Paul Hendrick is an alumnus of UWL and Principal Software Engineer at Oracle, as he has worked from home on and off for many years with a team who span a wide range of countries we asked him to share with you his top tips for working from home during these challenging times. Some tips are obvious, some seemingly odd, but all are tried and tested, we hope you can pick up a few useful ideas to help make your work from home experience as effective as possible.
Work environment
- If possible, set aside a room for work - that way you can more easily delineate between work and home.
- If you cannot set aside a room then an area will suffice such as a desk in a corner.
- Make sure you set up any computers correctly, paying attention to the height of the screen and position of your keyboard and mouse.
Work Hours
- Try to keep work hours and home hours separate where possible as it makes it easier to switch off from 'work mode'
- Try to work the hours you would if you were going into your usual workplace.
Getting to and from 'work'
- Where possible, make a trip to your work area - I have heard of people walking around the block to get to 'work' in their home office - this helps reinforce the home/work difference!
Dress
- Dress for work as you would if going into your usual place of work - this helps your mind get into work mode.
General
- Try and maintain communication with others you work with by means of messaging or phone calls - that way you can still bounce ideas around and you will still have social interaction of sorts.
- Get up regularly for breaks and keep hydrated.
Paul Hendrick
Paul graduated from UWL in 2011 with a BSc (Hons) in Computing and Information Systems. He is one of our most engaged alumni volunteers, serving on UWL’s Alumni Board since 2012 and is a founding member of the University’s Industry Consultative Committee for Computing.
We are currently looking for volunteers to run online masterclasses and webinars, record messages of support and share their stories to help inspire our students and alumni in these challenging times. If you would like to volunteer to help support the University please regsiter on our volunteering page or contact us on alumni@uwl.ac.uk