire day on Reddit or other leisure websites that aren’t for work-related purposes. Setting up a calendar with some time-blocked events is a good way to make sure that you keep yourself on track for the day ahead, and make sure that you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing over the course of the day.
This point kind of goes hand-in-hand with what my previous point is, but I think it’s also important to take note of as well. Making a routine helps as it gets you in the flow that you’re normally used to during the work day, instead of treating it like how you would treat a day off, or a normal day at home. This means that you should schedule your day around your normal work-day routine, so dress for work, eat at the same time every day, have lunch at the same parts of your day, etc. Replicating a normal work day as closely as possible was extremely helpful in staying productive throughout the day, and the combination of establishing a routine, and maintaining a schedule really helped me stay focused as I was working throughout the day.