Who would have thought that we’d spend almost a year working in a makeshift home office? One thing’s for sure, lockdown never fails to surprise.

The move to working from home was pretty unprecedented - this has never happened on such a huge scale before.

In almost every industry, city, and company across the UK, the bulk of staff are having to perform their daily tasks from home. Whether that’s meant using the kitchen table, converting the garden shed, or quickly putting together a desk, we’ve all had to create a quick home office, and adapt to the move to WFM life.

Although there have certainly been some perks to this - who doesn’t enjoy access to endless cups of tea and biscuits? - at times it has been difficult to adapt to this shift. Spending all these extra hours at home, often in quite a small or ill-prepared space, has presented a number of challenges.

It’s essential that we prioritise our emotional and physical wellbeing, especially given the difficulty of the circumstances that we are living through right now. So, in readiness for the next working week, we’d recommend that you have a read of our advice for improving your working from home routine.

In this blog, we’ll be covering:

1. Establish a regular routine
2. Plan your breaks
3. Chat to your colleagues
4. Keep moving
5. Get dressed
6. Eat well
7. Be kind to yourself
8. Fit your children around your work routine
9. Create a relaxing atmosphere
10. Invest in a Smarter Coffee machine

It is our hope that these tips will enable you to feel comfortable and happy when remote working, while still being able to achieve that critical work-home life balance. After all, we spend such a huge portion of our time working, it makes sense to try and make it as enjoyable as possible.

1. Establish a regular routine

Much like it is in your standard office day, a dependable routine is an essential part of success. Without it, our day inevitably falls into the realms of the unproductive. This doesn’t have to be super regimented (even if you did try to make it so, it’s highly unlikely that you’d stick to your original plan for every minute of the hours from 9 to 5).

But, by having a routine that’s regular, you’ll be able to fall into your set patterns straight away, which makes getting started on your work easier, and you’ll find a lot of comfort in this routine. Plus, it’s a lot more likely to help you feel productive at the close of the day.

So, we’d recommend starting and finishing work at roughly the same time each day. Make sure you leave plenty of time for breakfast and dinner at either end of the day, and set yourself a couple of breaks at a time that suits you (more on this next).

2. Plan your breaks

In reality, if you were in the office, you’d have lots of little pauses for chats with your colleagues, to get up and make a coffee, or to wander over to a meeting. So do your best to replicate this in your WFM day.

In fact, studies have shown that we’re more productive if we spend a set amount of time (between half an hour and an hour) being fully focused on our work, then taking 10 minutes off to relax our mind. Try implementing these regular periods of break time into your daily routine (even if you set reminders on your phone to alert you to the start of a planned break).

3. Chat to your colleagues

Humans are naturally super sociable creatures, and having your colleagues surrounding you is one of the best bits about working in an office environment. We all need to break up the day’s monotony with a chat, and working in your secluded room at home can get a little lonely at times. So try to schedule regular calls, Zoom meetings, or just direct messages with your colleagues so that you can catch up and feel connected to them during the week.

4. Keep moving

Sitting down in one spot all day long isn’t good for your mind or your body. So be sure to stand up, stretch, and move your legs a little bit at least once every hour - no excuses!

Even if it’s just walking to the kitchen and back, these regular movements will stop the build-up of stress, help you feel positive and happy in your environment, and it will help you to stay productive, too.

5. Get dressed

Working in your jogging bottoms all day long might sound like fun, but actually it can really put a dampner on our spirits.

Although you may be wondering why you should bother getting dressed for work when you’ll only be heading downstairs, feeling like you’ve just crawled straight out of bed before starting work can actually really knock your confidence. It’s easy to feel like you’re not contributing at work at the best of times, and this feeling can be even more pronounced when you’re working remotely.

So getting dressed - even if it's just jeans and a nice jumper - can help you to feel productive, and as though you are taking the work seriously, which in turn, helps you to feel confident in the value that you are bringing to the team.

6. Eat well

Regardless of whether or not you’re working over the lockdown period, this one is essential for all of our mental health. We all need to take care ourselves, especially with everything that’s going on right now.

Eating a healthy, balanced diet is a vital part of self care. In order to keep your mind in a positive place throughout the day, be sure to have nutritious and satisfying meals, without binging on sweets and biscuits (although of course you can have a couple with your coffee break).

7. Be kind to yourself

This one is so important - depending on yourself for organisation and motivation is more difficult than it sounds. Don’t beat yourself up for not being able to work at optimum speed for all hours of the day.

If you’re having a slightly lackluster day, don’t let it get to you. Just do your best, and then be kind to yourself once you’ve finished work for the day. We all have good days and bad days, that’s normal, the best thing that you can do about it is to let it go, so that you can approach the next day of work with a fresh, positive headspace.

8. Fit your children around your work routine

Many of us have had to juggle homeschooling our children with working from home ourselves. Wearing these two different hats has been a bit of a nightmare, and there’s certainly no one, foolproof solution to this.

Our best advice would be to try to create a working routine which best fits around the needs of your children. For example, if you have older children, try to schedule important calls when you know that they have a lesson planned, or even before they get up in the morning. If you have a younger child, make the most out of their naps, and really try to tick some key jobs off your to-do list during those times.

9. Create a relaxing atmosphere

Your home office needs to be a place where you feel comfortable and enjoy being in. Don’t dismiss this point as a waste of energy - you’ll be so thankful for these little touches on a stressful day.

Things like candles, cushions and family photographs are a great addition to any office, home or otherwise. Also, if you like to listen to tunes while you work, you may also want to set up a nice music system.

10. Invest in a Smarter Coffee

I don’t know about you, but for me, coffee breaks are what’s keeping me sane throughout all of this. Few things can beat a quality cup of coffee, and this regular little treat is something that I get to look forward to throughout my working day.

With a Smarter Coffee machine, you can easily incorporate these little coffee breaks into your work from home routine. Our smart coffee maker enables you to brew a nice cup of coffee - to your desired brew and strength - from the Smarter app on your phone.

You can even pre-programme the device so that it fits in with your pre-planned breaks. That way, you’ll have a piping hot cup of aromatic coffee ready to greet you when you leave your desk.

So, if you want to set up a smart home system to support your WFM life, check out the Smarter online store, where you’ll find our Smarter Coffee machine, and our other pieces of innovative kitchen technology.



Written by Josephine Walbank