Working from home tips: Dr. Matt Marturano, Orchid Holistic Search

You’re in the middle of cooking dinner and that familiar “ping” of an incoming email sounds on your computer or phone. “I’ll just quickly check that” you say, and before you know it, dinner is burnt and it’s 9pm! Sometimes the boundaries between work and home can become blurred, especially now we’re working from home more regularly. It’s very easy for our internal dialogue to slip to, “I’ll just finish this last task…”. Dr. Matt Marturano completely relates to this, and shares his top tips for working from home below: 

1. Set work hours 

When working from home, it is especially easy to find yourself working at all hours of the day and night, with the unintended consequences of neglecting the other important areas of your life. This is why we recommend setting a clear schedule for the hours in which you will be working, and sticking to it.

2. Make a dedicated work space

Having a space in your home that is dedicated to work will help you to stay focused, and to also prevent work from spilling over into your private life. Of course, it’s ideal if you have an entire room that you can repurpose for use as an office. (You may also be able to deduct a portion of your mortgage or rent payment, utilities, and other expenses from your income tax if you do this!). If you don’t have a separate room to dedicate to your home office, then look for a quiet space somewhere else, and invest in room dividers – or even some curtains on a mobile rod – to set the space apart from the rest of the room. If at all possible, avoid working in your bedroom as this can interfere with your ability to get a good night’s rest.

3. Learn some basic computer maintenance and cybersecurity

Working from home also entails taking on a new job – that of being your own tech support. Being able to know how and when to update your devices and troubleshoot common issues, like loss of web connectivity, can save you lots of time and headache. In addition, we recommend to learn some fundamentals of cybersecurity, as attacks on home office networks are increasingly common, and generally easier to pull off. For example, make sure to set a secure password on your router, and regularly update the firmware. Also, familiarizing yourself with how to use a virtual private network (VPN) and enabling two-factor authentication (2FA) on all your sensitive accounts, will greatly reduce your vulnerability to cyberattacks.

Dr. Matt Marturano is the Vice President of Orchid Holistic Search, where he has developed a proprietary six-dimensional approach to candidate evaluation based on the principles of holistic health assessment. Dr. Matt is a Michigan native with a keen interest in systems theory, who in his spare time enjoys playing the piano and planning his next global travel adventure. Connect with Dr. Matt on LinkedIn.