I have been working from home for the last eight years. I have gained some valuable lessons during that time, one item stood out, and that was the habits I created while working in an office.
It’s natural to create habits; we all do it, without knowing. Over time, these cycles become second nature, and that is because we created practices over days, months or even years. I am going to assume here, you have patterns that you use day after day for your job!
How is this helpful? Because you can morph the habits that you had for the office into your new surroundings, your home!
The first step is hammering down the habits you have today, for your office life.
What do you do when commuting to the office? Who do you talk to when you get to the office? Break time, what do you do? When you finish up for the day, what are your closing tasks?
In principle, it sounds straightforward, and it is if you stick to the habits you already have created. If you have a team meeting every morning, you still can. If you talked with a co-worker at the water cooler every morning, call them up on your break. You shared lunch banter with someone every day, still do. Overall, you don’t have to change your habits, and you will just do them differently. It takes time and discipline to keep to your old habits, but you will.
Trying to stick to your patterns are key, and will make working from home, a hotel, or at the office the same experience.
If you are having trouble sticking to your old habits, you can create new ones, a book I read a few years ago helped me. It is logical, and makes 100% sense. The book author S.J. Scott delivers his methods in a easy to consume format, with specifics examples on how to “Habit Stack”. Check it out on Amazon
While working from home, you may not have the same data protection that an office environment provided. Rick Vanover has you covered over at the Veeam blog, have a read.
The majority of my acquaintances are in IT and have amazing home-labs. Who knows they might be willing to share their labs with you? Or you might want to share your resources? This must be done securely, have a look at the following blog on how to Install, Configure, and share securely with VeeamPN.
The Cloud Eh!? 