Top 10 Tips for Making the Transition to Working from Home

Jamie Jean Schneider Domm

Digital Strategist, Social Media + Big Data, North American Division

Angeline Brauer

Director, Health Ministries, North American Division

​How to bring the workspace into the home space 

Many organizations are creating opportunities and policies for working remotely—and not only to promote social distancing during the current COVID-19 pandemic. As early as 2012, nearly 39% of employees spent some portion of their working hours outside the office, according to Gallup.
 
Making the transition to working from home can be challenging on several levels. Here are 10 tips to help bring the workspace into the home space.

1. Create or maintain structure in your day. We’re creatures of habit, and these habits can be a healthy means to order our lives. For many, the transition to working at home may be a rather shocking change from our usual routines and patterns. To help ease this transition and to avoid feelings of unease, you could try adapting the work routines you’ve developed over your career to your new reality. In some cases, creating a new structure may be helpful.
   
   Suggestions:
   1. Stick to your normal schedule as much as possible, including your usual wake-up and sleep times and lunch breaks.
   2. Keep your scheduled breaks at the same time, including getting up to stretch and move throughout the day. Meet with the same people you usually meet with via telephone or video tools like Zoom and FaceTime.
   3. Keep your lunch break at the same time, and eat with the people you usually eat with using video conferencing technology like Zoom or FaceTime.
   4. Keep your lunch prep routine. If you normally prepare your lunch the night before, keep doing that. Or if you normally go out to eat, take advantage of healthy drive-throughs that are still open, or support local restaurants by ordering delivery. If neither of these work, then take time during your normally scheduled lunch break to prepare a healthy meal.
   5. Stay hydrated. If you normally have a bottle of water at your desk, be sure to keep this healthy habit going. If not, now is a good time to increase your water intake and create a new healthy habit.
   6. Use digital tools like Zoom to keep your regularly scheduled prayer and Bible study group times. Not only will this allow you to keep in touch with people, but it will help you stay spiritually fed.
      
      
2. Keep moving. Your health has never been more important and social isolation could lead to reduced physical activity. Here are some ways to counteract this:
   1. Maintain your morning “commute.” Take a 10- or 20-minute walk before you start your day. This will not only get your blood flowing but will help create a sense of “going somewhere” before you start your workday. Walking outside is best, but if that is not possible, walk inside on a treadmill or follow an exercise or stretching video. YouTube offers a lot of free options. If possible, stand while working or walk in place during long phone calls.
   2. Get moving on your lunch break. Take a 10-minute walk, follow an exercise video, or engage in another physical activity.
   3. Transition your walking groups. Call each other as you walk, or video chat on Zoom as you walk in place or pace around the room.
   4. Take 5-minute breaks every hour. Set an alarm to make sure you remember to stand up, stretch, breathe deeply, and drink water once an hour. If possible, step outside or at least go to a window. Short breaks can help give your brain a break, helping you maintain focus throughout the day. They can also help keep you from going stir crazy if you’re tired of being stuck at home in a chair.
      
      
3. Get ready for work. Mindset is everything. Keeping your routine also means getting ready for work like you normally would. By getting dressed and cleaned up as if you were going into the office (including putting on makeup if that’s your thing), you help get yourself into the mindset of working. Plus, you never know when an unexpected video call might come in.
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4. Utilize digital tools for face-to-face work interactions. If you would normally get up and go to speak to someone in the office, connect with them via video call. Look for opportunities to meet face-to-face in the digital space whenever it makes sense. Social distancing doesn’t mean that we have to grow apart in our work and personal relationships. Many conversations are more productive when you can see each other’s expressions and hear each other’s tone of voice.
   
   
5. Stay connected. The mental health toll of social distancing is likely to impact our extroverted brothers and sisters the most, but even introverts need connection. It’s important not to work in complete isolation. In fact, many people are significantly more productive when they can engage with others frequently. Feeling disconnected can lead to depression, which not only makes being productive more challenging but also takes a toll on a person’s overall health. Make sure to use video tools as much as possible and utilize other digital tools to stay connected throughout the day. Consider the following:
   1. Use Microsoft teams to stay in touch and collaborate with your co-workers as you work together on projects.
   2. Send texts throughout the day and share pictures with friends and family.
   3. Keep chat boxes open to chitchat with the coworkers you would normally interact with during the day. These short interactions can increase productivity and help you feel less isolated.
   4. We’ve said this once before, but keep your social appointments via video tools.
   5. Caution: if social media has a tendency to rob you of time, you’ll want to keep it at a healthy distance during work hours.
      
      
6. Set time boundaries between your work and personal life. Start and end your workday as usual, making a clear distinction between work time and family time to maintain a healthy work/life balance. It’s tempting to check email when your computer is still open. Close up your work computer and enjoy an evening with family and friends. Being stuck at home can be a wonderful positive in terms of having time to develop the close bonds of marriage and parent-child relationships. Conversely, this also means setting boundaries so that members of the household respect your work time and refrain from unnecessary disruptions.
   
   
7. Create a workspace separate from the rest of the house. This is a healthy mental trick to help you leave work “at work” when the day is done. Create a space where you go only to work, separate from the rest of the home. If a closed-off room is not available, this could be a desk or table in the corner of a room. This is especially important if you have children who may cause distractions. Sit near a window if possible; the natural light will be good for you. Declutter your workspace as you end your “office hours.” This can help you close out the work day and transition to family time, and will prepare you to start work the next morning without distractions.
   
