Homeoffice - Setup

It does not really matter why you are working from home. It might be that you do so since several years – even before the pandemic – or you started due to pandemic changes.

Separate working from living environment

The most important rule in my opinion is to separate the physical place you used to work as much as possible from your living environment.

There might be situations where you can hardly do so e.g. where you have no room left in your flat or house to work from.

Physically separating work from the rest of your life might be helpful for different things, such as:

1. Staying sane by literally "leaving work behind" or "going to work in your office".
2. Depending on your location there might be fiscal or actuarial reasons.

Working regularly on your couch, you might end up keep working while watching Netflix at night. As you are anyhow used to do so.

Avoid disturbing sounds

You might already agree that there is nothing more disturbing than interfering background noises during calls thus you can hardly listen on what is being said. Or someone is hammering on the keyboard right next to internal laptop microphone.

In case your current microphone is producing such sounds as well, your teammates will be thankful if you invest into a decent, external (USB) microphone that transfers your voice loud and clear to them. :)

Show yourself to your teammates

Let us be honest: human interaction is not made based on persons staring on their screens while speaking to each other.

Human interaction is made of eye contact, human emotions and standing next to each other. Well, the last point we can hardly fulfil working each in our own homes. But we can at least try the best to literally see each other on the screen, while our brains are trying to constantly interpret every little facial expression. That is why you should definitely put on your camera in EVERY video call.

Turning your camera off might be interpreted as not being interested in any conversation, just lurking within the call.

Keep your camera on even in case you might eat, drink or smoking a cigarette.

Also having the camera turned on is not only about you, but also about showing your environment which might act as hooks for funny off-topic discussions.

Take breaks!

Whether you use the Pomodoro technique or not: Take breaks and move your body!

Another great alternative to always sitting in front of your screen could be to buy some sort of standing desk. Depending on your local setup and financial situation.