More and more of the workforce is going to be working from home over the Covid-19 outbreak. For those of us who have been doing this for many years as consultants and contractors, it’s a minor adjustment. For many others, it’s going to be a complete change of pace.

I normally work from home one day a week to fit in personal engagements, so even working from home full time with three young kids is going to take some adjustments on my part. But I’m saving up to three hours a day on commute and prep time, which I intend to make the best of by not sleeping in and instead going to the shed in the mornings where I have a mat and a medicine ball.

I think that it’s very important not to give into the anxiety and depression that are circling the coronavirus situation like vultures. Staying positive is an important responsibility that we all need to take onboard. If I can get in some exercise and a shower before getting the kids up, that’s going to be a win for everybody. And we are going to need a lot of wins.

Carve Out a Workspace

It’s important to me to have a physical space that’s carved out solely for work. I’m portable enough to work anywhere, but I know that I’m going to be most productive for high-focus work if I’m in my home office. I absolutely cannot work from the couch. That’s my chill out, read a book, play video games and watch a movie zone. I slouch and am geared for downtime. And the kitchen is a hive of activity so that’s out of the question. Home office it is.

I was lucky enough to snag an office chair a few weeks back for a fiver off of eBay. Health and Safety can’t come and assess your workstation, so it’s important that you aren’t setting yourself up for RSI issues. At the office I like switching between sitting and standing desks, but that’s a luxury I won’t have at home so I need to make sure that I stand up and take breaks more.

Time Management

I normally block out my work into two or three blocks during the day depending on meetings. But I have a feeling that I’ll be going back to using a Pomodoro app to manage my time into smaller chunks. SetApp has a simple one called Be Focused that will do for now, and there are plenty of other Pomodoro timers available on the app stores.

Ambience

I find that even when I’m working in quiet places like a library, the noise of a busy coffee shop motivates me more. I use an app called Noizio to bring in the noise from a Parisian cafe, for example. For high-focus sprints I use Binaural and noise-cancelling headphones.

I love listening to music, but if I start playing my favourite music, I’ll just end up doing office karaoke all day. So instead I’ve found some cool lofi hip hop playlists that also stream through Apple Music and Spotify. No lyrics, just chill.

Keeping a Running Log

I’m used to distraction-driven work, having worked IT support for a number of years in a school, and also from having kids. I use a combination of OmniFocus to capture todo stuff as I work through the day, but I also use GoodNotes on an iPad with the Apple Pencil to write things down and essentially keep a log file as I go through the day.

Actually writing things down with a pencil on the iPad is great for a quick note when I have to go and change a nappy then come back into the office. I come back, look at the screen and know where I need to pick back up again. At the beginning of the work day I look at the previous day’s logs and email and match up what I need to do today. At the end of the work day I collate the log and write out action items for the following day. I get an actual sense of accomplishment to see what I did and didn’t achieve during the day, with insights into why. Perhaps a meeting ran long, perhaps I didn’t anticipate workload. Either way, it’s a learning point that benefits.

Bandwidth and Infrastructure

I’m not sure that the information grid is going to be capable of handling so much traffic from residential locations. And if you’ve got partners and kids staying at home as well, it’s going to have an impact on local bandwidth.

Time-shift your entertainment. Most of the big streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, BBC iPlayer all allow for downloading shows to watch later. Get smart about downloading some of your kid’s favourite shows in the evening to a device that can be used in the daytime without impacting your home broadband. I personally use Plex on a Mac mini media server, so everything is available on the in-house network.

Be prepared to negotiate data caps. You might be on a home broadband connection that has a data cap. In the States, companies like AT&T are already starting to waive these in light of the outbreak. I keep a 4G Nokia for use as a data tether for my devices as data insurance.

I also tend to work off-server, then re-upload in our SharePoint / O365 environment. That way if the intranet goes down, I can continue working and keep local backups.

Helping Out

When my media server isn’t streaming Frozen for the umpteenth time, its cycles are devoted to running Folding@Home. Folding is an international supercomputer project that uses your computer to help process data to help cure diseases. You could be using your computer right now to help combat Covid-19. What are you waiting for?

Good luck and good health to all of you in the days ahead.