We love our co-living spaces for the independence they give our housemates and communities they help build, but there’s no denying that being in the same place to live and work could get a bit much at times. And with so many of our housemates hybrid working or being permanently WFH I’ve asked around Team RHouse and come up with our Top Tips for working from home in a co-living space.
Feng Shui
Is your WFH set up in your bedroom? If so, have a look at the layout of your room. Is there a way you can position your work space to be looking out the window, or benefit from more natural light? Natural light has been proven to help improve a number of health aspects in workplaces such as mood, sleep, vitamin D levels and eye health – which in turn benefit productivity.
In addition to this, take a look at your comfort levels. Could your chair support your posture a little more? Are you hunching your shoulders as you type? How about unclenching your jaw, too? Make the changes your body’s telling you that you need.
It’s also important to ensure your work and sleeping spaces are separate. Not only is it terrible for causing or exacerbating back pain, but by working from bed our mental associations begin to get mixed up. By muddling our work spaces with our rest spaces the brain begins to link the two, and before you know it it’s even harder to wind down and switch off at night. If it’s not possible to fit a desk into your bedroom to create that separate space then you may want to speak to your housemates regarding they would feel about a work space set up in the communal space.
Routine
We’ve been hearing this over and over since the first lockdown in 2020 – maintaining a sense of routine is paramount. But what’s important and works for others might not work for you, so it’s important to create your routine. Don’t want to start your day with 20mins of yoga like your housemate does? No stress, don’t! Go for that walk you’d rather go on, or drink that coffee from your nice, new coffee machine instead!
Be up, showered, dressed and ready to face the day by 9am. Take breaks, and if you have housemates also working from home then take a break together. This also helps to combat the isolation feelings being home-based can create.
Then at the end of the day do something to signify work is done. Whether that’s a walk immediately after the laptop screen is shut, or making yourself a nice drink before cooking dinner – having that clarity is really important… and hopefully reduces the temptation to go back and do “just one more thing” in the evening!
Activate “Focus” Mode
Get rid of those distractions! Whether that’s your personal phone on Do Not Disturb, using an aid like the app Forest or creating two separate log ins on your laptop – one for work, one for everyday – remove the temptation to stray from work. Reward yourself for these with posh coffees, a nice long stretch or a full one hour lunch break with your housemates where no work is mentioned!
Change of scenery
If it’s really not working for the day, then don’t be averse to just upping and leaving your house and heading to your local café. Sometimes there’s no two ways about it, we just need to see something other than the same four walls! Reading and the surrounding areas have some great independent cafés so use them (and their free WiFi!) to your advantage and treat tomorrow as a new day.
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