Hi,
I've been putting off, procrastinating and delaying getting my blog up and running, on this site, for month after month now.
However, like many no doubt, I find myself working from home due to as my daughter put it "the stupid coronavirus".
So with this new imposed isolation, and while I happily continue to type away during my working day. I thought why not start the blog now.
Ease myself back into it.
So, what topic to choose...why working from home of course.
It has been a little over two years since I last worked, self-employed from home. Downing tools to go and work at @SOTLive and the Sentinel Newspaper, as a feature writer looking after The Way We Were publication.
However, prior to that I spent the previous four years going solo (no, not down in Acapulco...) but working out of an office at home in Stoke-on-Trent.
So with a return to this I thought about, firstly for myself, what do I need to do to make sure I get the work I need to do done such as the writing, social media, photos...the list goes on.
Sure, it is easy enough doing a day here and there at home away from the structure of going into an office each day, with your set desk.
It is perhaps even doable to go a week without considering putting much structure in place.
However what happens when the boredom, isolation of not having anyone to chat with kicks in?
On the TV, out come the continual procession of snacks and distractions from thumbing through a magazine or seeing what's happening on social media, even the washing and house cleaning become a factor and not to mention the power of pets to drag you away.
How do I know this?
Because I have succumbed to each of them while working at home in the past.
Now we are absolutely all different and what works for one doesn't always do so for another. For sure some people are fine without that day to day structure (but it takes discipline).
Deciding not to get dressed because lets face it who's going to see you, right?
For me after some months in the early stages of working at home I knew I needed to be more focused, disciplined and organised.
Out went working off my laptop on the sofa, after i'd walked the dog, had a coffee and just watched a little TV.
In came treating my day as if I was still going out the door to get to the office at 8 or 9 in the morning.
Now the need to spend on new equipment, desks, stationary is not needed.
It again will be a chance for distraction in spending days setting up.
I had a spare room, but all you need really is a dedicated space (not the sofa or bed).
So, I started getting up early organising breakfast for my family, taking the dog out and then after waving my wife off took my daughter to school, all before 9 am.
Getting back home I'd put on the coffee, take a snack usually fruit and always biscuit (or two) and go tomy space. shut the door and work until lunch, which often but not always I'd pre-make as if I was going out to the office.
I'd have an hour and a half for lunch, because c'mon we're at home and there's got to be some give. During that time I would either take the dog out, pop the local shop or watch an episode of Frasier.
Then get back to my dedicated work space where I'd go through until between 5-6 depending on what I was working on.
Back then i was primarily doing Monday to Friday but when I'd work weekends then I'd take that time back in the week. The urge to keep going can runaway with you if you let it.
Anyway, that's my thoughts and experience of home working. It may work for you, but the important thing to do is keep work/ life balance, because as easy as it is to relax and let time run away the same can be said for not stopping and doing seven days a week.
It doesn't take fancy equipment or a huge change to your life all is needed is a marked out space, structure your time and treat it as though you are going out through the door each morning.
Well, as I'm now back in that position, for what could be the next few months while this coronavirus is about, I'll be dusting off the practice again.
Stay safe and let me know how you are coping with being stuck at home working and what your tips are to keeping on the straight and narrow, and most of all positive.
In the mean time checkout the concise top tip below and you can find more of my work on my website https://www.adamcgratton.com/
Cheers
Adam
Top ten tips round up:
1. Make a morning routine
2. Have a dedicated work space
3. Keep those working hours regular
4. Make sure those you live with know your set-up
5. Leave the house once in a while
6. Have seperate work number or contact method: Use video link, social media messenger services
7. Don't Hesitate to Ask for What You Need (more applicable if employed)
8. Schedule your breaks
9. Keep an end of the day routine
10. Enjoy the perks of home working and don't be too hard on yourself.