Getting Started
If you’re new to the site and wondering where to begin, I’ve put together a list of the Dreaming of the Office articles that introduce you to me and some of the key ideas I’m promoting. It’ll give you a good sense of what it’s all about. Happy reading!
Time, Task, Triumph: Dealing with the New Normal and Making the Most of Your Time in the Hybrid World
Long before I had to start working from home, I was always interested in finding better ways of managing my time so I could improve my productivity and reach my goals. I started using a paper calendar/organiser many years ago (including a Filofax!) but gradually changed to using smartphones and Outlook. I’ve got different roles, including my full-time j…
Setting up a Calendar That Actually Works
The basis of everything you do, whether at home or in the office, is going to be your digital calendar. This might be in Outlook or other calendar app/website of choice. You need a clear plan for each working day that tells you what you are going to be doing at all times. Everything else follows from this.
Tickling the Task List
I’m adding a Monday post as well now, in addition to my Wednesday and Friday ones, so it’s three times a week from now on! In my first couple of posts so far, we’ve talked about building up your calendar, but where do all those appointments come from? Depending on your role, there will be some form of task management, but we’ll assume you are able to use a tool such as Outlook to keep a track of all your work tasks.
My Zero Inbox Method
Email is one of those things that can easily overwhelm if not managed well. As with much of what I talk about in this blog, this is a challenge that occupies us in both the office and at home. Given that we are getting ever more emails, it’s well worth thinking through how you stay on top of them and ensure they don’t pile up in your inbox.
The Big One: Remote Calls and Meetings
This is the thing that probably takes up a fair bit of your time, one way or another. With the rise of working from home since the pandemic, we are all using Teams or other collaboration technologies. How does this affect your schedule? Entire chunks of time in your calendar will be devoted to meetings/calls of various kinds, including Zoom/Teams-style calls involving several people as well as more ‘traditional’ two-way phone calls.
Starting and Ending Your Day
What you do in the mornings, before starting work, matters. We can talk endlessly about the exact details of a morning routine (or ritual, if you like), but regardless of what you do, my suggestion is that it’s best not to launch straight into work. Sometimes you may have to, or that may suit you just fine, in which case no problem. It’s more likely, however, that you’ll want to find a good way of easing yourself into the working day. In particular, for the days you are working from home, you need something to replace the commute, which used to be the clear separator between home life and work life.
Distractions and Demands at Home
The thing about being at home is that domestic chores and other tasks will filter in very easily. These could be mundane tasks like doing the laundry or more substantial things like reviewing personal finances. To be fair, things like the latter you could probably still do in the office but it’s much easier to slip into doing it for longer when you know…
Taking Notes
Depending on the job you are doing, you are likely going to be taking a lot of notes during the course of the day. It might be a few points that come up during a meeting, an idea you are working through in detail, or something you want to quickly jot down before you forget it.