WFH Like A Pro

If you used the abbreviation WFH a little a while ago, guaranteed there would have been a few eyebrows trying to decipher those three letters. Work For Hotels? Wow Free Ham?

Today, where self-isolation and social distancing is the new normal, Working From Home (or Hotel for some lucky peeps), is a reality for most. We have tips on getting through your 9-5, keeping your eyes on the prize, making that 5 o’clock wine THAT much more deserving.

1. Find your flow and set up a workspace.
   Those without the luxury of a home office, make do with the end of the dining table, or a makeshift desk. Settle in with your laptop, monitor, keyboard and recreate your office environment with the addition of a set of cheeky succulents to brighten up your workspace. When working from home, clearly establish this space as your office to yourself and communicate this to your lingering housemate, mother in law, and the neighbour’s cat who pays the occasional visit.

3. No noise or some noise?
   Depending on your workstyle, noise cancelling headphones may be your saving grace or your worst nightmare. If your office had a decent amount of hustle and bustle, and the noisy office was a pet peeve, stressing you out and eating away at your concentration… Put on your headphones, welcome to home sweet home (office) and hello to productivity. If you miss the buzz and you’re not quite getting the same comforts while WFH, flick on the radio as background tunes or your favourite playlist. We can recommend listening to Radio Ovolo on Spotify, which you’ve heard it at our hotels, now take these tunes through your workday. Time won’t go faster, but it’ll be a lot more fun.
4. Go about your day.
   Snooze the alarm, get dressed, grab brekkie and if you normally catch up on a podcast on your morning walk to work, take some time and walk around the neighbourhood to get your poddy fix. 8am, 10am and 11am coffee drinker? Keep on keeping on, stock up on instant, invest in a Nespresso machine or get friendly with the café next door to keep your routine. However, things might not always go as planned. Your inner domestic goddess may keep calling, urging you to get to the load of washing you’d rather get to? Keep it to your mid-morning, afternoon or lunch break.

1. Keep active.
   Without the walks from the office to the meeting room, or ducking out for lunch in the area, you’ll likely be getting in fewer steps than usual when working from home. Try the 5-55 rule and spend five minutes out of every hour standing up, stretching your legs and moving. It’ll reset your body, mind and you won’t need oiling like the Tin Can from The Wizard of OZ.
2. Social distance but stay connected.
   With the unplanned collaboration and communication takes place in a workplace, so you might feel a bit lonely or disconnected from time to time. Don’t let that stop from your experience of working from home and stay connected. Zoom, Teams, WhatsApp, your work wife, is a keyboard, phone or video call away.
3. Sign off and unplug.
   Start and more importantly finish to mimic your regular workday. You’ve gotten dressed, had your three AM coffees to kick off your morning routine so keep to your evening rituals as your wrap up for the day. When you step away from your workspace for the day, you’re leaving the office and you time begins. Pour the Pinot, grab a girlfriend or start cooking your Michelin start dinner, the night is yours.

Avoid distractions such as the fridge, TikTok, Netflix (but if you need some help when you got you), the pantry and the neighbour’s cat.

Now go forth, WFH like pro, we don’t know how long this will stay our reality.