Kentico Designers guide on how to survive your home office in quarantine
Quarantine sucks. For some less, for some more. The truth is that our design team needed to switch from semi-remote to fully remote work, which brought many of us to situations when we organize conference meetings from a kitchen or an outdoor terrace with birds singing in the background (yes, you could sense a bit of envy here). Our cats and dogs are happy that we’re home but they also keep barking and jumping on our computers while we are on calls. Our faces are plain and makeup-free, also our hair happened to grow much longer than we desired. The home environment became also a work environment, which made it hard for many of us who don’t have the spare room just for work. And so it goes.
On a positive note though, we still can work safely from our homes and that's why we are the lucky ones it this time.
I asked 7 designers–my awesome and smart colleagues–how they cope with it. I added my thought as well. Get inspired!
How do you keep sane?🧘
Adam
I’m trying to maintain as much of my normal routine as possible. These are difficult times, but keeping my habits helps me stay sane. I meditate every morning for 15min — it greatly helps me to keep calm in the face of everything around me.
Anna
I don’t. Last night, I dreamt about becoming a blackbird and interacting with my blackbird buddies.
I keep a checklist of things that I know make me a bit saner. I don’t have to do all of them every day, but the more I do, the better. The list includes 20 minutes of reading, 5 minutes of meditation, a morning stretch, physiotherapy exercises, and a longer workout. I also try to leave the house every day.
On the weekends, my boyfriend and I usually go for longer hikes — out of the city and into the woods. These are quite a life-saver!
Jakub
I used to work remotely from the US for about 5 months. It was very hard, especially after 3 months since I couldn’t meet the people I was working with. Now it’s a lot better because everyone is working remotely. Everyone has the same issues and there are things like coffee calls that wouldn’t make sense if I was the only one remote.
In general, I use the time for some other work, trying out new recipes or tackling DIY projects I’ve been putting off in the past. Regular walks in the nearby park are helpful when we're confined in a small apartment most of the time.
Pavol
I’ve finally moved all of my working stuff to a separate room, so now I know when I’m working and when I’m not. I use my laptop only for work so it also helps make the switch. The most important thing is to have a routine that tells your brain (and people you live with) you are working right now. If you don’t have a spare room, just move your chair to an unusual place. Or it could be a simple thing like putting on blue light glasses, headphones, or a hat. I was working in the kitchen with my headphones on for some time.
Peter
- every evening I go for a (really) long walk outside. I’m an avid hiker and runner and recently I’ve experienced the mandatory 14 day isolation period (my flatmate was in contact with someone who tested positive for corona, so the whole household was not allowed to leave the flat), and I’ve never expected how I would miss just that simple act of walking outside and sorting out my thoughts, ideas and feelings.
- I try to get intentionally bored. I know, it doesn’t sound very sane, but there’s a point to it. When you experience a period of boredom, you give your mind and your creative abilities some time to rest and recuperate. And next time you need to be focused or creative or basically get anything done, you perform much better. Interesting stuff, and I have to say it kinda works for me. This article sums it up nicely.
- I am kind to myself. What’s going on right now is weird and sometimes scary. Nobody’s got experience with this and neither should I. So I postpone any high expectations of myself to times when I feel like it and when this situation calmed down a bit.
Petr
I was actually in a pretty similar situation when doing field research in a Melbourne office for more than 6 months, so I’m pretty used to working without an office or coworkers. It was easier then because I could work from cafés, libraries, etc. General principles still hold though — Keep a strict schedule (it’s much easier to do overtime from home), exercise and move around, cook meals in advance (it’s a hassle to start cooking between calls) and try to keep a good attitude.
Sylvie
Thank god I’m one of those lucky people who have a dog, so I’m always “forced” to do at least some activity during the day — and that helps a lot!
Veronika
With more free time spent at home, I dove more into projects that I enjoy, such as various crafts (making of soap for example), drawing, baking, and cooking. All of these activities can be done from home and make me happy — win-win.
Work-wise, I try to push myself into taking more and longer breaks as I found out that is pretty easy to forget to rest when my living room became my office.
