WFH Tips

Been a while since I experienced my first time working from home (WFH). So here’s sharing some things I do to better manage my WFH schedule: 

• Eat my breakfast before work and something very light for lunch. Heavy meals make me sleepy. Have a glass of water beside me through the day and make it a point to hydrate well. 

• Strictly no meeting with my team before 10am. They need to settle their kids, elderly parents etc. But they can arrange meeting with me. 

• Block time for work. Learned this over time cos I noted people have the tendency to book my schedule as long as there's any slot unblocked (even 15min slots). 

• Block time to rest & have meals. Ditto above altho I admit I have not done this sufficiently well enough. But this must take priority cos very often I do end up totally exhausted at the end of my workday and have still not done any work, clear emails, etc. 

• Shower to refresh myself mid-day or before a heavy going meeting. It's the more effective perk-me-up measure and keeps me alert. And of cos, it helps that I enter meetings looking refreshed. 

• Drop everything in the evening, have a quick light dinner and go for my walks. Apart from giving me the break, it oils my joints and allow me time to either blank off (from work) or reflect about issues. 

• Make it a point to capture my reflections, thoughts etc - even whatsapping myself when I walk, or emailing myself before I sleep. Doing so can relieve me the burden of memory and allows me to focus properly on the present. 

• Make the effort to stay away from work phone when I rest and on weekends. Well, I do check but I don't react unless absolutely urgent and necessary. And when I do, I have the understanding with my team that I do not expect them to reply my emails unless I call them or text them (and if I do, it means it's urgent). 

What I need to do more - learn how to say no, and learn not to let my mind go on a free run about work, work and more work. 'Nuff said. So what do you do to manage things when you WFH? 

:-)