How to work from home efficiently

30 March 2020

Whether you’ve worked from home before or you’ve recently made the switch to a home office, it’s notoriously tricky to stay productive, keep a normal schedule and maintain a healthy work-life balance. To make the adjustment easier, combine these essential features of Philips Hue smart lighting with a few work-from-home tips.

Without a commute, you may have trouble settling into your workday — or decompressing once it ends. Establish morning and afternoon rituals that will help you physically and mentally separate your workday from your home life.

Take advantage of the four preloaded light recipes — Energise, Concentrate, Read and Relax — to help you stay on track. Create a routine in the Hue app that activates a light recipe to follow your daily schedule: for example, have your lights in the kitchen turn on to Energise while your office turns on to Concentrate at 8:00 AM on weekdays. 

One of the dangers of working from home is the tendency to sit more and move less. Ease the strain of sitting at your desk by setting a timer to remind you to get up, stretch, or take a walk every hour or so. These short pauses also break up the day, helping you maintain focus when you sit back down at your desk.

Don’t let yourself fall into a routine of eating your lunch at your desk while you work. Instead, make it a point to take your lunch break on time — and away from your desk. Have a back garden, balcony or porch? If the weather is nice, take your midday break one step further and soak up some sun.

When your commute has been reduced to the distance between your bed and the living room, it’s easy to hit the snooze button one too many times. To ensure you wake up on time, create a Wake up routine in the Hue app. 

The Wake up routine turns your lights on at a specific time — with or without a fade-in, which slowly brightens the lights for up to 30 minutes — so that you wake up more naturally. Go to Routines > Wake up > Create wake up to schedule your personal wake-up call.

Separation from your colleagues can take its toll on your social interactions. With so many meetings taking place virtually, it’s important to get some face time. Turn on your video when you can and encourage others to do so as well. It can even boost the camaraderie among your team, giving you an inside peek into your colleagues’ homes and lives — furry friends and kids included!

Lounging on the sofa with your computer on your lap is great — but after those first few days, productivity drops and your back may start to ache.

If you already have a separate home office space, you’re one step ahead: just make sure it’s clear of clutter and that your workspace is set up ergonomically. If you don’t have a separate room, “claim” a space in your home for yourself. For example, take one corner of the dining room table and keep your monitor, keyboard and other office supplies there — no need to clear it away at the end of every day unless it’s absolutely necessary. 

When your home has also become your office, continuing past the end of the workday is a common occurrence, as is checking your email and just quickly signing back on. Make sure that when you sign off for the day, you sign off until the next one begins.