I try to finish all the work soon, so I can go out for a walk, smell and touch the flowers, soak up the sun for a while. During weekends we always try to get out and find some spot without people to charge batteries.
What is your usual home-office day like?👨💻
Adam
I start my day by doing everything I would do if I went to the office — my whole morning routine — including changing into work clothes. Sounds silly, but it really helps with separating my personal life and my work life. I usually plan my day in the morning or the day before. The rest of my day really depends. Some days are largely taken up by meetings, other days are freer. I generally try to schedule at least one block for deep work. At the end of the workday, I wrap it up by looking at my to-do list and calendar to see if there’s something to prepare for the next day. The rest of my day is usually filled by some combination of cooking, learning a language, reading or watching a movie to unwind.
Anna
I wake up, read the news and then regret it (reading the news, obviously). Don’t try this at home!
Throughout my life, I have been motivating myself mostly by food, so a good breakfast is something I never skip. I also find at least 10 minutes every morning to do some easy yoga. If I have enough time and there was not that much news to catch up with, I try to meditate.
At 9 am, I have a morning video sync with my “main colleague” Adéla. We talk about our plans for the rest of the working day. I can also ask her questions, which I often do — after all, this is my third month in Kentico and there is still so much to learn! Luckily, I started my job before the lockdown, so I know what my colleagues’ faces look like in 3D.
The rest of the working hours is a bit different every day. What stays the same is the fact that I spend a lot of time on video calls or trying to get my Wifi going. In the afternoon hours, I become more and more tempted to use some Snap Camera filter for the video calls and turn myself into a cucumber (or a blackbird, if it only were possible). For me, the temptations end at around 5:30 pm.
Jakub
I get up early (usually 5:30 AM), do the routine, start the day with breakfast and cup of coffee while watching some Youtube. Then I transition into work with some e-mail/updates/chats catching up. I work until lunch, and then a few more hours. After wrapping up Kentico-related work I sometimes continue with my side projects for a couple more hours — then it’s almost bed-time. I can get some rest on days that I don’t work more than I have to. Walks, baking bread, fiddling around with my 3D printer or gaming with my friends online or watching a movie with my girlfriend are some of the chill activities for me.
Pavol
I meditate at least once a day, usually in the morning. It helps me focus and be in the moment during the day. Then I do some quick workout and stretching. Another thing that must not be missing in my morning routine is making a coffee while listening to the podcasts. Then the work. First thing is to check my todos for today and then usually I have a lot of calls with my colleagues so we are in sync. We use Miro boards and Figma (right now we are collaborating a lot on breaking up a cool new feature, and it would be huge!), occasionally Sketch. On Fridays, I am learning new stuff, right now Framer X.
After the work, I usually go for a short walk to the nearby forest (with my mask always on).
In the evening I read (I like to read a lot), sometimes Netflix.
Peter
In the first couple of weeks, I tried to stick to a similar schedule I had while we were still in the physical office, but I realized it does not work for me in a home-office setting. I observed that I am most productive either in the early morning or late afternoon/evening, so I just gave up trying to do deeper or creative work around noon — I’d rather do some house chores or mundane administrative tasks or write documentation in that time. Also, I had to literally train myself to drink enough water (after a couple of heavy headaches caused by dehydration 😄), so I always keep a 2l kettle of tea somewhere in my sight to remind myself of that.
So that’s what I would recommend — create your own new routine and stay hydrated. 💙
Petr
I’m a pretty early riser, usually our dog or cat wakes me up around 5 am. We walk the dog with my wife, cook a quick breakfast, I make tea and start working. It’s pretty important for me to have a clean space, so I clean my office table first. I do pomodoro blocks and keep track of all my to-dos in Trello. Usually, my teams need some help and most of my work is spent on project management. I eat my lunch and continue working. I try to be done around 3 or 4 pm, as I start quite early. I do stuff around the house or go work-out after that, cook, etc.
Sylvie
At least once a day I go for a walk with my dog, usually in the morning to have a fresh start, or in the afternoon after I finish my work.
I also enjoy making lunch or dinner. And in the rest of the time, I simply work — so work actually “just fills” the rest of the time in between the activities I like!
Veronika
During the home office, I indulge myself with a longer sleep than normal as I don’t need to commute to the office.
Breakfast with coffee is a must. I take a short cold shower to finally wake up and I turn on my computer. I follow my calendar and to-do list to know what to work on. After lunch, I usually work for an hour or two and then take a break for afternoon coffee and continue working till it’s time to wrap it up. After work, I usually go for a walk, prepare dinner (and hopefully also lunch for next day) and relax with a movie, yoga stretch or with drawing.
Work from home can be challenging–do you have a secret tip to stay productive during these days?✨
Adam
Plan your days. Block out time for deep work and try not to get sucked into too many meetings.
Also, do your best to separate work from the rest of your life. These can be little things that tell your brain “hey, now it’s time to work” or “now it’s time to stop” — e.g. scheduling a little “shutdown” routine at the end of the day.
Anna
Do not try to work from bed. It will only make you sleepy and your back will find another way to hurt.
Jakub
- Plan as much as you can, divide into small chunks, maintain to-do lists
- Make regular cooldowns, go get some snack, stretch or stare out of the window every once in a while
- Try fighting the FOMO (fear of missing out) when everything’s happening on the Teams and get some distraction-free periods. As much as you can. Also, try not to break your focus time segments with small unimportant calls if possible.
Pavol
As I said before I need to have a routine that tells my brain I am working.
Also, I use the Timing app to track my working time (it does it on its own, so I don’t need to think about it). In the evening I see how much work I’ve done.
One of my workdays can look like this:
Furthermore, everyday meditation helps me be in the moment during the day.
Peter
Honestly? Not trying to be productive 😄 If I try to be super productive and efficient with my time during the day it just puts me in a stressful position. And surprise surprise when I’m in stress I perform much worse and I spend much more energy while doing so. So I try to keep relaxed as much as possible. When I plan my work for the day I prioritize it first and after that, I cut down 20–30% of what I planned and move it to the next day or I figure out how to do the task in the leanest way possible. I still overestimate my capacity, but I think this is the case for almost all of us. (Isn’t this some cognitive bias by the way?)
Also! This situation made me realize how badly I need to improve my focusing skills, so I’m training them every day. And I’m also currently writing an article about focus, so stay tuned! 😉
Petr
Clean your environment, don’t let yourself be disturbed, stay focused.
Sylvie
Yes — to communicate! The more information you share with your colleagues, the more you feel you’re part of the team.
You know that saying: “You tend to think something doesn’t exist anymore if you don’t see it for a long time.” Well, it is not a saying, but it is so true! And with work-related problems, it is the same.
So we’re in touch every day, sharing what we are working on and that keeps me going.
Veronika
It’s not really anything groundbreaking, but what works for me well is planning activities from my backlog to a calendar and also blocking some chunks of time in my calendar where I ask my colleagues not to invite me to any meeting unless something’s on fire.
Short stretch or meditation helps me to clear my mind (I often come up with some better solutions or ideas thanks to that).
Are there any tools that you could recommend? 🔧
Adam
I use Todoist and Fantastical for planning my days and to-dos. I like Notion a lot and use it for most of my note-taking or tracking my personal OKRs.
I also use the Clear Habit Journal for tracking my habits and writing down random thoughts.
Anna
I have recently discovered the app called ToDoist, which is a great help in organizing tasks — even non-work-related ones. I have learned about it from
and after a while of using it, I can already see my planning skills improving: I am getting to terms with how many tasks can really be squeezed into a day. I am not sure if I have become more productive, but at least I have more realistic expectations :)Jakub
Not really, focus on what you want to accomplish and find what’s best solving that, don’t become a hammer that can only see nails!
Pavol
Timing app is wonderful to know that you did enough for today :)
Miro boards are awesome for everything collaboration related (mindmaps, trees)!
This is a real map we are working on:
Peter
I fell in love with Pomofocus — it’s basically a combination of the todo list and pomodoro timer. Simple, straightforward, unobtrusive.
Petr
Strict Workflow extension in Chrome — blocks websites during a pomo time, gives you a specific time for a break. I find that’s really important for back health as well.
Sylvie
I’m not that kind of person, who knows every single tool that raises your productivity to 100%. All I need is to stay in touch with my colleagues. So any tool that connects us is my number one these days:)
Veronika
I switched from Trello to Notion, where I write down notes and keep my to-do list in kanban view. It’s pretty neat. I still love to take handwritten notes though so you could always find colorful markers on my desk :)
Would you like to recommend a podcast to listen to now?
Adam
This London Real episode with James Clear is really engaging and informative. If you didn’t read James’s book Atomic Habits, this episode covers many of the core ideas too.
Anna
Science Vs by Gimlet Media. Although it has been recently pre-occupied with Coronavirus, the older episodes are less disturbing and still as fun!
Jakub
The Knowledge Project — It’s a great podcast filled with a lot of interesting interviews. Be sure to check it out. It’s focused on revealing how different experts think about the problems they solve in their field of work. Many times these mental models are transferable into other disciplines and can make you a better thinker.
Peter
Nothing special, if you like good journalism you already know The Daily by The New York Times. If I want to unwind and relax I put on a random episode of Broken Record with Rick Rubin and Malcolm Gladwell — a series of really deep talks about music and life with great musicians.
Veronika
Anthropocene reviewed for very interesting facts about our “human-centered” planet.
ReWork for fresh business ideas.
Balanc on Czech Radio Wave and Esther Perel for psychology insights.
…a book to give a shot?
Adam
Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport. These days it’s important not to spend all your time on news sites and social media, but being mindful about your digital habits and investing your time into real hobbies. The book can really help with that.
Anna
For some light apocalypse reading, try Good Omens by Neil Gaiman!
Jakub
Super Thinking: The Big Book of Mental Models — this is a great book for everyone that designs any kind of behavior or policy. Books like Super thinking or Thinking in Systems: A Primer should be mandatory for all policymakers and designers.
Pavol
I’ve just finished Ruined by design by Mike Monteiro and now I’m reading Design for the real world by Victor Papanek. If you are interested in design ethics, these two books are a must.
Peter
If you struggle with working from home and productivity I recommend Deep Work by Cal Newport — it has some interesting tips and tricks. If you want to relax with a piece of fiction I recently discovered and fell in love with short stories by german author Judith Hermann. Also, I’m in the middle of Serotonin by Michel Houellebecq and it’s worth a shot.
Petr
No Dig Organic Home & Garden by Charles Dowding
Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas
…a movie or series to (binge)watch?
Adam
The Spy. Sacha Baron Cohen shows how good of an actor he is even without comedy.
Anna
For some light apocalypse (binge-)watching, try The End of the F***ing World.
Pavol
Peter
If you haven’t seen the Abstract docu-series on Netflix yet, now is the time!
Veronika
The Office (American) — that's classics!
…a recipe to try?
Adam
I’ve been trying more vegetarian recipes lately and this lentil salad with halloumi was amazing.
Anna
I recommend ordering food from a local restaurant! If that fails, try this.
Jakub
Sourdough bread! The only thing you need is strong (bread) flour, water, salt and lots of time. Ideal!
Pavol
I am not a cooking type, however, I grow kombucha at home and am baking wholegrain sourdough bread.
Petr
Dutch cheese croquettes are delicious.
Veronika
This French apple pie is the best!
…your favorite song these days?
Adam
Fritz Kalkbrenner recently released a new album True Colours and I’ve had that on repeat a lot. Good Things from that album is my favorite song right now.
Anna
Here’s a whole playlist!
(Disclaimer: Sometimes you can enjoy a song by just reading its name.)
Jakub
Peter
Petr
Matthew Halsall — Cherry Blossom
Veronika
Prepare for the magic with Garth Stevenson–Flying and Aphex Twins–Avril 14th
I hope you found our tips and inspiration helpful. Please don’t forget to comment on what you think and share your tips too!
