Think of how you feel the night before returning to work after a lovely foreign holiday. Those emotions and feelings and possibly even stress levels rising. With millions of people having been working from home for months, there is a change on the horizon as organisations start to return to the office. Aside from the obvious changes with Covid, consideration needs to be given to the needs of staff as they transition.

One of the major challenges we foresee in leading staff through this transition, is helping them to regain focus. No longer will we be able to put the washing on, batch cook dinner, and play with the dog, whilst on a Zoom call! Most organisations are expecting to migrate to flexible working practices. Where people will work from home several days per week whilst returning to work.

Our top tips for helping focus 

• Consider having an informal networking event on return, to allow staff to catchup and spend time together without needing to consider work tasks. This will help strengthen bonds and connections that may have weakened over the past 12 months.
  
• Aim to complete one task, before moving on to the next. There is likely to be a lot of tasks vying for your attention, and serial processing will help this. (Look into our Time Management Courses if you want more information on this)
• Turn off the email notification – regain control of your emails and choose when to work through them (May not apply to all roles)
• Take a walk! Have you ever had one of those days where you sit at your desk and struggle to focus? Changing state,raising your heart rate and getting some fresh air can make a huge difference to your concentration levels.
• Take lunch – make sure you move away from your desk for lunch. No matter how busy you are, taking time for nutrition is a great way of returning refreshed
• Start with the task you wish to do least – everything after that point is easier, and you don’t have the disliked task hanging over you
  

Check out the rest of our blogs for more of our top tips.