 Hi there, Jeff Watts here, and this is a short video with my top 10 tips for working from home. Well, everyone's going to be working from home a lot more than they were before. Something perhaps not a lot of us have done a lot of before. And maybe we haven't put a lot of thought into it in the past, because really it's just been the odd now and again, and it's not really been a big deal. But now it's more of a big deal, so let's see if we can do it a little bit better. The good news is lots of people have been working from home for a long time, so there's lots of tips that can be shared. I've got a few from myself and that I've garnered from other people. So, here we are. As usual, they're not in a particular order of importance, or chronological order, or alphabetical order. You'll find one or two or three that are more important or more relevant to you, so you just pick out the ones that work for you, and add in the comments any of that I've missed that you think are really, really useful, really, really important for other people. Hope they're useful to you. Here we go. The first tip is to use some rituals. So, rituals are really, really powerful, because they give us a sense of routine, rhythm, certainty, predictability, and they start getting us into a certain mindset. Now, if we're working from home when we don't normally, we've lost at least one of our rituals, which is going to work, and that ritual gets us into a mindset that we're used to. It calms us down because it's something we've done before. We're used to it, and that's the important thing, and it gets us ready for work. So, one thing that I'll do is I will go through my normal routine and I will get dressed for work. I'm not necessarily suggesting you need to get into a shirt and tie or a hat or a uniform or anything like that, but something that makes you think, okay, I'm going to work. So, today I've got a polo shirt and a jumper on. That's probably different to what I would normally wear if I was just lounging around the house on a typical day off. It gets me into the mindset of, okay, I'm at work now. It's not an opportunity to work from your pajamas or work from your bed, get into the mindset of I'm at work and establish some rituals, some routines that will get you into that mindset. Okay, two is invest in and use kit. So, most of us have some really good technology already with regards to our smartphones and our devices. Perhaps we've got laptops at home. Perhaps we've got things that have cameras built in and cameras are really, really useful for increasing the bandwidth of communication with other people. So, use them, okay. Go from voice call to video call. But make use of the functionality. So, if you want to have a separate conversation, then have a breakout room and then come back to the main team space. Have rooms, virtual rooms where you can go and focus, but you can also get in touch with people really, really quickly and easily if you have a question or you can collaborate with other people. So, make use of the functionality, whether that be a really good microphone, a really good headset, really good camera. These things are relatively inexpensive still. My third tip is to commit to less work to begin with. It's not to say that you won't be as productive when you're working from home, because sometimes we can be more productive. But if this is a change for you, if this is a change to how you normally work, then there's going to be a bit of settling in time. There's going to be a bit of getting used to different things, being able to manage your distractions, being able to focus more, being able to work on how to collaborate with one another. And what you don't need is a really, really long, existing list of work that you would normally get through if you were in normal circumstances, because these aren't normal circumstances just yet. So, take the pressure off yourself, take the pressure off other people, reduce the amount of stuff that you commit to. What you'll also find there is that you get more stuff done just because you know you've got less stuff to do. And getting stuff finished is a really, really useful, valuable motivator for people to keep those energy levels high and actually get back into a productive state. So, focus on that stuff, get more stuff done. Now, I've already used the word focus, so my fourth tip is to focus in time boxes. So, set aside periods of time, whether it's 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, whatever works for you, and just focus on one task. You know, sometimes it really, really helps to set a timer. So, you often find people with these Pomodoro timers, the thing that looks like a tomato, you turn it like a kitchen timer, boiling an egg. Set the time, work dedicated and focused on that task for that time, and then stop. It's a lot easier to keep your focus if you know that there is an end to that focus. So, set yourself, and let people know that that is what you're doing for this time, so they shouldn't expect really instant responses from you during those periods of focused time. And that brings me on to tip five, which is turn off notifications, especially if you're in a group call or if you're trying to focus. What you don't want is constant notifications popping up saying you got a new email, you got a new message, you got a new WhatsApp message, you got a new Slack message. Turn those things off for that period of time so it doesn't distract you. If you do find yourself gravitating towards your smartphone, physically put it somewhere that makes it awkward for you to have to go and get it, put it on top of the wardrobe or in a cupboard or something, and just, you know, it makes you a lazy part of you think, you know, I can't be bothered to go and get my phone right now. I'm going to focus. Make it easier for yourselves to be successful. Tip six is have some unfocused time. Now, that goes for you, just you, time for you to check Facebook, to check your messages, to