Five changes I did to instantly improve my work-from-home performance and work-life balance
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Home Office has become part of many people’s lives since 2020. I was flexible to do Home Office before, but it had a different meaning back then. I used my Home Office days to calm down, do an easy day after a long week and get some work around the flat done (like doing some dishes, going grocery shopping, fixing the bike). Since Home Office became a regular occurrence, performing well from home became inevitable and many people, including me, had to adjust. Working from home went from working out of bed to creating a proper office at home, with everything you need to work as well as you do in the office. I went through some low-performance time, and I believe I have finally made my home-office office-worthy. Here are the five improvements/changes I made:
1. Get into the right mindset
Oh yeah, the mindset topic again. I guess in every second article here on Medium, people talk about mindset, performance, and the better-you. But give me two lines before you move to the next bullet point. When working from home, it is essential to get out of the old “working in home-office” mindset and get into the new “I am working like in the office, but from home” mindset. Let me explain: The, let’s call it Home Office 2.0, is different. You have a defined starting point for your workday (like when you arrive at the office, except you already woke up in your office). Instead, say out loud: “Let’s start working”. This helps you not to check your computer and then be partially working, partially asleep. The same goes for lunch breaks and the end of work. Say out loud and close your laptop. Don’t be available once you close your computer. It’s like leaving the office. You are done for the day.
2. Build a work routine for the home office
After creating the right mindset, I tried to get some routine into my workday at home. Previously, working from home started after waking up and ended sometime before dinner (or even after). Don’t do that! Define start and end times (of course, flexible). Example: I start at 9 am, have lunch around 1 pm, and close the laptop at 7 pm. Take this routine and communicate this to your colleagues. Make them aware that if they want something…