   
8. Be thoughtful in how you share a workspace. Some of us may need to share our home office or desk space with a spouse, housemate, or children. This can promote great bonding, but it can also pose significant challenges. You can create an environment that promotes a good working relationship with these new “colleagues.” Here are some tips to help:
   1. Use a headset to limit distractions for your office mate during calls.
   2. Coordinate meeting times so you’re not talking over each other.
   3. Be ready to move to another room if needed.
   4. Take lunch breaks with your “office mate” to avoid tension and decompress from work.
   5. Respect each other’s space and work style. Don’t play music or talk continually if it distracts your partner. Some people are more productive with background noise; others require silence to focus.
      
      
9. Find ways to help your children adapt and stay busy. Working while kids are at home can be a challenge. Here are some suggestions that may help:  
   1. Create structure in their day and keep them productive. This will not only help you get work done but also help them adapt to this disruption in their routine. Try to keep their schedule similar to what it was before by having them eat at the same time, exercise during their regular physical education time or recess, take naps at their usual time, and study at their usual times. For babies, if you haven’t gotten them on a schedule, now would be a good time to create structure in their day. I (Jamie Domm) have been able to balance working from home with an infant by getting my daughter into a predictable pattern of eat-wake-sleep. This allows me to schedule meetings during her nap times and plan out my day so I work in between her feeding schedule. Even though she goes off schedule during growth spurts, this system helps me dramatically in meeting my work demands.
   2. Keep them learning. If online learning offered by their regular school is not an option or access to computers is limited, this is a good time to read books, watch educational material on TV or online, and explore other ways of learning. This is also a great opportunity for kids to learn responsibility around the house and basic life skills such as cooking, meal-planning, cleaning, taking care of pets, doing laundry, etc. Make sure to keep duties age-appropriate. For a child who dislikes school, this may be a much-needed detox that allows them to focus on their areas of interest outside of school. The day doesn’t have to be filled with academics when there’s a world of learning available in so many different formats. Here are some Adventist Education Resources:
      1. AE Tech Blog – COVID-19 – Join the community and post what YOU are doing in your school to manage during these times. Your ideas are valued!
      2. AE Tech Online Resources – COVID-19
      3. Adventist Education Official Resources for COVID-19
      4. Children's Resources from Digital Discipleship in the Seventh-Day Adventist Church
         
         
   3. Have them read or watch educational material. This is a great time for kids to read or re-read some classics or learn through educational content provided online.
   4. Let them steer some of their own learning. It’s a fact of human nature that at any age, we spend more time on the things we are the most passionate about. Child-led learning can keep kids occupied for hours. This is also a way to reward them for accomplishing the tasks they favor less.
   5. Use the time to work on their weak points. Perhaps your child struggles with math: now’s the time to find some online programs or order some workbooks to keep them busy.
   6. Find out what motivates your child (but be careful not to incentivize with sweets.) This can help keep them motivated to learn and explore on their own. Often the treat that children enjoy the most is uninterrupted time spent with you—their parents and heroes.
   7. Take breaks with your children. Let them know that while your work boundaries must be respected, that doesn’t mean you’re not there for them. Eat with older children, do a physical activity with them, or plan an evening family activity together.
   8. Let them play outside. Remember what we all did as kids before the Internet? Kids can go stir-crazy spending all day in the house. If possible, let them go outside and play while you take that important call.
   9. Work while they sleep. Do your most focused work when the kids are in bed or down for a nap, but try to make sure you are getting enough rest as well. You don’t want to drag down your immune system, making you more vulnerable to illness.
   10. Partner with a spouse or another adult member of the household. If both parents must work from home, rotate who has responsibility for the children. Taking shifts will allow you to plan when you can do your most focused work.
   11. Have older kids help. In cases where older kids are in the household, consider asking them to watch over their younger siblings for an hour or two a day. They can help mentor them, keep them occupied with games, or read to them.
   12. Accept that you may not have any free time. This is going to be a hard time for working parents, but accepting the new reality will help you enjoy the extra time you normally wouldn’t get with your children.
       
       
10. Stuck at home and can’t work: take advantage of free online education opportunities. While we’re all doing our part to stay home and flatten the curve, some people may be left without work or without enough work to fill their day. One great way to make this time matter is to use it for personal development and growth. Let’s pray that this great act of solidarity not only saves the lives of the most vulnerable among us but results in a generation that emerges from this unprecedented experience with more skills, ready to re-enter the workforce better and stronger than before.
    1. 450 FREE Online Ivy League Courses
    2. Adventist Learning Community

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BONUS TIP FROM JAMIE DOMM

Guard the edges of your day. Start and end the day without social media and laptops. I can easily become consumed by digital tools and technologies; it’s my job at least eight hours a day. If I don’t set healthy boundaries for myself, the negative aspects of digital and social media start to drag me down and prevent me from really resting. Rest can take many forms, but I cannot rest by spending hours on my personal social media (or on my laptop) when I work all day on those same platforms. What many consider a pleasure just feels like more work. When I’m not working, I consume media and information the old-fashioned way by reading magazines and books. Also, in the morning, I make it a point to follow Jesus’ example and begin with solitary prayer and Bible study…with a physical Bible.

“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.” – Mark 1:35 NIV

The peace of the morning enables me to think clearly and connect with God. I know that the moment work begins, I will be connected on multiple platforms for at least the next eight hours, so this “analog” devotional time is sacred. When the day is done, I disconnect and again turn to print material, exercise, and face-to-face conversations to help me wind down. Staying connected online throughout the evening can disrupt your sleep and result in depression. If you browse social media to stave off loneliness and pain, you will find the exact opposite of what you’re looking for, especially in these uncertain times.

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ONE FINAL THOUGHT BY ANGELINE BRAUER

If you are feeling lonely and isolated, remember that someone else is probably feeling that way, too. How can you use this opportunity to connect or reconnect with someone? If you pray about it, God may just whisper a name to you. Why not reach out and connect with them?

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