Working From Home how to adjust

Working From Home how to adjust Working From Home: how to adjust 16 Mar 2020 Gordon Johnstone At the risk of dating this article, it’s safe to say that much of the world is going to find that working from home becomes a big part of their lives very shortly. To that end we have compiled a few useful tips to make the shift in environment a little bit easier. Mental Health If you’re not used to working from home it can be quite a shock to the system. Here are a few ideas to ease the transition and protect your mental health: Stick to your normal routine â€" get up at the same time, get fully dressed for work, and treat it like any regular working day. This will help you keep the right frame of mind for getting everything done throughout the day. Stay active â€" this applies when you’re in an office as well; make sure you’re frequently taking breaks and walking around a bit. Staying active not only serves to break up the day, but it also helps your brain compartmentalize and process all the information it is receiving. Eat well â€" it’s important to make sure your diet doesn’t suffer when your situation changes; breakfast, lunch and dinner are all equally important. Working from home can also be a good opportunity to dive into weekly meal preparation â€" there’s an excellent subreddit dedicated to this. Stay in touch â€" socializing is a big part of working life and when that is removed it can have an impact on your mental health. Drop your colleagues an email to see how they’re doing or, if you use a tool like Slack, get in touch with people and see how they’re adjusting to working from home. Sometimes a shared experience is a more manageable one. Video A while ago we wrote a blog about how to prepare for your next video interview. In some spectacular forward-thinking on our part (or a blind coincidence - either way) the advice we wrote is just as applicable to working from home. We go over how to make sure your environment is up to scratch, steps to make sure your tech doesn’t let you down, and some advice on how to come across well on video. Video interviews are likely to become much more common in the future, so becoming comfortable with them now can put you ahead of the game by quite some distance. Storage If you don’t already, now is an excellent time to backup all your files to some kind of cloud storage. Whether it’s Dropbox or Google Drive, being able to access your files from anywhere is going to be essential when you’re working from home. It’s also good practice should something untoward happen to your computer. Expenses It’s worth checking to see if your company provides any recompense for using your own equipment while working from home to compensate for the additional wear and tear your equipment will face. You can also sometimes claim tax relief when working from home â€" here is some information from the UK government that might be helpful. As so many commentators have said recently â€" we’re finally going to find out which of those meetings could have been emails. We’re living in unprecedented times and things will undoubtedly be tough; looking after your mental health is more important than ever. The world is still turning and the wheels of industry are still spinning â€" if you feel that the time has come for a new challenge (or perhaps you really enjoy working from home and want to find an employer that encourages it) get in touch today and we’ll help you find your next adventure.