Getting Into Shape When Working From Home

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Getting Into Shape When Working From Home

by frankbradley on October 12th, 2010
27 Comments

I’ve worked from home for the last 5 years and earlier this week I read an excellent article from fellow Bloggertoner Sian Philips, over on her personal blog about getting away from the office and working from home.

Sian gives some great reasons why it’s more beneficial at times to work from home than go into the office. As I live at least 90 minutes drive from our nearest office, I can testify that in terms of being productive and on top of my game, working from home has been fantastic. On a personal note it also means that I am able to spend some time with my 2 year old daughter, before she heads off to bed at the relatively early time of 8pm.

While reading Sian’s post it got me thinking about my experience of working from home, and one thing that is very important is to ensure that you are in the right place, both mentally and physically. I’d like to share with you some of my tips on how to prepare:

I work in a relatively small team of 5 people, and I’m lucky enough to have a great boss who I talk to on a regular basis. That aside, I have recently started making a concerted effort to schedule work related calls with at least one person a day, whether it is a past or present colleague, or someone who I’ve been engaging with on our internal social media tools. Social Media is a great way for establishing a network, but I firmly believe that at some point you’ve got to pick up the phone, and eventually meet face to face to take the relationship to the next level.
Establish a routine that involves getting out and about. I walk the dog every morning before I start work. Apart from the obvious benefit of forcing me to get properly attired before I sit down at my desk, I also get to meet the same people on my route each morning. Even a brief smile and friendly nod from someone is a great way to start the day.
Make opportunities to network. Once a month I attend an Open Coffee event where I get an opportunity to meet like minded people, and talk about how things are going in our work lives. I’ve also recently committed to attending a monthly Blogger meetup, where I can hopefully learn to hone my blogging skills.
Do plenty of stretching. This is more a general tip that could be applied to all desk bound workers; however working from home does give you more flexibility to put this into practice. Over the last few years I’ve had continual problems with my lower back. After putting it off for a long time I went to see a physio. It turned out that my pain was caused by tight hamstrings, which are a result of sitting on a chair for most of the working day. After a few months of treatment all is well, however I’m on a strict regime of stretching now each day – 5 minutes of hamstring stretches every morning and every night. For those of you who sit for large portions of the day and experience back pain, I’d urge you to see a physio immediately. If you don’t have any pain I’d still strongly recommend that you incorporate hamstring stretches into your daily routine, as a preventative measure.

I hope you found my tips of value, and that you might be able to put them into practice. Let me know in the comments what you think. Also please share some of your own working from home tips with us in the comments.

Category: Business expansion, entrepreneurship, Networking, social media, Start-ups

Tags: exercise, Networking, work from home

The Author: frankbradley

I live in Kilkenny, Ireland, and I'm married with one daughter. I was born in Derry, and came to Kilkenny via Manchester, England, and Dublin. My passion is all things Social Media, and for the last 2 years I have been working as a Social Media Evangelist for Oracle, where I have worked for the last 8 years. This role entails, promoting the use of Social Media internally for improved communication and collaboration. My other interests include sports, especially football (soccer), reading, video games, movies/tv, music and walking. http://frankbradley.tumblr.com/

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http://twitter.com/fredchannel Fred

Nice one Frank. I see that after walking the dog, she gets to work as well LOL.
When we started Channelship, early 2008, we worked from my place. Very soon we realised we needed an office and we did much better.
In our case the problem was not having a proper, creative spot.Unless you have a huge comfortable house, or at least a bedroom that you can turn into a good office/studio, then, I’d recommend look for some desk/office space.
http://www.ivanwalsh.com Ivan Walsh

Hi Frank,

Something that works for me is to work in chunks.

For example, I do email (and nothing else!) from 12-1. And again from 6-7.

This lets me focus totally on ‘real work’ the rest of the time.

The stretching tip is also very helpful to stay healthy.

Something I’ve also found helpful is to raise my laptop a little so I’m not hunched over it. Makes a huge difference after sitting down all day.

Ivan
Anonymous

I make an effort to try and work at home one day in the week but though once I get settled in it might mean one day becomes two days, three days or the full week.

When working at home, I refuse to work downstairs. It’s a general population area, people coming and going during the day, TV on or some other kind of distraction, so I work upstairs. It also means that when I want something, I’ve to physically get up and go down to the kitchen, make the coffee, bring it back. But the two minute break away from the desk is great respite.

If I’m in the office during the week I’ll start at the desk, lunch at the desk, finish at the desk and head home. If working from home I’ll make sure to distance myself from the home office during lunch hours, given it’s my home there has to be some clear line between the work world and the home world.

