Having spent years conducting business from home, I can offer a few tips for those who are suddenly shifting their work location to their residences. Working from home means so much more than a place to plug in your laptop and charge your phone. Let’s look at some critical needs. 
The obvious:
A clean, flat surface at which you can sit comfortably for hours at a time is required, so think carefully about this. Don’t fool yourself into thinking you can prop your laptop on your lap while you sit up in bed. This gets old fast. Sharing the dining room table with the family is not practical and can cause more problems than it solves. Your work station doesn’t need to be large but it must be dedicated solely for your workspace. No sharing it with other family members, and hopefully your children will not have access to it. Creating a cave for yourself in your windowless basement will not make for a positive and productive experience, I can assure you! Try and find a space that is well-lit, clean and pleasant, yet away from family traffic.
We See You:
If you’ll be on video conferencing, please take a look at what’s behind you. Yea, we see that too. Make sure it is clean and uncluttered. People will be staring at your backdrop the entire length of the Zoom Call, so help us out by letting our eyes rest on a simple space. On a related note, good lighting is extremely helpful. If at all possible, make sure that your appearance on camera is well-lit. Set up your workstation so that you are facing a window so that light shines on your face. Or at least position your head under a light source.
Pet peeves:
Pets. During phone and video conferencing, you can almost bet that your pet will make some obtrusive noise. Take note of what typically happens around your household that might set off your dog barking, and coordinate your calls during those times as much as possible. For example, my mail carrier’s truck rolls through the neighborhood around 1pm every day so I block out 1:00-1:30 as a no-call zone. Your dog is adorable but honestly no one wants to hear the barking. I also schedule Amazon deliveries to happen on a particular day of the week so I can try and avoid that day for conference calls.
Other noises:
While no one expects you to turn your home into a corporate building, you can try to mitigate intrusive noises by anticipating schedules. Do you have cleaning people come on Tuesdays? Does your lawn service come on Wednesdays? Pay attention to scheduled work that may clash with that conference call with your top client.
Focus:
There are 2 typical dangers here – too many distractions, where you keep getting up to do “house stuff” (and by that, I mean raiding the kitchen for snacks); and the opposite, becoming ensconced in your home office for hours without a break. Neither are good for your body, your soul, your family or your waistline. Get into a rhythm that makes sense and set up a simple workday routine. Go for a walk after breakfast and after lunch to get your limbs moving and fresh air in your lungs. Then you’ll be ready to sit at your desk and focus on work. The dirty dishes will wait dutifully for you to attend to them after 5pm.
Stay in Touch:
Communicate with your team via a dedicated channel like Slack or Microsoft Teams, rather than text or email. I keep Slack open on my computer and phone for clients to reach out with a question or idea. Because their messages are not mixed in with the deluge of emails and texts, I’m alerted to them easily and can respond to them quickly. Whether it’s clients or team members, we all need to keep in contact with associates to keep our spirits up and stave off feelings of isolation (even when we’re isolating ourselves).
Over all, try to create a productive and professional work environment and repeatable routine. Humans find comfort in habits, and know that it may take a while to find your ideal work structure. Don’t fall into the trap of keeping the TV on while you work, if it wouldn’t have been on in your normal office environment. And studies have proven that no music is best for you to be able to concentrate on the tasks at hand. Keep the tunes for lunchtime and for walks, not work.
Finally, be dressed! I have developed a work from home wardrobe that does not include pajamas or gym clothes. They are attractive enough to be seen on a video but more casual than what I would wear to business events. Staying in your pajamas, while super tempting, will not allow you to be focused and productive, and can more likely work against your efforts to keep your spirits lifted.
I hope these tips have helped! We can all be inspired from each other during these strange and challenging times. Please reach out if you feel I can help you in any way.