As of this week, each and every member of our team decided to work from home for the health and safety of themselves, their family and of course, the rest of the team. Whilst this is a huge change for all of us, we’re ready to work from home in the most productive way possible. Take a look at how we’re making our work from home routines efficient, productive and most of all successful for ourselves and for our clients.
First thing’s first; to work from home productively, we all needed our desks and our computers. Each of us has taken the tech we need to create versions of our Ikigai House set-ups in our own homes. We’ve each dedicated a space to work from home so that we can ‘arrive’ at work in exactly the right mindset for productive outcomes. Having a separate space for work is so important when you’re operating from home. If you’re lucky enough to have a separate office space, that’s great, but if not, setting up on a work table that’s purely for work will also give you the separation that helps productivity.
The team here at Mantra have decided to work from home just as though they’re at Ikigai House. Setting up our offices in this way is helping to create a seamless process of settling into our work from home routines. For the team at Mantra, wherever we work, there’s always plenty of matcha flowing, soft jazz filling our ears, and of course, shoes are always off. Each of our team members has set up their own mini Ikigai House in their homes, bringing elements of the office to their work from home regime, as well as their own ideas to make for the most productive process. However you work best, now’s your chance to tailor your working day exactly to your preferences.
Whilst we work at Ikigai House, we like to dress as professionally as possible to give the right impression to our clients, and to also make ourselves feel ready for our tasks at hand. Dressing a certain way makes you feel a certain way, and now we work from home, this hasn’t changed for any of our team. When 8am hits, we’re all ready for the working day ahead, which means we’re dressed for the day ahead; simply doing this allows us to feel prepared and motivated for all of the projects happening at Mantra.
Keeping moving as you work from home is always important, but even more so at the moment. As we’re all now staying at home, exercise will naturally be more challenging, so it’s time to get creative with movement. During the working day, our team have been putting in every effort to move where they can; whether it’s a few climbs of the stairs or a quick lunchtime stretch; movement is the key to an energetic and productive day as we work from home.
But movement shouldn’t just be during the working day. When our team is able to, we’re all trying to get outside once a day (at a safe distance) for a walk or a run in the morning or after work. The beauty of adversity is in the creativity it encourages, and we’re even seeing yoga classes being streamed online now, which some of the team are making the most of. Keeping fit as we’re in isolation is so important, and it’s great to see all of our team taking their health seriously through this time so they can stay safe and work from home in the best way for them.
When the work from home life begins, it’s hugely important to structure your day so that you can work as efficiently as possible. We’re all early birds here at Mantra, and working from home doesn’t change that. We’re all still aiming to get up close to the time we normally would, and instead of rushing to get out of the house, we’re using this extra time productively. Some of us are going for a walk or a run, others are doing a morning yoga routine, and some of us are taking the opportunity to cook a lavish breakfast to set us up for the day.
Working at Mantra, we always make sure our online diaries are constantly up-to-date so that our team members can easily be aware of what we’re working on, and know when we’re free for a catch-up or a meeting. We all still stick to our diaries like glue, and this is more important now than ever, for ourselves as well as our colleagues. When our working life has been disrupted, we remain grounded as firmly as possible. By filling in all hours of our diaries, not only do our colleagues know what we’re up to, but we know what we need to be doing and when, helping us to smoothly settle into our work from home mindsets. No two days are ever the same at Mantra, so we’ve always been joined at the hip to our diaries, which is a big reason as to why the switch to a work from home day has gone so smoothly. Now we can’t physically see each other, it’s that bit more important to keep on top of our own schedules and check in with each other every day.
As soon as a few members of our team started their work from home routines last Thursday, we’ve all been adamant that we’ll keep up communication at all times. Every morning, we all check in with each other through a group video call on Google Hangouts. Here, we get to see each others’ faces, interact with each other more successfully, and update each other on our work, making for a seamless and productive process.
As we work from home, there are no second thoughts about giving someone a quick video call to get the latest updates or to bounce an idea off. We all know that our teammates are at the end of a phone, quite literally at the touch of a button. We always opt for video calls where possible to keep up the human interaction and bring more of a feel of Ikigai House to our own offices. It brings a smile to all of our faces to see our colleagues pop up on our phones, and we’re all so grateful that we can keep up this communication so well as we work from home, even though we may be miles apart.
What’s important when we work from home is that even though we are apart, we still work together every single day, and with our own tips for a seamless work from home experience, we’re all settling into our home offices without a hitch, ready to work on the next projects together.