To ask those of you who WFH for tips

[MotherOfDragons90]

I currently WFH on a Friday for various reasons including travel costs and time (my route home very busy on a Friday in summer) and desk pressure in the office.

However it makes me feel a bit shit if I’m honest, like I have cabin fever from being cooped up in the house. Especially with this weather. I’m still in my PJs at 10am and I just don’t feel very human, despite getting loads done. (I have washed!)

I get headaches from using a laptop and just generally feel a bit meh.

Has anyone got any tips that make them feel super productive and fresh from home?

I WFH full time. For me I need a work space away from our family space that I can close the door on (I get that this may not be practical for 1 day a week). I have the radio on but would never have TV or anything else on, just like I wouldn't in an office. Occasionally I'll nip away from my desk to stick a wash on or something but time it with putting the kettle on so it's just like making a cuppa in an office.

As others have said, treat it like a normal day - get dressed and sit at a desk or table. In 5 years I've never worked in my PJs, I couldn't get my head round that.

Oh and I only work my day, so at my desk at 8:30 /9 to finish at 4.30/5pm. It took me ages to stop doing extra hours but it was becoming expected, and I'm not paid for them so have gotten strict with myself.

I work from home 2 days a week. I get up get dressed make coffee. I have a little laptop desk and chair in the corner of my kitchen and I sit there as that’s my office. I have lunch and walk the dog for a bit but otherwise I am at my desk working. It does help that I usually have a lot of calls with a proper office headset or video conferencing so that often structures my day

I have to make sure I get up showered, hair washed/dried before starting work. I have tried the lazy stay in PJs, just have a quick wash etc but I just feel yuck if I do and cant concentrate fully.

I have a proper office desk at home where I can close the door on the rest of the house, with a monitor and keyboard to connect the laptop to. It is important if you work at home regularly to have the right equipment at home too to prevent eye strain etc in fact our work insists on it.

As pps have said, sort your desk set-up as that's what's giving you headaches.

Plan your work carefully so you're doing things that are better done on your own. Take breaks - you'll be more efficient anyway. Start and end with a ten minute walk, I have a dog so do this anyway, but it bookends your working day.

When you're done, pack up properly so you're not looking at work stuff all weekend.

I WFH a few days a week at present. I'm not at all productive at the moment (am currently working from my bed) but that's more because I'm not feeling right than because I'm WFH.

Usually I get up and dressed, and block out time in my calendar to get certain things done. I find having meetings from home so much easier with skype, no competing for a meeting room or distractions from colleagues.

I used to find it helpful to change scene. So if I was working on a report, I'd draft the report on the computer, print it out, then move to the big table overlooking the garden to read through the report and do all the cross checking and mark up the corrections.

And of course, take a lunch break, don't eat at the desk.

A friend had a home office in the form of a converted shed in the garden - she said the walk across the garden was a good divide between the working day and leisure time. You could mimic this by always taking a 5 minute walk before starting work, even if it was just round the garden.

I work from home all the time and tbh I hate it. It's so lovely. But it's good pay and flexible with DD so I'll probably keep doing it.

My tips are-

1. Get up and dressed in smart clothes- really helps you feel worky

1. Plan your time impeccably so that you have your day planned

1. Don't beat yourself up for random daydreams. If you were in the office you'd easily spend ten minutes chatting in the kitchen while getting a coffee, so there's nothing wrong with a sanity Mumsnet browse etc

1. Take a lunch break in a different room, preferably go out for a walk to blow away cobwebs.

1. Stand for at least 1 hour of the working day if possible- it really focuses the brain

Same as everyone else says - proper desk, regular breaks, no PJs. And no housework! I might put a wash on - specially if i can hang it outside because it gets some fresh air. But generally i am quite fierce about being at work not doing the hoovering.
I'm "home based" but have to visit projects quite a lot so i organise my week carefully so i have visit or a phone meeting or something most days or I go a bit cabin-fever-y. I need human contanct!
I also occasionally change where I'm sitting just for variety. If I've got reading to do or something i will sit on the sofa for that or maybe go to a cafe. WFH sounds great but I find it quite difficult at times.
And for those asking what we do to WFH, I work for grant-making trust. We give money to charities and community groups to fund their work and i have a "patch" that's too far from head office so i work at home.

I have an hours lunch break so I get my running gear on in the morning first thing, then go do 30min run at 11.45. Shower and am eating (nice) lunch by 12.30. It makes me feel epic and focused all afternoon. I only do it once every two weeks or so but it’s the gold standard!

Somuchchocolatesolittletime
Consultancy in a fairly niche field, but that’s actually pretty essential. I made myself indispensable, and then boldly declared that I will only WFH. I have to go to meetings and write reports, the reports are what I’m doing from home. I have to go out and actually do the thing that requires the reports so, depending on what’s going on, I will try and condense all of that onto Monday and Tuesday or Thursday and Friday. Sometimes I can fit in just one day of practical and then the rest of the week do the reports.

