What Co-Working Can Teach Us About Working From Home Productively

1. Maintain a collaborative environment from home

Working from home does not mean working alone. Just because you are out of the office, doesn’t mean that you should stop utilising the skills and insights of your colleagues.

Now is the time to really make the most out of the wealth of communication technology available: Slack, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts. Obviously, it’s not quite the same as having your team in the room with you, but virtual meetings are the next best thing. Use these tools to open up idea-generation discussions, pick people’s brains and talk through what you’re working on. You’ll find it so much more lucrative than trying to go it alone.

In some cases, there are even benefits to be reaped from working in close proximity with housemates, family members, partners or friends – even if they’re not in the same industry. Talking through your thoughts out-loud with anyone is helpful for making sure your ideas make sense. Plus, you may even learn something new from their specialities that are applicable to your day-to-day: from how they manage their time to how they format their spreadsheets!

2. Optimise your working from home set-up

How you set-up your workspace is crucial to getting in the right frame of mind to create and deliver. It may be tempting to slouch on the sofa in your pyjamas, but ultimately that’s not going to help you remain productive.

Based on our learnings as a productivity-focused office space provider, the below are our top tips for setting up your own WFH workspace:

• Find a chair and desk set-up that helps you maintain good posture – Poor posture can contribute to a number of physical complaints that also have a knock-on impact on your concentration – including fatigue, joint pain and headaches.
• Allow yourself plenty of natural light – Ideally, you’d want to work by a window, with the curtains. Research shows that workers who receive sufficient daylight are up to 40% more productive.
• Separate your workspace from your home space – When working from home, creating healthy work/life barriers is even more important. If possible, work from a different room as you relax/sleep. If that’s not possible, pack away your work things at the end of the day so they don’t remain a constant reminder of everything you’ve got to do when you’re supposed to be winding down.
• Find somewhere quiet to work, if you can – We understand that this is not always possible, particularly for those with families at home. However, if you can create yourself a ‘safe-space’ away from noise, at least for calls or video conferences, that is ideal.

The secret to working productively from home is to treat your days as similarly as possible to your in-office days. Everything that you’ve learned works for you in the past, try and continue as much as you can.

First things first is to start and finish work at the same time you would usually, in order to maintain routine. Yes, that means getting up, dressed and grabbing breakfast in the morning, and switching off at a reasonable time at the end of the working day.

If you’re used to chatting with your teammates around the coffee machine, or talking through your weekends on a Monday morning, keep that up! Those social, water-cooler chats are just as important to your wellbeing and productivity as work-based conversations. Similarly, we recommend organising virtual lunch-dates with colleagues and friends to give yourself a well-needed midday break.

For those who like working in an office with background chatter or music, try and emulate that through curating your own WFH playlist. If your preference was always for silence, work out the best ways you can achieve that at home.

4. Remember that work shouldn’t be 24/7

Now more than ever, people are starting to re-prioritise and concentrate on the things in life that mean most to them. Obviously, work is important – for many it’s the most important part of their life. But the trick is to still make sure you still take breaks whenever you can, so you come back refreshed and ready to roll.