Ten Commandments for Successful Working from Home
1 April 2014
Read by 2059 persons
Translators, graphic designers, writers, consultants, and self-employed individuals... More and more French people are trying to make their homes their offices. But it's not always easy to work without colleagues, schedules, or meetings.
How to successfully balance personal and professional life, fight procrastination, and avoid isolation? While increasingly popular, working from home continues to worry French employees and their employers. As remote work is about to be included in the French labor code, Christie Vanbremeersch and Marie Bousquet published 35 tips for better working from home (Leduc ed.). Here are ten commandments to become a perfect home worker.
Set up a "Feng Shui" Office
Finding the ideal place to work from home is the first challenge for a teleworker. Among the best practices for a zen office and worker, it's advised not to set up "a computer in your bedroom [because] Wi-Fi emits harmful waves," advise the two authors. To be more "Feng Shui" and therefore less anxious, avoid working facing a wall and prefer having a view of the entire room. Finally, don't work in a cramped space without a window, so you can benefit from solar energy. Well-being is also in the office.
Invest in Adequate Equipment
A rolling table for some, an ergonomic and comfortable armchair for others, or even a collection of pleasant decorative objects around us: work stimulation also comes from an aesthetically pleasing and suitable material environment. We know: when we love something, we don't count...the time we spend at work.
Tidy Up Quickly and Efficiently
A pile of papers threatening to collapse from the corner of your table, leftover food lying around...It's stressful, cluttered, and ultimately not good for concentration. Tidy up your workspace for a clearer mind. But how not to waste your afternoon playing housekeeper rather than working on your professional projects? By adopting, for example, the American "Fly lady" method, suggest Christie Vanbremeersch and Marie Bousquet: clean and tidy zone by zone, a different place each day.
Meet Clients at a Café
Meeting clients in the living room of your studio apartment doesn't seem to be the panacea for professional credibility. And the thunderous arrival of children during a meeting can harm your image. The conclusion seems clear: it's difficult to welcome partners and clients into our homes, a place of intimacy. "Receiving clients and partners at home is an exercise that is both convivial and perilous," note the authors. "This involves being alone at home and receiving your interlocutors in a reception room or an office that is tidy, uncluttered, and clean." To avoid being caught off guard, with an unmade bed and late ironing, why not opt for meetings in cafes? They are pleasant and neutral.
Establish a Real Schedule
Breakfast, jogging, reading the newspaper...Take the time to start your day serenely with some time for yourself. Break up the rest of the day into work sequences and breaks, using timers, for example. Don't forget to stop working for lunch and at the end of the day. Optimize your schedule by setting deadlines—constraints of delivery limits—and daily goals, and learn to say no to certain leisure requests.
Find Anti-Procrastination Solutions
Procrastination, or the art of postponing a task until tomorrow, later, or never. The teleworker will, for example, become passionate about an ironing session—however much they hate it the rest of the time—rather than writing a chapter or an important report. To remedy this drift, the to-do list is booming. Another solution to motivate yourself: disconnect your phone and internet for a few hours.
Intersperse Your Days with Human Presence
Working from home seems synonymous, for many employees, with solitary work. This loss of sociability is often a barrier to teleworking. However, there are solutions to remedy this: work meetings with colleagues, professional or friendly lunches, or even sporting activities...teleworking does not mean staying isolated at home.
Try "Work Buddy"
The work buddy—an American concept, of course—consists, according to Christie Vanbremeersch and Marie Bousquet, of "finding one or more people who share affinities with you (colleagues, but not necessarily) on whom you can rely during difficult times," and with whom you can share disappointments, "good deals," or ask for help. The program for meetings with your work buddy includes running workshops or a network in common, setting up weekly discussion meetings, etc.
List Your Successes
Career progression prospects, when working alone, are not the most obvious. To avoid demotivation, you can list your past successes by asking yourself a few questions: what qualities were used to achieve your goal? What solutions and approaches made it work? Another technique: note the compliments, if justified, from your loved ones. This is enough to boost your morale...and your ambitions.
Allow Yourself a Nap
Napping at work is slowly gaining ground in companies. This break is said to be a factor of well-being, even increasing vigilance and concentration at work. So why not try it at home? Ten to twenty minutes maximum, between 1 pm and 4 pm, just to recover...and gain efficiency. "Set your alarm, unplug your phone, and off you go for a little nap!" advise the authors.
