We know that you are all working at home now. (Stay home – Stay healthy!!) And for many of you, this is a big adjustment.
As someone who has worked at home, taught online, done research online, supervised employees who worked online, and more – I can say that it’s not always easy. But with a few basics, it will not be much harder than going in to your office every day!
Set a schedule
You have probably already heard this, but it really does help. Your schedule can be a strict 9 to 5, and that’s fine. Or it can be two hours in the morning, doing kid work/other things for a few hours, another hour or two, and then an hour or two at night. You may need to be deliberate about scheduling those hours on weekends, to be sure you are getting things done, when you have a lot of other things going on around you.
And, of course, your workplace may have a defined schedule for you for at least part of the day. Hopefully they can cool it with trying to dictate schedules unless necessary – that does not help people adapting to a new schedule.
This is a great time to use a pomodro method, and that really works for me. Set a schedule to work 25 minutes, and take a five minute break; repeat that all day. Or, work 45 minutes and take a 15 minute break. It’s enough to get something cleaned, fixed, straightened, or otherwise handled, but still lets you get back to your main tasks for the day.
Try to set up something that generally works for you, and stick to it most of the time.
Make a list
When you have a busy schedule of story-times, movie watching, doing dishes, and also doing some work – it’s easy to forget what you need to do. It’s also easy to lose track of priorities when days all blend into each other.
Write things down for the week. I like to use multi colored pens, so I have a lot of different blocks of tasks to get done and I can easily see that. But you make a list however you think will be most effective for you.
When I have a lot of repetitive tasks – small things that have to get done every day, I get excited about making charts with boxes to check off. You can do this online, or write it out on paper. (I have charts stuck to the wall, so I can see when I’m hitting daily goals, and when I’m missing them. The shame helps to keep me moving forward!)
Don’t celebrate too early
I like to celebrate things, literally anything. I love all those little fake advertiser-created holidays for “national daffodil bulb day” and “national peanut butter chip cookie day” or whatever. I’m ready to celebrate anything, pretty much any time.
And when you are home, especially if you are alone, it can be easy to want to celebrate a couple of good hours of work with a TV episode, or some other reward. This is where having that set schedule really helps! When you are new to not having colleagues around you, who will notice that you are slacking off too much, you need to focus on getting things done.
And add “celebrate today’s successes” into your schedule! Even if your biggest success was getting out of bed – celebrate that! Take a walk around your neighborhood (social distancing still in effect!). Watch 20 minutes of Kitten Academy on YouTube. Do something else fun for yourself!!
(As a side note to a daily celebration, you may not want to make it “eat candy” or “drink whiskey” each day. Even when you have good relationships with these things, being home all day/every day can skew perspectives. So ponder for yourself whether small amounts of potentially difficult things are reasonable every day. A nice walk or some other positive activity might be a better celebration.)
Don’t Let Perfect Wreck Your Good-Enough
When you are not used to working at home, and may not have all your materials you usually use, and it’s harder to get into the online material you need – things can be hard. They can move slower than you think they should. They can be more trouble than they should. And they can require more people to jump in to assist than usual.
That’s okay. That is how it works. Don’t feel like you are doing a bad job because it’s hard. Starting an entirely new set of tasks and responsibilities is HARD!
So don’t try to make everything perfect right now. Do a good job, get it done, and move on without (too many) regrets. Usually, it will be more important for you do get material shared, or to have a Zoom conference, or to do whatever else you need to accomplish, than it will to make everything look completely perfect.
Everyone understands. Especially right now, we’re all finding our way. So: just do things. Get them done and out into the world. Don’t wait until you love everything about the work – send it along and keep moving forward.
For Supervisors: Don’t Micromanage
This shouldn’t need to even be said – because it’s the sign of a poor supervisor that micromanaging ever happens!
But when people are working from home, I have heard too many supervisors fretting that they may not know whether someone is REALLY working. And I’ve seen reports of staff who are getting hourly phone calls from work, and other such inanities.
You hire people and train them to do the best job they can. And then you let them go.
Will everyone be 100% Amazingly Productive every hour of a standard work day? Nope. It’s just the same as in-person working.
Is that reason enough to drive yourself and your staffers bonkers with incessant demands to “prove” work is being done? Hard “no” on that!
Especially for now, just concentrate on getting the big, important things done. Know that this is an adjustment for everyone – and we aren’t always going to get it all correct. It’s okay.
And really: look back at the first paragraph here: Managers who micromanage are showing themselves to be insecure and weak. Just don’t do it.
Wrapping Up:
Keep focused on the things you know you can do. You know your work, you know the kinds of information you already share, you know the content of your job. That’s the important part. Now, a lot of people are doing it in a new environment, using new tools. Try not to let that get overwhelming.
You are doing fine. You’ve got this. We’re here to help you. Just keep going, and it will work!