Maybe not even that. Maybe you don’t even change out of your pyjamas, but it’s not all easy peasy, we still need to be serious about our work, we still need to have a bit of structure in our lives and we still need to take care of our health (meaning: compensate for the reduction in movement that usually goes along with this new normal).

Here are 12 basic rules for better remote working:

Get plenty of sleep
Just because you can literally roll into the office each morning and nobody sees the state you’re in, doesn’t mean binge-watch Netflix until 3am and think it’s OK because you can catch up or work a bit longer. This kind of thing does catch up with you and your body clock will start adjusting. Once is OK but don’t make a habit of late nights, eh?

Organise your day according to your own (actual) biorythms
Though I just advised not to take advantage of working from home to change/abuse your sleeping patterns, you can actually use the flexibility that working from home gives you to try and adapt your day more to your own natural biorythms – this kind of positive, beneficial change is a pretty good idea if you can manage it within your schedule and commitments and the hours you are actually meant to be working.

Clearly identify ‘Work Space’
As much as possible depending upon the space you have to work with, try and define work space as clearly that. It will help, trust me 😉

Use Time-Boxing when working for more efficient work
If you don’t know what this is, check out this article on the awesome Pomodoro technique.

Split Your Time between activities
Work, Hobbies, Sports, Family Life… you get the picture. When everything is from home, you need to create some boundaries so that everything doesn’t just mush together. For your sanity as well as anything else.

Be clear on what you want to achieve every day
Back on the subject of mushing together, that can happen when you are working in the same place you are living. Just as the previous rule will help to delimit things by keeping separate activities separate, so having a clear purpose of what you want to achieve each day will keep you on track and focused. This will help you keep your bearings.

Make little lists
Very helpful for keeping motivated & keeping track of progress. Make little lists, but be careful – we’re not making lists for lists sake – i.e. if you find yourself adding things to the list just so you feel like you’re getting more done, stop! We’re just putting things on the list which actually need our attention, OK?

Take breaks & eat well
Obvious but needs to be said. This will keep your energy levels up. If you are following the pomodoro technique/time boxing as suggested above, breaks are built in to that. It’s gonna help with points 1 & 2 too, obvs.

Get up, stretch & exercise once in a while
Do I really need to say more on this one? No? OK, good. Actually whilst I’m here I do want to elaborate a little. Try and make sure you exercise (proper exercise, you know, heart pumping a little if possible) at least 30 mins per day (or 1 hour every other day).

Have the right resources for remote working
Like all things, having the right tools for the job always makes life a lot easier. Sometimes this is huge. Maybe your desk, your computer, your home configuration or the software you use needs a small change and that could make a big difference. Just check it out. Are you well set up?

Take care of your network and… network!!
Just because you are working remotely doesn’t mean you need to be remote. That list above includes making sure you have good applications to keep in touch with people and not just your work colleagues either. People need people so make sure you take care of that. When you look into it you should find it’s even easier to reach more people in the digital age and as we know where everyone is at (at home) then you will get a better hit rate too.

Stay Hydrated
Just because you’re not out and about and exhausting yourself, doesn’t mean you don’t need to drink. You still need to keep hydrated and make sure your body gets plenty of water.