Tips on Working From Home... Full-Time

Working from home?... Is that working for you?

3 years ago I did the unthinkable and left Sydney for a sea change. And I was 40 at the time, and not retiring. Somehow the universe rewarded me for that bold move and I managed to secure a global role with my employer at the time, working from home full-time. Living.The.Dream, I hear you say. And it kinda was but let me share my top tips on working virtually.

Everyone’s doing it and it’s not going away so if your boss isn’t in favour of you working from home now, even just one day a week then they’re probably never going to change and let me tell you, I think it’s because they don’t trust you. Sorry.

Don’t abuse the trust. And that is vital for you and for the broader employee community desperate for a more harmonious life. So make sure you’re available. Send that email at 8am so they know you’re out of bed.

Set and manage expectations. Somehow people think that if you are working from home, you should be chained to your desk. Even so, people spend very little quality time at their desk in the office, in my experience anyway. So be transparent about what you are doing and when and don't apologise for being offline when you're solving that big meaty challenge. I used to have my outlook calendar open to everyone so they could see my meetings and tasks.

Know yourself and organise your day a.k.a. fail to plan, plan to fail. You will need to kick your own butt at times because you’ll be on your own in your office with no one watching so schedule your tasks, your breaks and eat the frog… I would do my most important tasks first thing so they weren’t hanging over my head all day, then I would go for a run mid morning, do more work, break for lunch and then plough on through the rest of the day like a mad woman.

Make the most of it. People who don’t work full-time from home think it is the absolute bomb when in actual fact it can be ridiculously isolating…so make sure you enjoy the positives, go out for lunch, socialise with other locals and walk that little bit slower!

Agree? Disagree? Different experiences? What are your top tips?