working from home

Tips and ideas for working from home

Since many people are working from home for the first time due to the COVID-19 crisis – or at least the first time in awhile – we put together some tips for making the best use of your time away from the office.

Tools

Expectations

• We do not require core hours for people to be available, though some companies do. Staff are expected to put in a full eight hours, though there’s flexibility on when those happen.
• • We verbally reiterate that outside of quiet time working on big projects, we do expect people to be generally responsive to chats and email during daytime hours.
  • Management makes key announcements delivered both in our group chat and email; this serves to make sure people see the announcement and reiterate those platforms are necessary for day-to-day operations.
  • We’ve completed an exercise to understand everyone’s preferred communication style, so others are aware of how best to reach people.
  • We ask that staff be mindful of bandwidth; since “working from home” really means “working from anywhere,” some locations may have spotty bandwidth that hamper the use of shared drives or video tools; to the extent possible, we expect people to maintain good connectivity.

  Communications

  • Chat is our primary means of communication, supplemented by email and Google Meet/Hangouts. We also have Zoom for partner calls or times when we need better call quality.
  • Email is secondary for non-urgent issues, or as intentional, redundant follow up on communications begun elsewhere.
  • Many staff also use free teleconferencing services
  • At our organization, it’s appropriate to text when you can’t get ahold of someone and have an urgent matter; mileage may vary by your culture.
  
  

  Tips and ideas from our team

  We all have our own habits that help us work successfully. Staff members are accustomed to seeing each other a couple of times a week, while consultants are distributed in various cities.
  Where you work:
  • If you have the space, consider creating certain “zones” in where you always work, or always don’t. That way, when you sit down to work, you know you’re in a spot where you can focus. The reverse is true as well: if you want to sit down and read somewhere, you know that’s a spot you can relax. Multiple people on staff reiterated that they never, ever do work in their bedrooms to avoid issues falling asleep at night.
  • Laura: Hunching over a laptop can have serious consequences for your neck and shoulders.
  Getting things done:
  • Irving:
  • Trevor: I try hard to keep standard business hours, usually 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. Confession: Like many, I’m often doing things outside those hours, but this window is my availability to the team; I’m “dark” outside of these times.
  • Meghan: I like using as a timer for long projects. It sets a 25-minute focus timer, then a five-minute break, and you can log what you’ve accomplished as you go. It’s a good reminder to come up for air and also helps you track how long tasks are taking. It reminds your lizard brain that the ping you just got can wait for a few more minutes while you finish out your task.
  • Jessica: Even if you don’t have kids,
  • Trevor: Outside of repair needs, I generally only allow myself to do three non-work things: 1) Load/unload the dishwasher during lunch or conference calls where I’m not an active participant, 2) Start (but not fold) laundry; I find it makes me feel good to get a head-start and have dry, ready-to-fold laundry at day’s end, 3) I have hardwood floors, so I can sweep, again if I’m just listening in on a call.
  On showing up, taking breaks and signing off: