Ten tips for healthy and effective working from home

Millions of working Dutch people are currently confined to their homes and most of them do not mind. We are massively discovering the advantages, but certainly also the disadvantages of working from home frequently, with or without children around us. Many Dutch people who don't want to make it all go smoothly, are therefore desperately looking for methods or tools to make working from home a bit healthier and more effective. We have listed the best tips for you.

Tip 1: The Pomodoro Method

The pomodoro method by author Francesco Cirillo has been popular since the 1980s. It works like this: you set a kitchen timer at a desired time in which you want to concentrate on one task, for example 25 minutes. Then you can take a five minute break. During those 25 minutes you continue to work, without interruptions or disruptive factors. Are you getting distracted? Then the 25 minutes start again. You can't really take a break until you complete the 25 minutes. Be strict!

Tip 2: Steel discipline

Put your private phone on silent and put it away. You can turn off all notifications (email, Skype, Teams, social media, everything). You don't respond to apps or phone calls, let alone e-mail. Checking Facebook or Instagram is strictly prohibited. Set these kinds of rules for yourself and help yourself to comply with them, for example by temporarily removing social media from your bookmarks.

Tip 3: Give yourself something from the office

This helps enormously: there is always something about the office that you miss now that you are working from home. The dartboard for example, or that delicious coffee from the coffee bean machine. Give yourself something you are used to from the office, for during your five-minute break.

Tip 4: Think about your posture and desk design

Make sure you have a good chair on which you can sit in an occupational health and safety manner and sit Marie Kondo on your desk or work table. Everything empty except what you really need to work. The less incentives, the more work you get done.

Tip 5: Get rid of those sweatpants

Get dressed. Yes really. Lazy clothes make you feel lazy, work less concentrated and yield less. So just take that morning shower and put on some regular pants.

Tip 6: The lunch break is sacred

Grab a decent lunch and take that twenty minute walk. You also take your lunch break at the office, so don't sell yourself short while you're at home. Incredibly healthy according to professor of neuropsychology Erik Scherder.

Tip 7: Five o'clock is five o'clock

Pack that laptop, table empty, the evening begins. Leaving your laptop open all evening and night is a huge pitfall that causes unnecessary stress and evening work. When the work is done, it is done.

Tip 8: Snack healthy

Rather snack tomatoes than Doritos, so. Working with hunger is never fun, and when you go to the office you probably also take something responsible and not a bag of chips. Continue to eat normally.

Tip 9: It's not every day weekend

You may not have to get up at 6am to beat the traffic jams, but that doesn't mean you have to put a bottle of wine on the table every day. Drinking during the week seems to be growing in the Netherlands because duty calls less early in the morning, but remember: even after one or two drinks, you will be less productive the next morning.

Tip 10: Accept your off day

And fail one day? You do that sometimes in the office, don't you? Nothing to do about it. If you've done all of the above, it just didn't work for once. You don't have to feel bad about that anymore.

Curious about tips for more productivity? Check out this one work from home tips, written by Thomas with six years of working from home experience.