The stretching is a great tip as well, simple leg stretches in the morning and evening can make a world of difference when you’re sitting down all day long, similarly with stretches for your back and arms.

If you’re going to work from home full time, it’s worth investing in a decent desk and a decent chair – I had a desk purpose built for the room I use as an office at home which allows me to work comfortably, with a bit of room to expand and decent chair will go a long way towards easing potential back trouble down the line!
http://www.sianphillips.ie Sian Phillips

Thanks for mentioning me and my blog Frank and I’m glad it sparked off this great post too I walk the dogs every morning so it feels like I’ve done some sort of commute to the office – not straight from bed to laptop. I also try and escape to the garden lunchtime if the weather is good. Re the other comments about an office in the house I must be the exception to the rule because I have set up an office at home twice and my productivity dropped. I think because it felt like I was going to the office and that put me off. I am fortunate that I live alone so no interruptions – apart from Social Media – which as I don’t do outside networking I consider part of my job getting my name out. I picked up some work on Twitter last night for example. I’m also lucky with the work I’m doing now in that if I want to take a couple of hours out in the day then I can make them up later on – which wouldn’t normally be possible working at an office. This keeps me happy and work therefore going well
http://blog.myprojecttracker.com Barney Austen

Hi Frank. Some good solid tips here that I apply daily. The point that Ken makes about having a separate work area in the house so you are no disturbed is key. Our team office is in a separate section of the house – this means I don’t get disturbed, but it also means that the rest of the family don’t have to feel they are intruding.
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http://www.marketingboost.co.uk Mark Harris

Thanks very much for starting this discussion. I read it 2 days ago, it struck a chord (not spinal) and I’ve returned to comment today. The top tip about hamstring stretches is a great reminder for me – after years of playing football – these muscles are not happy sitting for 8hrs.

On the theme of WFH – I must have the right music playlists set up to get me into the right gear for the day. For example I have a playlist called Creative Time to get me going for creating messages for copywriting etc.

am also trying to fit in a walk to/from school with the kids when I can. It’s great to clear the mind, leave the 4 walls and get back into the flow, especially after the mad rush to school in the mornings.

I’m also looking into one of these chairs to help improve the posture throughout the day.

http://www.backinaction.co.uk/kneeling

thanks for posting.
Anonymous

Thanks Fred. Yeah my dog is very productive, wouldn’t get through half the stuff I do without her. Thankfully I have a separate room, that I use as an office, and I can lock the door if necessary.
Anonymous

Since I got the iPad, I’ve found it fantastic for getting away from that hunched over the desk posture. If you had have said to me 10 years ago about the need to do stretches daily I would have laughed, but it’s now just part of my daily routine.
http://www.ivanwalsh.com Ivan Walsh

A-ha! Now I can see myself getting one! Didn’t see the benefit until now
Anonymous

Thanks Ken. When the house is empty I’ll usually work in different rooms of the house. Sometimes it’s good to stand with the laptop on the breakfast bar.

I can’t emphasise the value of stretching too much. Those 5 minutes at the start and end of the day make such a difference. I usually listen to a podcast or the radio to relieve the boredom and routine while doing the stretches.
Anonymous

You’re welcome Sian. I also treat my walk with the dog as my commute to work. I usually try to take her out again at lunch or at the end of the working day.
Anonymous

My daughter is only 2 at the moment but I sense challenging times ahead in keeping her out of my office during the working day.
Anonymous

Thanks for the comment Mark. I’m glad you liked the post. I think my hamstring issues also came from my football days, and not doing proper warm ups and cool downs.

I like your tip about playlists. Now that I’ve got my new iPod, I must look into it.

Thanks for the link to the chairs. I must do some more research.
http://www.seefincoaching.com/blog Elaine Rogers

OOh I look at those kneeling chairs and I think of my poor knees. Frank, I also suffer lower back pain, so move around a lot when in the office. I try to watch my posture, especially in the car, and am aware of my tight hamstrings. I don’t do the exercises so thanks for reminding me to incorporate them into my day.

The lower back problems come from an old injury – not sport related. I had physio initially to treat the acute problem. More recently I get deep muscle massage and also Scenar treatment, which is not unlike certain physio treatments.

SCENAR is not well known here in Ireland but has physiological effects and directs current straight to the pain cells, altering the frequency so the body doesn’t become resilient to the current.

Info here – http://www.scenartherapyireland.com/content.htm

Health is important for those working from home, as it’s takes a lot of energy to stay motivated, work alone, complete projects autonomously, and make sure we eat and exercise. hard work!!
http://twitter.com/davedungan Dave Dungan

Thanks Niall, I agree in some cases it can actually damage business, particularly if customer comments are ignored.
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