Working From Home: A Few Tips

I was recently asked to come up with some talking points to advise people on working from home. I've been working from home for almost 6 years now -- a period that included starting up my own company, working full-time for another company, and raising a young family.

 

Much of what I talk about will sound like blurring the lines between work and "normal life", but at times that is what is needed. Normal work hours tend to get a bit faded and working for a mission (not hours) becomes the focus. But don't fret, you may find this is your groove – where fixed hours don't mean as much and being there for both work and family take over. But how do you balance that? I'll explain what worked for me.

Many years before I started my remote work, I spent some years in the military. I was a bit familiar with attempting to balance work/life/family in trying times with difficult schedules -- as many people are, military or not. While this advice is applicable to anyone, it is really geared towards those who love what they do, don't want to compromise on performance, and want to minimize the impact on family.

If you are looking for a way to clock in at 8am and clock out at 5pm, while maintaining your sanity but irrespective of what you produced, this isn’t for you.

The first, and most contradictory rule, is to be both focused and flexible. It means setting both rigid work rules and knowing when to break them. The initial reaction I had at home was thinking I was interrupted all the time. The reality is, I usually was interrupted less than I previously was at work, it just wasn't as apparent.

Fix: Set fixed time slots, say 40 minutes, to accomplish a task. Then get up and walk around. Take the break, talk to your family. Then set aside another timespan where you won't be interrupted. The day can also have less strict times when you will work and can handle daily life from family.

It is hard with families because you can feel like you are neglecting them. This goes back to rule one.

Fix: You must draw firm lines on when you are busy, but also be willing to make time to spend with them (without being distracted by work -- THIS was a hard one from me. If you go outside for a walk because they need to get outside; don't take your phone).  Even when they break your firm lines, be flexible. Think of this as when a coworker comes by to talk about issues or going to the break room… or reading stuff on the internet (not that you ever do that).

Sometimes, a good portion of our day is spent walking to talk to someone or in a meeting or even commuting. When at home, you may feel like you have to be at the keyboard 100%. That will burn you out. It can be difficult finding out how to balance family and work, and sometimes you just have to tell them no. Make it up to them later.

Find when you are most productive. For me, it is very early in the mornings and late at night. I can crank out 7am-11am easy and then half the day is finished, and it is only 11am! If I don't do that, I can feel very far behind. So, I set myself up for availability during normal work hours but know I can complete bigger tasks uninterrupted in the early morning and later at night.

It's about balancing between being available and knowing when you can dedicate focused time to execute critical tasks (without interruptions). In those flexible/available times, maybe you are working, or maybe you are baking a baguette for your family! Yes, treat your family with your newfound flexibility. (PS, If you need a baguette recipe, let me know. But fair warning, if you don’t have a couche, it may be challenging!)

During my first 12 months of working remote, isolation was one of the most prominent issues I struggled with. 

Turn emails into phone calls. This one did wonders as I started to shift my coworkers' opinion of me from "that grumpy email troll who I have never met" to "OK he's not so bad when you talk to him." 

Get up and walk. Go outside. You can offset some of the isolation by doing more away from your desk in your off-hours -- that part is up to you to figure out. Previously I could have been considered stand-offish. Now I take in-person meetings whenever I can and really enjoy them. It is perspective changing.

When you are (seemingly) interrupted more during the day, it can be hard to feel you are being both honest with your work AND honest with your family. That means knowing exactly what you need to execute in each week and being able to deliver. Being able to know you fulfilled your work responsibilities and also not feeling like you neglected family. That's why issue 2 is important. Balance family while getting things accomplished. 

I had my share of “embarrassing” home moments. Moments during calls or video chats that were embarrassing to me, but I found that people were more understanding than I expected. These are moments where your home life “intruded” on your work life. 

In your normal workday, this would never happen. Now it can occur at any moment.

There were days where school was canceled, or it was a school holiday, or a kid was sick, and they were home with me. And then I had to take a call.

Ten minutes into a call, tiny voices started to pipe up about needing water, or scissors, or that the mean cat was walking outside the window. 

“I’m sorry, my kids are home with me today,” I’d say, expecting to be silently mocked by the people in suits in their office. Yet that never happened, not even then in the pre-COVID-19 days when people worked in offices and weren’t worried about how to get their next roll of toilet paper. They were always understanding, or had kids of their own, and we would have a personal moment that transcended work. It was nice. 

Undoubtedly this will be even easier now. Don’t fret the kids (or dogs) in the background.

Sorry, but 8-5 is gone, at least temporarily. Be there to answer the phone, but your "work time" may fall outside of standard hours. Be OK with that. That means also be there for your family in 8-5.

It's easy to determine whether or not you are doing your job. It may not always happen during 8-5 anymore, so you can't use that as the determining factor to judge your performance. Before, you were gone from 8-5 and then at home you were doing "home stuff". That's not realistic. 

If you try to sit at home 8-5 while ignoring your home life, it likely just won't work. Be flexible, be determined, be productive, be with your family, and be ready to be up at night or up early in the morning to meet goals.  Hopefully you love what you do enough to throw yourself into this new paradigm with a fervor!

-Mike