I’m almost two years into working remotely full time. It affords me flexibility and focus but it also comes with its challenges. I have a few strategies that help make it work for me and maybe they’ll help you too.

• I mostly work from a room with a closable door. At the end of my work day I walk away and close said door. I find this helps me disconnect and keep my home and work contexts separate.
• Change up where you work. It’s good to work in different rooms and different locations. I like to go somewhere where there are people around; even if I’m not speaking to them e.g. I’m often that rando working on his laptop in the food court.
• I spend a lot of time on video calls. I have this headset by Jabra which has a decent microphone that doesn’t pick up much background noise. It also has a hardware mute button on the cord always within reach. As a bonus, people throw lots of “you look like you work in a call centre” gags at me.
• Regular lunches in the city with friends helps top up my face to face human interaction stores.
• Your energy levels will vary, do your best to ride it out. Sometimes I am a storm of energy and rip through my work. Other times I struggle to lock in and focus. Stick with it. Hold strong.
• Get outside regularly. The dark side of not having a commute is that you can end up barely moving all day. I regularly walk around my neighbourhood to get some steps under my belt and sunshine on my face.
• Enjoy the flexibility.