Tips for working from home (remote or hybrid)

Working from home is full of distractions. There’s the sink full of dishes and dust bunnies in the corner, not to mention other family members who may be home. Too many distractions impact your productivity. It’s essential to create the right kind of ebb and flow that helps you be productive without creating burnout in the process.

Christine recommends punctuating your remote work day with rituals that give it a predictable structure. Simple actions or objects give your mind and body cues that it’s either time to work or take a break. These are especially helpful at the beginning and end of your workday, but they also can signal when it’s time to take a break.

Try these rituals:

• Light a candle or make coffee at the beginning of the day
• Eat lunch in a separate room or space—not in front of your computer.
• Step outside in mid-afternoon for fresh air and sunshine
• Close down your workstation at the end of the day. Shut the door or use a room divider. Heck, throw a colorful scarf over your computer monitor to signal that you are off the clock.
• Incorporate body doubling—a strange name for a productivity hack that many people—especially those with ADHD—find helpful. Body doubling means having another (quiet) person nearby while you work—virtually or in person. Ask a colleague to do it with you or try a service like Focus-mate that pairs remote workers with a virtual work buddy.

Once you have a general structure to your day, add in some wellness hacks. These are a perfect way to practice self-care during the day so that you can do your best work.

• Keep tactile objects—paperweights, fidget toys, textured stickers, or calming strips—nearby
• Play deep-focus music
• Chew gum or keep mints handy
• Use a timer to schedule movement breaks
• Walk back and forth during calls and use a standing desk to prevent sitting too long

Schedule lunch with colleagues during your onsite days. If you work remotely full-time, initiate a virtual coffee break and invite others on your team to join.

When you work remotely, it can be hard to know how well you’re doing in your job. In person, you have more frequent contact with coworkers or supervisors. You often receive informal feedback from these interactions. Don’t sit and wonder (and worry!) about your performance. Take charge of how people perceive you by staying in frequent contact during the week.

Christine recommends a powerful strategy to her associates who work remotely—sending a weekly email to your supervisor and your team.

In the email, share with them:

• a wrap-up of what you’ve been working on
• what you’ve accomplished
• where you’re encountering difficulties

Sending a weekly email may seem like one more thing to add to your to-do list, but it can pay off in more ways than one.

• You hold yourself accountable to provide value to your company, your clients, and your team
• Writing the email gives you time to reflect on your successes and challenges for the week
• You help alleviate the fear that people are going to forget about you when you’re not in the office
• On days that it feels like you got “nothing done,” the weekly email is proof that you did

Best of all, you’ll have a written record of your accomplishments. This is especially helpful when it’s time for performance reviews. Weekly emails document your growth over time and demonstrate that you are self-reflective about your own strengths and stumbling blocks.

Just as individuals are adjusting to remote and hybrid work situations, so are companies. They don’t have it all figured out. Christine says, “Organizations are still figuring out the right mix,” when it comes to balancing company needs and supporting their workers.

While the majority of people prefer to work remotely at least some of the time (some estimates suggest the number is as high as 98%), companies value having staff onsite. From a company’s perspective, having workers onsite has multiple benefits, including building stronger relationships among team members. However, the appeal of remote work for employees can’t be denied either—more independence, flexibility, and a better work/life balance. This is to say that your preference for remote work options may be in conflict with what your company wants.

Remote policies are continually evolving. Christine stresses that nothing is set in stone when it comes to remote work policies. Job seekers and new hires should be prepared for changes to take place at any time.

If you’re applying to a company and a remote work option is important to you, look at how the company approaches getting people back in the office. It says something about a company’s culture if they go about encouraging this behavior in a positive way as opposed to a punitive approach.

Some examples of positive approaches:

• Contributing to an employee’s charity of choice for each day they work onsite
• Paying for a catered lunch or food trucks one day a week
• Prioritizing relationship-building over production during in-office days
• Implementing periodic training so employees can learn together in teams or across departments

There are challenges to staying connected and managing your day while working from home. With the right tools and strategies, though, it’s possible to succeed and even advance in a remote position.