6 rules to improve your life working remotely

Let's explore some proven strategies to help you become a more effective remote worker.

Feb 26, 2024

Working remotely has great benefits: you can have lunch with your family, your schedule is usually more flexible, no time wasted in the traffic, and others.

It also has drawbacks which, if not properly addressed, can make your life more stressful. The web is full of stories of people burned out because they worked several hours beyond their schedule. To feel the benefit of working remotely, some rules must be applied.

I’ve been working remotely for more than five years. Here are the rules I applied to enjoy the experience.

1. Don’t wake up too late ⏰

This applies specifically to people working from home, like I do.

The temptation is to wake up a few minutes before you need to start working. That’s not a good idea. Even if you are the kind of person who doesn’t have breakfast in the morning, try to get some time to prepare for work properly. Waking up and starting work immediately will make you feel like you have only time to work in the morning, and your morning is very short. I enjoy having a long breakfast, but even if you don’t like having more than a coffee in the morning, I suggest you do something else with that time. Consider reading, watching TV, playing video games, scrolling the news, or listening to podcasts.

Wake up at least one hour before you start working.

2. Brush your teeth 🪥

This applies especially when working from home, where it is easy to mix work and personal life.

Brushing your teeth in the morning is not only a healthy routine but also a way to psychologically tell your brain “the day has started.” It might look silly but the idea you don’t need to go through the door and just sit on a chair to start working might make you feel too comfy. Having a routine and doing simple things like brushing your teeth will make a huge difference. After a while I started feeling the difference in my mounth because I realized I started associating the taste of the tooth paste to the moment I sit on my work chair and start working.

Brushing your teeth is one of the small things you can use to define when your working hours start.

3. Setup your working environment 🖥️

Having a specific place where you work is crucial.

There are two different options:

Work in a dedicated room in your house
Work in co-working or public places

Both have pros and cons.

Work in a public place

This is the one I would suggest for people who start working remotely.

It is the closest experience to working in an office. If you live close to other collegues it could be great to gather and work together. Co-working are also great places to meet new people and avoid the loneliness sensantion that sometimes comes with remote working.

Cons are that sometimes you might still get into the traffic, some places might be noisy, so not ideal if you have meetings.

Work from home

If you can you should assign a specific room of your house to be your office.

But, if you don’t have that possibility at least have a place you only use for that. Having a small space in a room can have an impact on the way you approach to working from home.

In the example above, you can see how a friend of mine realized a very creative office space in his bedroom. As you can see he was able to find a perfect sized desk and used a support for his second monitor.

Hybrid approach

The two approaches can live together, you can consider going into a public place some days and some days work from home.

During the Summer you might enjoy working in a park or from your garden. You can consider going into a bar when you don’t have meetings and work from there. On a rainy cold day might feel so comfortable working without the necessity to go outside so you can work from home.

The rule is to separate living spaces from working spaces.

4. Stick to your working hours ⏳

Clarify your working hours with your company

Working remotely doesn’t mean working at any time.

It isn’t uncommon seeing people working from home who are still working very late. It happened multiple times to me that I had to work very late because of an emergency, but that’s the exception. You might be fine working very late because you like waking up later, that’s fine, but make sure to clarify that with your company.

Understand what are the company needs and, with that in mind, clarify your working hours.

Clarify your working hours with people living with you

Working from home it’s working.

Even if you are not in a meeting you are still working. If you are taking a break you are still at work. It is important that people living with you understand that you are working and respect your working hours.

Clarify your working hours with people living with you.

Clarify your working hours with yourself

“I just need 5 more minutes and I’m done” it is a very dangeourus sentence.

You can be your worst enemy and the main reason of your own stress. Having written somewhere your working hours will make it clear to you that, after 6 pm it’s time to stop. It is perfectly fine working until 7 pm because you like waking up later in the morning. But make sure that is something you decide in advance and stick to it.

Write your working hours for yourself and stick to it.

5. Take breaks 🍎

This rule also applies to working in office.

The difference is that, while working in an office, you end up having coffee breaks during the day. When I worked in my previous company we had a break in the morning when me and my collegue eat some fruits (usually apples), and later in the afternoon a more general coffee break. When working from home you don’t have the same social convention, but taking a break is still very important.

Create a routine for yourself and have breaks.

6. Discipline 🧑‍🏫

After all it’s all about following your own rules.

If you don’t like the rules I wrote in this post or if you find that they don’t work for you it’s fine. The important thing is to have your set of rules to enjoy working remotely and live that as a benefit. I found discipline as the best way to live while working from home in the past five years.

Follow the rules to work effectively work remotely.

If you have other rules you found effective as a remote worker let me know in the comments!