6 Tips for Structure and Productivity in the Home Office

The digital working world makes it easy for us to take our workplace with us and move it to wherever it makes the most sense at the time. This can be a project location, such as one of the construction sites for a site manager, a hotel room for a sales representative in the field, a clinic for a doctor or a patient in convalescence, a co-working space for digital nomads, or even one’s own home—and not only in times of pandemic lockdowns.

It sounds great and convenient, and it has undisputed advantages when commuting to work and lunch in the canteen are eliminated, you gain more self-determination over your time, and you can be closer to your family, especially with children.

However, anyone working from home also faces several challenges:

* There is a lack of clear structures in working hours and task definitions.
* Digital/mobile equipment is not as professional as in the company.
* Distractions are more diverse and come primarily from the private sphere.

In the home office, our ability to concentrate is more important than in the company office; self-management and motivation are also required. Discipline is put to the test, as is our ability to set the right priorities. All of this is largely taken care of for us by the fixed structure of everyday office life and the physical distance from our private environment when we go to our workplace every day at the agreed time.

However, it is not at all difficult to replicate these framework conditions with simple means and a few adaptations in the home office. Here are six proven tips that are sure to improve everyday office life at home, the quality of work, and also the quality of life in the home office for everyone involved.

#1 Get up, freshen up, and get dressed as usual.

Admittedly, this sounds trivial. Nevertheless, for more people than you would believe, the temptation is simply too great to boot up the laptop in pajama pants five minutes before the first web meeting. Why get dressed, especially when a pandemic curfew is in place? Never underestimate the power of habit and body memory—you won’t truly wake up in your pajamas.

There is nothing wrong with using the time saved by not commuting for a little more sleep. However, set the alarm for at least half an hour before the start of work. Under no circumstances should the morning bathroom routine be skipped. Freshen up and get dressed as if you were going to the office—you will feel completely different immediately.

Do you find that exaggerated? Well, it can also be jeans and a comfortable sweater instead of a pressed shirt. But make sure that you could also leave the house and meet other people with a clear conscience. Your self-perception and motivation are closely linked to this, and you will work more actively and appear more confident in web meetings.

#2 Overcome camera shyness.

Perhaps not always, but more and more often, you should turn on the camera in web meetings. This allows you to kill two birds with one stone.

On the one hand, an upcoming web meeting with a camera forces you to ensure a presentable appearance as described under #1, and with this bit of discipline, you do a lot for your self-confidence. “Clothes make the man,” as an old proverb says. Our clothing is more than a substitute for missing fur; it influences how we feel and how we act. It is irrelevant how expensive or fashionable we dress. The clothes must be well-groomed, and we must feel comfortable in them—but for working, not for sleeping.

On the other hand, contacts are better maintained when participants can see each other. Facial expressions and gestures contain messages that are missing in acoustic or written communication. They create more proximity and have been proven to improve collaboration in geographically dispersed teams.

Camera shy? Practice a little. Most cam chats show you on a monitoring screen how others see you. A short chat with friends or a test session with office colleagues will reveal that no one comes across like a Hollywood star in such a chat, and that is not necessary at all. Online meetings are on a course for success worldwide; refusers are increasingly at a disadvantage. In the interest of your own professional career: get used to it.

#3 Set up your workplace.

If you are in the fortunate position of having a fully equipped and professionally furnished office at home, you are welcome to skip this—and perhaps the next—point. For most of us, however, the study, if available, must fulfill an additional function, such as a guest or ironing room, storage room, or similar purposes.

However, it is very important to have a workplace where your work equipment, from laptop to ballpoint pen, from documents (hopefully filed in an organizing folder) to notepad and charging cable, can find space or be left until the next day.

Therefore, tidy up and set up a corner that is not too small. A side table can serve the purpose just as well as a folding table from the balcony. In a single studio or a family apartment that is currently becoming too small, the only possible place may be the kitchen table. In this case, a large tray or an organizing box helps to keep materials together, to be set up during working hours and cleared away at meal times.

#4 Optimize your workplace.

The professional office chair from the office is probably not a designer object that you like to have standing in your apartment, but after some time on the dining room chair, you might miss it after all? Now a little creativity is required.

Change your seating. Occasionally use the stool without a backrest for work; this helps in keeping your back straight. Is the old exercise ball from pregnancy gymnastics still around somewhere? Great, get it out and use it in between. Do you have a standing desk in the office? Try using the ironing board or a chest of drawers.

Creativity is also required when we do not have certain devices available. No scanner? There are mobile apps for that, or can it be a photo instead? No paper shredder? Tearing it into small pieces is sufficient in times like these. Many of these cases can be solved by yourself; with others, you will have to contact management—such as things like company calls from private phones—these should definitely be documented and submitted for cost reimbursement.

#5 Structure your workday.

The workday timetable should be clearly formulated. Ideally, your employer has already done this, but with flexible working hours or all-in contracts, you would do well to prescribe a clear temporal structure for yourself and also adhere to it (see also #1).

Clear structures help to keep distractions at a tolerable level. This is hard enough with small children in the family anyway, but even if there are only adults in the household, clarity is required. If everyone knows that your working hours are from 9 AM to 5 PM and there is a one-hour lunch break at 1 PM, a lot has already been achieved.

What you still need now is a clear signal of when you must not be disturbed. A closed door, for example, would be such a signal. If you do not have your own room available, this could also be putting on your headset. Whatever it is, the basis is a clear agreement with your housemates. This will not always work with children either, but it helps—try it out!

#6 Set good priorities.

One of the simplest and most proven tools for setting priorities, which many successful people swear by, is the Eisenhower Matrix. It consists of a simple coordinate system of +/- IMPORTANT and +/- URGENT. It is fast and efficient if you initially completely dispense with gradual distinctions. You simply decide whether a matter is important or not, and whether there is urgency at the given time—a temporal component such as a deadline, an expiration date, or similar.

This results in four quadrants, which are designated either with letters (A – D) or with numbers (1 – 4). Each of the quadrants requires different courses of action. Quadrant 1 contains all things that are BOTH important AND urgent and therefore have the highest priority. If this overflows, it is often due to the neglect of Quadrant 2—because that is where important things are sorted that are not (yet) urgent.

One immediately recognizes the vicious circle potential: important things ignored for too long become urgent over time, and because of too many urgent AND important things, working through top priorities consumes all resources. This actually happens quite frequently in day-to-day business, and the really unpleasant side effect is that no one can take care of truly important matters with the necessary care anymore. In addition, agendas from Quadrant 3—not important, but urgent—have the unpleasant quality of pushing themselves to the front. It is simply the case that in the face of a deadline or an expiration date, people tend to confuse urgency with importance.

Now is the moment to create the necessary space. With less day-to-day business, you can devote yourself to the 2nd quadrant and bring out important medium-term, more tedious, or long-postponed topics, thus creating a basis for more success in the future. And when Quadrant 2 is empty, you are welcome to devote yourself to the nice-to-haves and also work through 3 and 4.