Useful tips for working from home

We know it's not always easy working from home. You may be easily distracted, miss human interaction, or simply don't have the right working environment. Our team at The Marketing Collective often work remotely, so we've put together some useful tips for working from home.

Mindset

• Get dressed for work - It is a mindset thing and it will help with productivity. We’re not saying to sit at home in a suit but something more than your pyjamas or comfies will help with your mindset.
• Go for a short walk before you start. The motion of leaving the house and walking back in ready for work. It could just be around the block.
• Ignore the household chores! It’s very easy to get distracted from work, especially when you think ‘I should just wash-up’. Leave it! You are at work and have a guilt-free excuse to leave that until later. 

It's a mindset thing...

Our MD Jo is known to put a pair of heels on to do the school run - leaving the house as ‘mum’ and then coming back through the door as MD! 

Well being

• Exercise. Whether it’s a walk, run, cycle, or yoga, get your body moving!
• Eat well. Make sure you have lunch and tea breaks, but avoid picking at the biscuits! It can be easy to get into bad habits with easy access to the food cupboard! 
• Set up a dedicating working area. Even if just a corner of a room, it’s good to have an area that is for work only, that you can leave at the end of the day!
• Take regular breaks away from your screen. It’s so easy to sit there and lose track of time if there aren’t others around you, set an alarm if need be to remind you to take a break. 
• Talk to someone. Whether by phone or video chat, it will help stop you feeling isolated if you can communicate with a colleague or client. 

Time management

• Set a default diary, a breakdown of your day, so you break your day into tasks. Set out when you will be focusing on things like emails or a particular project, and don’t forget those breaks! 
• Try the ‘Pomodoro technique’ which is a very simple method to help with productivity and focus. 

Productivity 

1. Make it a ‘Ta Dah’ list - it’s much more fun ticking of something with a sparkle of ‘ta-dah’
2. Brain dump EVERYTHING on a Monday morning. Both work and personal stuff that needs to be done. Get it all down on paper.
3. Now use a traffic light colour-coding system to organise what is a priority. Red urgent, Orange this week, Green - can roll to next week.
4. Review your list and then mark which of the red are ‘quick’ and those that need time and allocate time in your diary.
5. Pick out the reds and oranges that are your frogs! The ones that you KEEP putting off and therefore are becoming more and more of a mammoth task.
6. Eat a frog for breakfast EVERY day! Before you do or start anything else - tackle one of those tasks you’ve been putting off - you will soon realise that it’s not that bad and you then have the rest of the day to get on with things!

Plan your tasks for when your brain is working at it’s most productive:

Morning: PEAK  
This is when you are at your most vigilant so a good time to do analytical work. Time to get your head down and focus your attention.
Tasks to do - Report writing, stats and analytics, planning, money mastery. 

Lunchtime: TROUGH
We all dip/slump. Not the time to do anything that requires too much brainpower. Good time to work on admin.
Tasks to do - Filing, replying to emails. 

Late afternoon: RECOVERY  
Our moods are high. Not the time to be vigilant. Best time to do creative work and insight work.
Tasks to do: campaign creation, brainstorming ideas.

We hope these useful tips for working from home have helped!

You can download as a pdf.
Why not connect with us on Facebook and tell us what you do to help you focus at home. If you need help working remotely why not get in touch.