Ways to Stay Engaged When You’re Working From Home

Staying productive while working from home isn’t always easy. Sometimes distractions get the best of you; other times, you’re laser focused but quickly burn out.

1. Set Working Hours
When you’re at home, work and life blend together. Try to run your home like a workplace with strict working hours. Enforce this with your remote team using calendar tools, and also communicate it with others in your home.

5 Tips To Balance Remote Working While Your Family Is Also At Home, Forbes

Set your working hours & availability, Google Calendar

Learn more about work hours in Outlook, Microsoft

2. Maintain a Routine
Make lunch the night before. Take a walk around the block (if you’re able) while listening to the radio station or podcast you’d normally listen to on your commute. Change out of your PJs into comfortable working clothes. These routines help trigger “work mode” in your mind.

Read More
How To Stay Productive If You’re WFH Because Of The Coronavirus, Forbes

Structure Your Work-From-Home Day With These Routines, Lifehacker

3. Vocalize Ideas and Feedback
Communicate regularly with your colleagues and managers. If something they’re doing isn’t working for you, let them know! Encourage the use of tools like Butterfly (which we’re offering free for 90 days), which allow you to rate how you’re feeling and anonymously share feedback about what is and isn’t working with your manager.

4. Take Breaks
Stepping away from work is incredibly beneficial, whether you’re working remotely or in an office. Set a timer that alerts you regularly (try to take a break every 30 to 90 minutes). Step away from your desk — and screens, if you can help it — entirely. Take a walk, read a chapter of a book, do a few stretches, then come back to your workspace refreshed.

Read more:
Science Says You Have to Stop Taking Breaks Wrong to Be More Productive, We Work Remotely

Take Five: 51 Things to Do When You Need a Break at Work, The Muse

5. Leave Your Workspace
Go back to that home-as-a-business mindset. When home is your workplace, try to still close your computer and leave your workspace until the next day. This can help you avoid burnout and define that work/life balance necessary for successfully working from home.

What’s your best recipe for working from home successfully, especially when there are other people there during the day? Share your story with us by emailing remote@butterfly.ai.

And remember, we’re offering our engagement tools and support to newly remote teams free for 90 days. Get in touch and we will set you up.