Working from home; is that not what we’ve all been striving for? I remember as a child the tongue-in-cheek scenario of robots stealing all of our future jobs. When it started creeping up on some people, the actual terror set in; technology would be the death of us all. Without being too philosophical about it inverse is true right now; we are the death of one another and technology is here to help save us from ourselves.
In a typical week, I work full-time as a web designer, work as a part-time professor in News Design, and write horror fiction. Within a week I also contribute to a column for the Horror Writers Association and create YouTube videos in between leisure activities. Not much of this changed over the last month that I have had to work from home. All of these tasks take place in front of a computer screen more often than not.
I have been lucky in a lot of respects, working from home from time to time over the past year. Being technologically inclined, I have enough gear to replicate a robust office. I work for two institutions that are also technologically robust and agile enough to handle the large proportion if not all of their workforce being remote.
This is a big change from six years ago when I was working in the hotel industry.
There is no way without face-to-face customer service that I would still work there right now and feel healthy, and I am certain I would have been laid off for lack of work. It is true that many of these tips that people are sharing for working from home have a dark side. They apply to a minority of people capable of a nine-to-five job from home when many people cannot work or are overworked and need to maintain hands-on and face-to-face positions.
For me, my schedule is about the same with a bit of extra downtime at the beginning and end of my day. The biggest difference is the lack of a commute. Some unforeseen benefits have been stronger nails and clearer skin. This could have something to do with using my Mac keyboard which is flatter than the keyboard I used at the office. This could be something to do with the lack of UV rays I get in a day. It could have something to do with forced air heat vs. electric. I have a tighter rein on my nutrition so what goes into my body could have an impact. All else is basically unchanged.
From what I’ve gathered many people struggling are those with children at home or have insufficient technological means. Replicating an office from work or working with a client base has technological barriers is impossible.
For some, the struggle sounds very first world; working from home is simply awkward.
The New Schedule
It is true what people have been saying about putting on makeup or dressing for work; however it is you normally get ready for a day when you’re not having to stay at home.
Even when I’m not having to stay in the house because of a provincial order I typically put on my work clothes and get up at the same time to have my coffee like I normally would. I do all the things that I would do if I was getting on the bus. With that extra hour, I may play a video game or read a book or something of leisure, though more often I work on what would otherwise have spilled over to my evening or weekend. This includes paying bills, working on emails that are not related to my day jobs, or anything else that is not strictly leisure. This is also an excellent time for yoga or a walk around the neighbourhood.
Wiggling in Some Exercise
Commuting to work offers a little exercise, not as much for those who drive but for those who take the bus or walk. It is surprising how those footsteps add up.
I was averaging about 5000 to 6000 steps a day just by going to work. That didn’t include times when I would go shopping or take a deliberate walk. At home, however, that dips down to less than a thousand if I don’t get out twice a day for an actual walk just to get moving. I could jog up and down the stairs for no reason at all or take the dogs out seven times more than they need to, or take on the somewhat viral challenge of climbing a mountain on the stairs in your home but it doesn’t offer those same visual stimuli that going outside does. I’ve personally been staying close to home too, as taking an epic walking adventure across the city can’t fit into a workday or my personal germ-containment ethics.
It may not be apparent that you’d have to give up your break time or stretch your breaks and use that time you have in the morning where you’re not commuting to get a little stroll in. Too many imagine working from home as a free-for-all, but when being held accountable, breaks happen at the same time they do in the office.
On Taking Breaks
Maybe stretching your break time isn’t a terrible idea. Perhaps the pipe dream of working at home included taking two-hour lunches and three breaks a day and it’s not the reality so disappointment has set in. It also has to do with how much duplication there is between your job at your desk in your workplace and your job at your desk in your home. For some there’s not a vast difference; even if you’re not conducting meetings or classes online it really may be very similar to what you would do face to face.
For many, their workday is very different and may include a lot more downtime or quiet than they are unaccustomed to. On one hand, you could feel bad that you’re not able to take a break as you normally would and it may throw your system off. Having a book or video to watch in-between may help but it is still better to structure that time too.
Even if you are going to bed at the same time getting ample rest, eating well, staying hydrated and coming to work with your best foot forward; having a different schedule each day where distractions and leisure guide your productivity would take a lot more getting used to than three or four weeks. The only way around that is to work with these new schedules to create a break every hour if you need to; that makes you feel you are still adhering to some schedule and are available. Your work should interrupt your leisure during work hours, not the other way around.
Your Home Office
Part of that schedule could very well be entering a space in which you would work. Studying or working from home, or having worked on a project that is extracurricular, we require a space in which to do that which is for nothing but doing that work. As a writer, I often use a particular space and have established myself in office space so to speak, since I was very young. 
Some people have a space that did not feel like an office at first glance but offers the same benefit, such as a reading nook. If there was a spot that you would go to read that could very well fire up the same synapses that you require to do your daily work.
Some people use the kitchen table that they maybe haven’t popped a book open on since they were in high school but that may be the exact place you need to be with your laptop and your coffee mug. A good stand-in for those that work or read in a pub or cafe. It’s really up to the individual whether you face a window or have background music on or access to other technological diversions but it’s really about replicating your workplace or desk layout as close as you can. you could try to replicate your dream office and put some house plants beside a window but this may not compliment the work that you’re used to doing; it may not be conducive to finding this new routine in the quickest most pain-free manner. Maybe it’s best to introduce those dream office elements slowly, once you’re comfortable working from home at all.
While one of my workplaces strives to move closer to having a workforce that can work from home or share space when they are in-house, the other strives to return to the normalcy of face-to-face meetings. I refuse to wax philosophical on the benefits of either and it really depends on the workplace environment and what’s best for those served in that environment. I’m comfortable in either scenario. While I prefer going out and feeling the workday as it ought to be in my mind with the rigidity of a schedule and built-in exercise, that can be replicated at home.
There can be some entertainment found in how awkward and confusing it is to work at home for some. With dogs barking, housemates begging and equal frustration on both ends of that; being used to an at-home workday while others are unable or unwilling to treat the workday much the same can make a quick meeting feel twice as long. Patience has been one constant there, and it truly is helpful to witness a month of journalists and politicians weathering the same choppy technological sea.
Hopefully, being able to sift through a lot of the work from home tips and tactics popularized online may help others ease into it a little better. The goal now can be having less awkward Zoom meetings, less awkward emails, and lifting this nation-wide foggy feeling of not knowing what day it is once we lean into this new and unexpected freedom.