9 to 5 is officially over. What’s next?

It’s new the WFH you. Get to work on your new working life.

The COVID-19 virus is now a clear and present reality in how we work. Not only are people who work in non-service oriented roles dealing with the lack of workspace interpersonal contact, they are also pushing themselves into work habits that will test some undeveloped behaviors.

Thousands of posts in these past weeks are giving advice on how to work at home effectively, all good and for good reasons. For many to who this is new special desk in a corner or a closet or den, get used to it, it’s likely to become the norm in your new job.

So your day is going to be longer, your work will seem to never end (it never does) and the burnout will not go away even though the comfort of being in your pajamas most of the day may seem like a remedy.

Speaking of pajamas, professional on top by day, comfort at night. So you’ll probably need to order some more bottoms to supply daytime and night time activities.

As we hope, this crisis will pass. Things will return to a semblance of normality and we can take stock of our health and how we manage this type of thing should it come again. But what about the work day? If 90% of the non-service workforce has had a taste of non-office work life will they ever be able to work in an office again?

Before all this started many people were working at home for short periods of time. Work during sick days, deadlines …all for focused task and limited collaborative work. Others used video conferencing effectively and are able to manage both quite well. For others there will be challenges, especially if this lasts for months and not days.

Here are few things to keep in mind from personal to professional that there hasn’t been a lot of mention of in the current information.

Fatigue — the type of endurance needed to work at home is much different than in the office, in the office you have others to bounce ideas and energy off of, being your own well of energy takes more out of you in an hour than the same amount of time at work.

Scheduling — Rethink your whole calendar. Rethinking email consumption habits and video conference commitments fall into this activity as well. Cool down time 2–3 times a day is important.

Discipline — Start, stop and rest at the same times during the day. If you are working into the night, make sure a day nap is possible. No kidding you’ll need it. You won’t find the best plan unless you trial some experiments in time blocking.

Speaking of discipline one of the major adjustments that have to be made is with the others in your life. Family, pets and the like are going to need to understand your schedule and demands. Print out your schedule for them every morning …it goes a long way. Cats love to read things you print out, trust me.

What you do during your workday is also going to need a tune-up. Following the old office habits are not going to work should you be home for a while.

Breaks — You will need more of them, some are just a bio break, some a tea or coffee break, walking the dog, talking to a family member. Just keep your time limited to 5–15 minutes. The 20/10/20/10 rule works for some who want to divide the minutes up for each hour.

Education — Take 10% of your week to learn something new or go deeper with a subject that came up in work that week. There are loads of free online courses and content to choose from. It’s also good to go for a walk on a break after doing some of this research/education, let what you learned sink in.

Diet — I’m not a dietician and won’t over stress this point but you will change physically by being home. Your stress levels and ability to walk the halls of an office will be severely altered. Rethink energy boosting foods like sugars and caffeine, slow burn foods and tea drinking are always a good start.

If you have responsibilities for managing others and/or space that was until recently being used by your workforce, it’s time to take a look at that too.

Onsite visits — Focusing your time over fewer, longer days so that your in-person interactions efficiently meet your work goals. This works for people who need to meet people after-hours or for early or late meetings in other time zones. Maximizing your day and subsequently having fewer days at the office can work if your discipline is strong.

Role redefinition — Though the trauma of a global pandemic may seem like enough for now, this is also a good time to rethink a lot of the ways in which teams, departments and role definitions are structured. What people can achieve WFH as opposed to in an office environment will be much different. Resetting goals and focus for the next 6 months is on everyone’s mind, but how to do it should be evaluated in the reality of people and their at home work habits.

Space re-evaluation — Do we really need all those offices? Do people like the rack seating? Again, you can ask yourself these questions …it costs you nothing. If you’re in operations or finance you may have a rotating hoteling workforce in your future so what you do with your space and any excess space may give rise to new revenue or cost saving opportunities. Looking at the office with new eyes and with a new view of how to manage a flow of workers rather than a fixed number of workstations and overhead consumption.

This is only the beginning of a long list of things to rethink now that 9 to 5 work formats are fading away. All the noise about the pandemic is hard to hear and it will likely get worse before it gets better. Taking a fresh look at how to change the way your work is done is a good thing. How you rethink it all can be a very positive conversation with your manager or co-workers, why not change it for the better while all this change is going on?

Good luck! I’d be interested to hear your thoughts about what to rethink.