New to work at home? A few tips from a veteran

There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home…

For an increasingly large segment of the working population, the ONLY place right now is home.

Today. Tomorrow. And for weeks, maybe even months, to come.

No more stopping for your morning coffee before commuting to work. No more 10 a.m. meetings with the whole gang. No more “Where should we go to lunch?” exchanges with colleagues. No more knocking on the boss’ door and saying, “Got a minute?” No more stopping by a co-worker’s desk or cubicle to shoot the s--- and do some brainstorming.

Of course, for millions of Americans, working at home is nothing new. A 2019 Gallup survey found 43% of us log at least some hours from home base. According to the most recent data from the U.S. Census, some 8 million Americans worked full-time from home in 2017 —a tripling of the workforce in the past 15 years.

Still, that’s only 5.2% of the working population.

Richard Roeper/Sun-Times

For many of you, it’s a whole new ballgame, this working at home thing. At first it can be exciting and liberating and feel almost like a fun adventure: “I’m working in my favorite sweats!” “I sure don’t miss rush-hour traffic on the Kennedy!” “My cat is so happy I’m not leaving the house! I had to post this video of him bugging me!”

But for all the benefits of working from home, there are at least as many unique challenges. The day-to-day isolation can leave you feeling restless, unsettled, bored and struggling to maintain focus. It’s going to take a different mindset, a different discipline, for you to power through.

From the days when I was just out of college and churning out pitches and freelance pieces on a Brother Daisy Wheel Electric Typewriter on my parents’ kitchen table through some eight books and thousands of pieces for the Sun-Times as well as various other projects, I’ve spent long stretches of time working from home. I don’t pretend to have mastered the art, but I’m hoping there’s some value in these tips, based on nearly four decades of experience.

Don’t work in your sweats or PJs! Every morning when I’m working from home, I wake up at the same time and I shower, shave and get dressed before diving into the day. Granted, my typical daily “uniform” is pretty casual even when I leave the house, as I can wear jeans, sneakers and a hoodie to screenings and radio. (I have to step it up a notch for TV.) It’s not as if I’m dressing like James Bond when I work from home—nor am I saying you have to get all gussied up. Still, I believe it will help set the tone for your day if you’re not shuffling about in sweats and slippers. You’re at home, but you’re all business.

No TV or music in the background. You wouldn’t have reruns of “Friends” or Spotify playing at the workplace, would you? Granted, some workplaces in certain creative fields indeed DO have music playing in the background to help set the mood, but generally speaking and all things being equal, my bet is you’ll be more productive at home working to the sounds of silence.

Mark your home workplace territory. If possible, carve out a space where you never do anything but work, whether it’s a spare bedroom, a corner of the basement or even a little nook of your apartment. Some of you might be quite productive while curled up with the laptop on your sofa or in bed; I suck at that. It’s just a few steps from my home office desktop to my living room couch, but I’ve conditioned myself to the point where that 10-second walk feels like a commute from work to home. I never even consider crashing on the sofa until I’m ready to call it a day.

Take the sober approach. Don’t succumb to the temptation to have a midday drink or a Sativa Edible Gummy just because you are at home and no one is monitoring you. That might sound like ridiculously obvious advice, but as the days and weeks roll by, it’s something to keep in mind.

You deserve a break. Pre-virus, I would have advised work-at-home newbies to get out and about once a day, whether it’s to meet a friend for coffee or have lunch with a colleague or at the very least, take a long walk. It’s a great way to clear your head and maintain that invaluable feeling of being connected to something greater than yourself. Even in these extraordinary times, when most of the aforementioned examples aren’t an option, it’s imperative you find a way to take some kind of break, at least twice a day. If your options are so limited you can’t venture outside at all, please just step away from the workload from time to time to stretch, to listen to music, to call or text friends and loved ones. You deserve and need those breaks.

Wishing all of you the best as you hunker down and settle in and take on this new challenge. As they often say in the movies: You got this.