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Home / Features / The Stuff guide to working from home

The Stuff guide to working from home

Create a workspace! Get connected! Don’t spend all day in your pants!

Working from home? Sitting in your pants, binging on Netflix, blissfully unaware of the deadlines about to whizz past your ears? Don’t do that. Do these things instead.

1. Keep a schedule

Amazon Echo Dot with Clock verdict

Don’t use your newfound freedom to have a massive lie-in or loll about all day. But also don’t feel the need to work from the second you wake up, because you feel guilty you no longer have a commute.

Instead, echo your standard routine as much as possible. In fact, use an Echo — or your smart tech of choice — to set reminders about when to clock on, and when it’s time to ‘go home’.

Delve deeper…How to master… the Amazon Echo

2. Create a workspace

Don’t lie back on the sofa or sit at the dining table, tapping away on a laptop. This will within days have your back and bum want to make a break for it — and you need those.

So define somewhere that’s your ‘office’, where you can fashion a set-up close to an actual office environment: a decent chair; a place to stash things; and somewhere you can leave at the end of the work day.

3. Prioritise ergonomics

3. Prioritise ergonomics

If you use a laptop, buy an external keyboard and a mouse or trackpad. If possible, get an external display, too, and have your eyeline peer at the top third of the display. At the very least, raise the laptop to that height, if you can’t afford a screen — a stack of books will do.

Also keep RSI and other conditions at bay by investing in a decent office chair, and use it correctly. (Not got this kind of set-up at actual work? Have a word with HR…) In it for the long haul? Consider a standing desk like IKEA’s BEKANT (from £425).

4. Manage social interactions

4. Manage social interactions

Being alone can be tough, and it’s easy to overdo social networking. Therefore, manage such interactions so they don’t overwhelm and become a distraction.

Use screen-time systems/apps, and think hard about what you use to communicate – and when. Slack is good for team-based chat, rather than deluging people with email or concocting confusing WhatsApp threads; try Zoom for video calls. Banish Facebook and Twitter to your phone, to avoid spending all day on them because you crave human contact.

5. Backup everything

5. Backup everything

Perhaps you work for a company with stringent policies on server-only documents. More likely, you don’t – in which case, you need a backup routine. Your boss won’t thank you if your laptop keels over, taking with it a vital presentation you’d made that was set to save your company.

Windows and macOS each have a built-in system for making local daily backups, and so set it up with an external portable hard drive – a £40 1TB Maxtor portable or equivalent will do. Also install Backblaze ($6 per month) to get a copy of everything you create into the cloud.

6. Get connected

6. Get connected

You’ve got Wi-Fi at home. Until it fails — at which point you very rapidly need to figure out what to do next. It might not be viable to find somewhere local with free Wi-Fi you can get to. In which case, ensure you’ve a decent mobile package, enabling you to tether your computer to your phone.

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7. Take regular breaks

7. Take regular breaks

At home, you usually have fewer distractions than at the office. Colleagues don’t drop by for a chat — or invite you to a long lunch. And that’s great until you realise with a jolt you’ve worked for ten hours solid and your back’s seized up.

So get a timer that reminds you to take regular breaks. Bear Focus Timer is cheap, and has the added advantage of putting your phone out of reach (by only running when it’s face down) while you’re supposed to be working.

Make yourself app-ierApp of the week: BFT – Bear Focus Timer

8. Get some exercise

8. Get some exercise

Ideally, leave the house now and again, when you’ve the opportunity. While doing so, avoid any temptation to work. You need some downtime. When that’s not possible, at least exercise indoors.

You don’t need machines – just a floor and some willpower will do. On iPhone, Streaks Workout will help you quickly figure out a routine. Just avoid starting with its 30-minute (and suitably named) ‘extreme’ mode, or you’ll need several further weeks away from the office to recover. On Android? 321FIT is a good bet.

Profile image of Craig Grannell Craig Grannell Contributor

About

I’m a regular contributor to Stuff magazine and Stuff.tv, covering apps, games, Apple kit, Android, Lego, retro gaming and other interesting oddities. I also pen opinion pieces when the editor lets me, getting all serious about accessibility and predicting when sentient AI smart cookware will take over the world, in a terrifying mix of Bake Off and Terminator.

Areas of expertise

Mobile apps and games, Macs, iOS and tvOS devices, Android, retro games, crowdfunding, design, how to fight off an enraged smart saucepan with a massive stick.

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