Floriane Salgues.
Lexpress.fr
Published on March 14, 2014.
Posted online on April 1, 2014.
How to successfully balance personal and professional life, fight procrastination, and avoid isolation? While increasingly popular, working from home continues to worry French employees and their employers. As remote work is about to be included in the French labor code, Christie Vanbremeersch and Marie Bousquet published 35 tips for better working from home (Leduc ed.). Here are ten commandments to become a perfect home worker.
Set up a "Feng Shui" Office
Finding the ideal place to work from home is the first challenge for a teleworker. Among the best practices for a zen office and worker, it's advised not to set up "a computer in your bedroom [because] Wi-Fi emits harmful waves," advise the two authors. To be more "Feng Shui" and therefore less anxious, avoid working facing a wall and prefer having a view of the entire room. Finally, don't work in a cramped space without a window, so you can benefit from solar energy. Well-being is also in the office.
Invest in Adequate Equipment
A rolling table for some, an ergonomic and comfortable armchair for others, or even a collection of pleasant decorative objects around us: work stimulation also comes from an aesthetically pleasing and suitable material environment. We know: when we love something, we don't count...the time we spend at work.
Tidy Up Quickly and Efficiently
A pile of papers threatening to collapse from the corner of your table, leftover food lying around...It's stressful, cluttered, and ultimately not good for concentration. Tidy up your workspace for a clearer mind. But how not to waste your afternoon playing housekeeper rather than working on your professional projects? By adopting, for example, the American "Fly lady" method, suggest Christie Vanbremeersch and Marie Bousquet: clean and tidy zone by zone, a different place each day.
Meet Clients at a Café
Meeting clients in the living room of your studio apartment doesn't seem to be the panacea for professional credibility. And the thunderous arrival of children during a meeting can harm your image. The conclusion seems clear: it's difficult to welcome partners and clients into our homes, a place of intimacy. "Receiving clients and partners at home is an exercise that is both convivial and perilous," note the authors. "This involves being alone at home and receiving your interlocutors in a reception room or an office that is tidy, uncluttered, and clean." To avoid being caught off guard, with an unmade bed and late ironing, why not opt for meetings in cafes? They are pleasant and neutral.
Establish a Real Schedule
Breakfast, jogging, reading the newspaper...Take the time to start your day serenely with some time for yourself. Break up the rest of the day into work sequences and breaks, using timers, for example. Don't forget to stop working for lunch and at the end of the day. Optimize your schedule by setting deadlines—constraints of delivery limits—and daily goals, and learn to say no to certain leisure requests.
Find Anti-Procrastination Solutions
Procrastination, or the art of postponing a task until tomorrow, later, or never. The teleworker will, for example, become passionate about an ironing session—however much they hate it the rest of the time—rather than writing a chapter or an important report. To remedy this drift, the to-do list is booming. Another solution to motivate yourself: disconnect your phone and internet for a few hours.
Intersperse Your Days with Human Presence
Working from home seems synonymous, for many employees, with solitary work. This loss of sociability is often a barrier to teleworking. However, there are solutions to remedy this: work meetings with colleagues, professional or friendly lunches, or even sporting activities...teleworking does not mean staying isolated at home.
Try "Work Buddy"
The work buddy—an American concept, of course—consists, according to Christie Vanbremeersch and Marie Bousquet, of "finding one or more people who share affinities with you (colleagues, but not necessarily) on whom you can rely during difficult times," and with whom you can share disappointments, "good deals," or ask for help. The program for meetings with your work buddy includes running workshops or a network in common, setting up weekly discussion meetings, etc.
List Your Successes
Career progression prospects, when working alone, are not the most obvious. To avoid demotivation, you can list your past successes by asking yourself a few questions: what qualities were used to achieve your goal? What solutions and approaches made it work? Another technique: note the compliments, if justified, from your loved ones. This is enough to boost your morale...and your ambitions.
Allow Yourself a Nap
Napping at work is slowly gaining ground in companies. This break is said to be a factor of well-being, even increasing vigilance and concentration at work. So why not try it at home? Ten to twenty minutes maximum, between 1 pm and 4 pm, just to recover...and gain efficiency. "Set your alarm, unplug your phone, and off you go for a little nap!" advise the authors.
Floriane Salgues.
Lexpress.fr
Published on March 14, 2014.
Posted online on April 1, 2014.
