Working from Home – Tips from the Ok Alone Team

Working from home can be hard. If you are not used to it, it can be difficult not to be distracted and go off task. Some of our lone worker app team have been working from home for years, so we wanted to share some things you can do to make it easier for yourself.

1. Set up an area

It’s not going to be a productive day if you are trying to do your work on your laptop in bed. You need to allocate an area of your home/room to become your work station. This is the place you will ‘go’ to do your work. You will need to explain to any other people in your home that when you are ‘at your work station’ they cannot bother you (unless they are offering cups of tea or coffee).

2. Set out a routine

Try to divide up your day so you have clear work and non-work hours. The ideal balance would be eight hours work and sixteen hours of leisure activities, eating and sleeping. Make sure you include a break in the day to have lunch (do not skip meals). Plan your day out by listing the jobs you can achieve in that day.

It will be tricky not to be distracted by ‘home based’ issues like doing the washing, playing with pets or frequent snack breaks, but you need to stay in your routine.

Equally, make sure you don’t let work creep into your down time and make time to do other activities that allow you to relax, unwind and forget about work demands.

3. Keep up your communication

Try to speak to your boss or other people from your work every day. This will help you keep up to date with tasks and be able to check in – especially if you are a lone worker.

Using services like Skype, Zoom or Microsoft’s Teams allows you to have face to face video calls, conference calls or share documents online. It also allows direct interaction, so you won’t start to feel isolated.

Make sure you have people you can talk to if things are getting on top of you. These could be your work colleagues or other friends.

4. Remain active

Once you get into the swing of things it’s not abnormal on any workday for you to realise you have been sat at your desk and not moved for three or four hours. Setting a timer for one hour creates an automatic reminder for you to get up and move around once the alert goes off. This will prompt you to get up and take a quick walk around the house or do some quick star jumps (this is acceptable when you are working alone!) It gets the blood pumping and you can then continue working.

Did you know? We use the Ok Alone lone worker app for our timer. When a check in is due we go for a little walk or make a cup of tea.

5. Stay positive

While working from home can be hard sometimes and lonely other times, it also has lots of positives.

• You can try out much more elaborate lunch ideas
• You don’t have any commuting time or costs
• You can spend more time with your pets
• You can work in your pyjamas (although you should really get dressed)