As with Pp, I get up and get showered and dressed like any other day, although more funky or casual. I have tonnes of breaks and I still feel very productive. I treat each stop of the washing machine (then hang out), or load of the dishwasher as a sort of mental break and have a tea or coffee or something. I tend to finish one report per home task that I do, so it breaks it up. I actually don’t think I could do reports on a loop without a break because I need to empty my mind of all the previous facts and then I can whizz through the facts of the next one. I genuinely believe WFH is the best thing I’ve ever wangled! I don’t get this whole procrastination/unmotivated thing at all. I’m so happy to not be on the tube, or working in a too hot or too cold office making small talk in an uncomfortable chair with a manager breathing down my neck - the joy of managing myself makes me feel quite energised.

It depends what you do though. A friend of mine WFH and has a phone buzzing every two minutes like she’s in the office. In theory I could do all of my work in the evening before if I need to do something the next day, because nobody is asking me anything. As long as the reports come in and I answer queries within 24hrs nobody cares where I am. Very rarely have queries though, maybe once a month I’ll get an email asking me to clarify a certain point. Other than that, just a cheery “thanks for sending all these reports through, great work!”, is the most I get really. Some of the reports are discussed in meetings, but I’ve been so cutthroat about not attending meetings that should have been emails, and I think that benefits everyone, that the only meetings I have are necessary and usually very productive.

I work from home a lot. I find getting dressed, breakfast, clean in the morning and then doing the school run helps wake me up. I have a to do list, and my only tendency is to forget to take breaks, so I try to break between tasks, I sometimes do a 10 minute youtube desk yoga video to keep me fresh. I take a v. short lunch-eating break but also take some time then to put a wash in or get some dinner prep or personal admin done.

I enjoy wfh, allows me to concentrate when needed, and as I have a disability also helps manage that.

I was going to echo "take breaks". Gym at lunchtime is good and less crowded then!

Oh and I have a proper home office, which helps.

I'm a very specialist type of civil service professional. Two degrees, CS exams, fairly senior.

Mine: get dressed and start working at the time you would at work. Get up and make a tea at reasonable intervals. Get out at lunch for a walk or walk and get food. Important to get out. Plan what you want to achieve. Good structure helps.

I work from home a lot and I do the school run on foot, come home, make coffee and go to my desk. I don't do housework etc in working time. I do have a browse on MN every so often instead of chatting to colleagues

Download a pomodoro app! Set pomodoros to your preferred length and only work during them. You can break up your day nicely with them and refresh yourself without sacrificing output.

I work from home one day a week and I love it as it means I can drop my daughter from school and pick her up, and also it's just relaxing not having to do a commute each way.
I get up showered and dressed and then have a study area with my laptop, USB mouse, notes etc
Like another poster said I save jobs specifically to do whilst working from home these tend to be data analysis or report writing tasks.
I'm an international business development manager so a lot of my work is involving calling people in all sorts of time zones, so working from home suits me quite well

I work from home as a freelance journalist and agree with most of the tips here. TBH, I’ve always worked in a job where there’s loads of work to do and it usually needs doing that day, so I’ve never really understood this worry about “ooh, I get too distracted , I can’t focus etc.”

Nothing quite as helpful for focussing the mind than someone screaming down the phone: “I need this doing by 3pm today otherwise I’ll not be using you again.”

I work from home about 2 days a week.

First of all, working all day on a laptop is just horrible. If you can get a mouse, keyboard and screen then do it. In my experience, it's also with paying more for a nice big screen, but I work with large data sets and spreadsheets so it depends a bit what you do.

If you can have a separate office space, even if it's not an entire room, that's really helpful, means you're still "going to work"!

If you can spend half an hour or so doing some sort of exercise before work (go for a walk, do some Pilates, get out on your bike, that sort of thing) that might be helpful. It is for me, but I think it does depend on me being a morning person!

Try to keep to regular hours. I don't necessarily do 9 to 5, but then I don't when I go to the office either. I do write down at the beginning of each week when I'm expecting to be working (I have to average a certain number of hours a week), and then I know what I expect my working days to look like. I'm flexible with it - if I need to change something I will - but unless I've got a good reason I'll try to stick to it.

Nothing quite as helpful for focussing the mind than someone screaming down the phone: “I need this doing by 3pm today otherwise I’ll not be using you again.”

Yes that feels quite familiar... I’ve had compliments from clients on my short turnaround times for documents and I tell them that ten years of having your editor breathing down your neck at 11am as you try to put final proofs together before a deadline that lunchtime is marvellous for instilling an intrinsic motivation to work at speed

My deadline situation can be intense as frequently have clients that may literally die before the document is done so I get to scoff at other people’s made up deadlines...