Learn to Love Where you Work
To make the most from working from home.
‘Workin’ 9-5, what a way to make a livin’ may sound lyrically familiar to you, but have you heard of the 5am-9am?
It has become a sensation on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram for ‘early-bird catches the worm’ users to share short video snippets of an insight to their morning routines.
Typically, before starting their day of work. These videos often include activities such as skincare application, journaling, exercising, and choosing their outfit for the day. The intention behind showcasing these habits is to inspire and uplift viewers to follow suit and build their own morning routine, which positively sets them up for the day. Catering to the night owls who find the 5am-9am approach to ‘self-improvement’ exhausting, is the opposing 5pm-9pm. Reflective of ‘winding down’ routines – how time after work is utilised to relax.
To maximise your time pre and post work is desirable to many employees, this could be deemed more achievable if they are able to earn their commute time back by working from home. No more rushing through traffic, waiting at a standstill or cramming onto packed public transport just to get to work on time = less stress and some employees would argue more productivity.
Employers who want to lure their employees back to the office are thinking carefully about making the office a magnet, not a mandate with flexi-working, space for collaboration, focused work and a great culture.
Recent reports indicate that approximately 40% of employed adults have engaged in remote work at least once within the past week. As more individuals reap the benefits of the work from home lifestyle, we’re welcoming in an exciting new era where we’re in full control of our time, both before and after work.
It’s time to start loving where you work.
Is it time to wave goodbye to the traditional office 9-5 grind?
Working remotely provides the ultimate flexibility to tailor your workday to fit your lives. You decide where you work and how you wish to start and end your day.
Many Malvern Garden Building owners have made the leap to garden office working. You can meet them and admire their remote work set ups here.
We’ve put together 5 steps to help you live your best work-from-home life…
Sharon Hornsby's Studio Pent
The Garden Commute
Physically and psychologically preparing for your working day is essential to achieving a healthy work/life balance. The idea of ‘earning the commute’ was introduced by general session panellists at Enterprise Connect 2023 – “if you lose however many hours of your life going to and from work, there had better be a tradeoff, is a radical shift compared to the norms for pre-pandemic knowledge workers.”
It’s not just about saving that commute time; it’s how you can maximise it for what really matters most for you. The time ‘earned back’ either side of your work-from home day could be spending more time with family, having a leisurely breakfast, or getting those endorphins pumping with some exercise!
A garden office or garden studio is a great space for you to remotely work, with a sense of spatial separation for a better work-life balance.
Find your perfect garden building best suited to your needs by taking our garden building match maker quiz.
Find a Substitute for Water Cooler Chat
There are many benefits to working from home but there are also challenges. Some adjustments may be needed to tackle any feelings of isolation or loneliness.
Websites like Remote Workmates make up for the lack of casual conversations you’d have in the office. Or lead the charge and be the one to suggest to your team you have a virtual social gathering.
Avoid Unnecessary Meetings
Endless meetings eat into productivity and de-motivate. Could you get the same results through Microsoft Teams or Slack? Only invite necessary people to essential virtual meetings. Send a recap out afterwards to keep wider in the loop.
To avoid attendees just showing up and thinking out loud, have an agenda so everyone comes prepared and knows what needs to be accomplished. Suggest they come to the meeting with an idea, view, or stance on the next steps to solve a problem.
Build Your Remote Work Toolkit
We’re all now pretty familiar with telephone conferencing and tools such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Skype but how can we up our remote work game? What other time-saving tools can we add to our arsenal? Krisp is a fantastic tool to eliminate background noise e.g. barking dogs, washing machines etc from video calls.
If you need to find out the opinion of your team but don’t want to interrupt their workflow, why not send a poll through Doodle or Polly?
Getting creative remotely can present more of a challenge. We’d suggest using an online whiteboard to help you bounce ideas around like Miro, Stormboard or Limnu.
Organisational tools like Asana, Wrike, Trello and Monday can help you map out a project, create and assign tasks and document deadlines. For an ultimate guide to team collaboration software see here.
Why Not Give Chronoworking a Try?
Another emerging productivity trend is ‘chronoworking’ – working in alignment with your natural circadian rhythm. Better known as your ‘body clock’ to some. Factors such as temperatures, sleep, light and dark all are influential.
The circadian rhythm is a natural, internal process that regulates the sleep-wake cycle and repeats roughly every 24 hours. It plays a crucial role in determining when we feel alert and when we feel sleepy, helping to maintain overall health and well-being.
The upside of working from home can enable you to be in tune with your body, and help you practice chronoworking. For example, scheduling meetings for when you feel your best, tackling heavier tasks at times you feel your energy peaks. You may find that you are more productive when working this way.
