Working From Home – My BKM’s after doing it for 20 yrs….

I’ve not written a blog or pretty much anything in the last 3 years online. But now that the the corona virus is going global a lot of people are working from home out of necessity. And that can be challenging, especially if you are not prepared or setup for it. It’s surreal to see the world go into isolation at this scale and speed. But it’s also amazing to see that so many people can be isolated and yet so connected. (and that’s me being positive). I’ve seen a lot of posts about the best ways to work from home and BKM’s (best known methods) to follow. But I’d like to share my experience as my own little contribution to the world in crisis. And I fully realize that most people reading this are not setup to work from home and a lot of you are in lockdown with your family. So please take what you can from this if any. Now you may wonder why I’m writing this ? Well, I’ve been working for Intel for almost 20 years and in those two decades I’ve never had a desk, I’ve always worked from home so I have a bit of experience. I hope this will benefit someone reading this post and I wish you all the best wherever you are !!

Thinking about working from home it all comes down to three things: Equipment, Location and Discipline. 

Equipment: good tools are half the job is a saying in the Netherlands (where I live) and it’s certainly true if you work from home. Let’s start with your network connection.

If it’s possible for you to work from home it’s very likely you are some kind of knowledge worker. Through a remote connection you are able to connect to work and colleagues. And now probably more than ever you are realizing that your network connection is your lifeline to world out there. So, make sure you have stable network connection with your internet service provider and that you have a stable WIFI connection. My tip here: For work WIFI is good but if possible, a wired connection is better. Wireless networks are prone to interference and also slow down quicker once the network gets busy. And it’s very likely you are sharing your bandwidth with other family members. Some routers allow you to prioritize certain types of traffic and if your teens are YouTube and Netflix hungry you may want to look into your settings to make sure you have enough left to do work. But don’t go blind on just bandwidth, most corporations use VPN which throttles the available bandwidth down to something like 2 or 5 Mpbs per user and you can probably get by with that at minimum. If you are able to use online tools without vpn like office 365, zoom and WebEx you are good to go.

Now let’s talk about your laptop and peripherals. A good setup is critical, you’ll be spending a lot of time on your system so make sure you have the right setup for you. I’m going to assume here that you probably have a laptop already from your employer or you got your own laptop. Now when you plug your charger in your power socket you should really check if your system is set to maximum performance. A lot of systems use a feature called speed step to lower things like the screen brightness and processor speed to save battery power so you can work longer on battery power, which is great if you are mobile. But when you are working from home you are probably connected to power all the time so have a look in your system power settings and make sure it’s set to max performance when plugged in. It provides for a more responsive system and a more productive day. And as the famous Jeremy Clarkson would say: Poweeerrrr !

Now ideally you can get an external monitor and keyboard setup on desk or table to create your own little workspace at home. If you can do this, it’s a bonus because it provides so much more real estate to work with which in the long run is a big plus.

So, let’s talk keyboard and monitor setup (we’ll talk location later). My tip here is ergonomics – take it seriously. If you are spending 8 hours a day or more behind your system take a hard look at a couple of things:

1. Your sitting position and more importantly your chair – is it providing the right comfort to do the job and keep you focused yet allowing for some level of comfort ? You are looking for the right balance of body support & comfort. So sorry people no working from the couch unless you have no other option. And if that is the case, pick a few places in your home that you could work from and go from place to place so you vary your posture during the day and see which one is sustainable the best for a longer time. Also make sure to check that your feet are flat on the ground and not floating – this will disrupt some of the blood flow in your legs and over time will make them feel heavy and even painful. 
2. The angle of your wrist vs your keyboard. To each his own but check that you are comfortable and able to type without too much obstacles. Bracelets, watches or chairs that are too high or low will have an impact of how your type and can cause trouble over time. And since you are not in the office you not going to need that Rolex or flashy bracelet anyways 🙂 
3. Make sure you are eye level with your monitor so you are not looking to much down or up to much. And if you do a lot of administrative work a monitor that can rotate can be a lifesaver. You don’t see it a lot but for document reading or writing it’s is totally fab! Now if you work from a laptop you can order a stand for your laptop screen to raise the screen to eye level. If you don’t have this it’s not a problem but make sure to take small brakes during work to stretch and to rotate your head a bit. 
4. Get a mouse! If you are mobile and on the go touch-pads and mouse pointers are great solutions. But when you work from home use a mouse ! They are cheap and provide so much more comfort. Make sure you adjust your pointer speed on screen so you don’t have to stretch too much to traverse your screen. 
5. Get a good camera AND a camera blocker – Your laptop probably has a decent camera so use that if you can. But if you have a monitor setup use an external camera because it will allow you more flexibility to picture yourself in different angles without having to fight with how you position your laptop camera and the lid. Also, where you place your camera determines what other see so having a camera allow you a bit more control. Now here’s the other thing – get a camera blocker (or make one out of cardboard or something else to block). This may be personal but I’m very paranoid about my camera switching on or being on unnoticed while in a professional work setting. Sometimes I need to take calls early morning or late night, or sometimes I’m multitasking during calls – when it’s audio nobody can see my physical state or me multitasking. With a camera on not so much….. you do the math. The physical act of opening up your camera view is something that helps you to be cognizant of the fact that you are ” live ” and on the air. 
6. Audio: make sure you invest in a good set of headphones. Be it in ear over the ears or just over one ear. There is a lot of choice out there, my preference is a Bluetooth over the ear headphone because it gives you freedom to move around and because it covers both ears it keeps you focused on the conversation – and if you get a good one it doubles as a great set of music headphones.

Location, location, location – where you physically sit is key for a lot of reasons. find a place where you can be productive. Ideally a separate room maybe a bedroom, (your own or share with one of the kids during work hours) or a hobby room, garage or even a garden house – be creative. Maybe you can use a curtain to divide a room or move some cupboards around. A physical separate space will help you focus, but if not possible, maybe you can make some arrangements or agreements with the rest of your family or housemates. 

Now when you pick a location keep in mind that you need adequate lightning., some daylight if possible and a good light for your desk. Even if it’s the kitchen table. When reading or working on your laptop good lighting, temperature and fresh air is key. During long hours in calls or behind screen you need to focus and light, temperature and (fresh)air are key to keeping that focus. When you get to comfy and the sun is shining on your head and it’s nice and warm it’s very easy to doze off …… 🙂 

Discipline; this section could be called mindset or mind switch as well. The point is this. You are working from home now and you are your own boss in how your schedule your time. But here’s the thing is this; it goes two ways. Working from home it’s very easy to lose track of time, you can get so focused or en-grained in your work that you lose track of time. And working from home it can be very hard to transit from work(time) to home(time) as you don’t have any commute time to make that mental switch. They key to dealing with this is discipline. Be ruthless with yourself on you working hours and your break times. Also be very cognizant of your stress levels at work and bringing them into the home situation. A good way to deal with this is to frame your time for work and personal and to have you partner, buddy or friend keep you honest. Make yourself accountable. Also, to transition from work another thing you can do is to create a small end of day ritual to switch off – mine is to write down what bothers me or actions I have to close. That way when it is on paper I don’t have to think about it and can pick it up the next day. So, there you have it. These are my tips for you in this challenging time and day, and I hope my tips will serve you well. If you have question please ask. I’ll do my best to answer as best I can. And good luck to all of you reading this and trying to make the best of it.