List of suggestions

Avoid weekend routines

Create a structured routine to work at home, without falling for weekend or holiday routines. Get up on time, take a shower, get dressed, eat breakfast and schedule an hour to start your work. If you do not have a regular routine you may postpone your daily start appropriately.

Set up a fixed workspace

Repurpose a small space at home for your new, dedicated workspace. It doesn’t need to be sophisticated or extremely elaborated, but your workspace should have room for tools that are fundamental for your kind of work — like a computer, a telephone, pen and paper…

Try to stay on schedule

Define a normal work schedule and try to keep up with it as much as possible. Establishing evident rules for work schedules will help you to maintain the balance between your work time, your free time, and your time to relax and rest.

Take some time to rest

During your working day, make some room to log off, and take a break from your phone or your computer screen. Avoid staying connected constantly, especially at lunch breaks.

Keep the communication going

Stay in regular contact with your supervisor, as well as with your teammates or project colleagues. Create or join communication channels such as chatrooms, and schedule video or audio meetings. You don’t have to particularly use these tools only for work purposes — they can also be used to have ordinary conversations with your colleagues, to make some jokes or to tell stories. This sense of community helps to keep your workspace alive.

Track your daily activities

Register your daily activity on a digital log — a spreadsheet or a note taking app will do. This is useful for any updates you have to report to your supervisors but above all, it’s useful for you as a way to feel useful and productive at the end of the day.

We know that for some people, because of the type of work dealt with, a recording of the work is difficult to maintain, and in extreme cases, at the end of the day, there might not be anything to register in an activity log. In cases like these, it’s important to keep your chin up — try to use some of your time creating tasks that can help your teammates in remote work, or plan activities or improvements that you may apply to your central workspace by the time you return.

Spend time doing things you like to do

There’s an assortment of creative activities that you can do at home after you finish your work hours: read a book, finish a puzzle, play some games, organize your holiday photos…but most of all, look after yourself.

Stay positive

It’s easy to feel lonely when you work on your own all day. Remember: all of your colleagues are going through the same situation as you are. You are not alone! Try to reach out when you feel alone or down.