check on your grant, to clear your inbox a little bit. Make sure that all of the stuff that you're ignoring while you're focusing isn't just piling up and up and up and up and up. Now, that also works for your team as well. So make sure that you have some unfocused time with your colleagues at work. Have chat about nothing to do with work. Just have a bit of a check-in. Make it personal. Like you would if you were having a coffee or you were at the canteen or you were at the water cooler or something like that, passing each other in the corridor. Make time for little chats. That's really, really important so you don't get, you're cabin fever, you don't feel isolated from other people. Just because we're physically separated from people doesn't mean we have to be isolated from them. Tip 7 is stay healthy. Now, that's a physical health and a mental health. So make sure you stay hydrated. Now, I'm in my shed which is outside the house so I have to go in and get my glass of water or I have to go in to get my cup of coffee, whatever it is. Now, that's the kind of deliberate choice because I want to actually go outside and get some natural light and some fresh air on a regular basis. But it's also easy to think, well, I'm in the middle of something, I'll put that off until later and I find myself dehydrated by the end of the day. So I set myself to the reminders. I'll have an hour block and then I will get up, I'll walk around, I will leave, I'll go and get a glass of water or a toilet break and then come back to it. Whatever rituals help but make sure that you do stay hydrated, make sure that you do stand up and walk around, get some fresh air, get some natural light. And the other part of staying healthy is the mindfulness and the actual mental aspect of well-being and let's talk to people. Make sure that you're talking to people. You're not just staring at a screen, you're not just staring at paper and pen. That communication is an important part of staying mentally well. Tip eight is to set some boundaries. Now, that's boundaries with yourself in terms of time boxing, in terms of rituals, in terms of making sure you're staying hydrated and all the things that I've said before. But also setting boundaries with other people. So if you are going to be in a focused period of time, then make sure that people know that. Make sure they know when they can get in touch with you, when they can't get in touch with you. The other sort of complication that we have right now is that it's not just us that's probably going to be working from home. Perhaps our partners are going to be working from home. Perhaps we're in a shared environment with friends who are also going to be working from home. Perhaps we have kids who are off school and they need our attention as well. That's all going to reduce our ability to focus. It's all going to reduce our ability to get as much stuff done as perhaps we would. So be transparent about that, be clear about that. It's a situation where everybody is aware that we're facing difficulties. We're facing challenges. So people are more open to the prospect that we're going to be less productive than perhaps we would like to be and what other people would like us to be. But also be transparent with your family. So bandwidth, for example. My kids are off school. My son wants to be playing Fortnite. He wants to be playing FIFA online with his mates. My daughter wants to be using TikTok and streaming Netflix and these kinds of things. So we have to facilitate a workshop over the internet. So be transparent about when we really need things, how we're going to work things out as a group because the one thing we don't want to do is fall out with the people that we're living with. So set some boundaries, agree some boundaries and then honour those boundaries. Tip nine is know when to switch off. That's not just from the focus parts into the unfocused parts but another ritual that we're losing if we're not used to working from home is leaving the office. And that ritual actually says a lot to us in terms of I'm shutting down for the day. Now I know a lot of us still have access to our smartphones and we're working on the commute home and often we check in our emails when we're at home but now it's even more important to be clear about when we are switching off because the boundaries are even more blurred. Those of us that have worked from home for a long time realise how difficult it is to separate work from home when you're working from home. So be clear about that, be clear about that and also be clear about that with the people that you live with. Ask them to help you. Ask them to help you switch off and call you when you're slipping back into old habits and blowing those lines again. Tip ten is inspect and adapt. This is new. We're not going to be brilliant at it straight away so we're going to learn. The more we do something the better we get at it but it's even more likely that we'll get better at something if we reflect on how we're doing as well. So whether it's once a week or perhaps once a day to begin with just have some dedicated reflection time for how well am I doing at working from home? What's working for me? What isn't working for me? When am I at my best? When am I not at my best? How can I do more of what works for me so that I can do this smarter better more effectively? Not just for me but for other people as well. So that time out to reflect and get better absolutely crucial. So in summary, my top ten tips from working from home. Use rituals, dress for work invest in and use kit commit to less stuff to get more stuff done. Focus in short time boxes turn off notifications but then have unfocused time stay healthy physically and mentally. Set some boundaries for yourself and others know when to switch off and then inspect and adapt how you're doing. It's not going to be easy to begin with but it's an opportunity and we will have added another skill to our skill set at the end of all this.