Why a Drew Smith home at Pembers Hill Park is the perfect home to work from!

We live in a new world where working from home has been a necessity and at Drew Smith, we see this new way of working sticking around for a while! Its not always easy and we have seen for ourselves how cats like to walk in front of screens and neighbours like to mow the lawn right outside your window when you are trying to present to your team.

The Drew Smith team wanted to share our top tips of working from home and tell you why a new home at Pembers Hill Park the ideal solution for you could be.

Below, I’ve compiled a bunch of great work-at-home tips and tricks from some of my awesome co-workers.

· Make a dedicated workspace

Make sure you have somewhere that is your dedicated workspace, ideally away from places in your home that you use for leisure. Although some of our houses have a study most people won’t have this space to work from. Avoid kitchen tables and try and set up a desk in a spare room or dining room to allow you to set your desk up properly to avoid unwanted aches and pains. Our new homes are spacious and airy to allow you to create the perfect workspace and our site at Pembers Hill Park has an excellent quality of Wi-Fi so you won’t need to worry about your screen freezing!

Joe is our Planning Manager

“Having a dedicated space for me and my family to work has made a huge difference. We use our dining room and we can all sit down together and manage our workloads easily as well as having people around for company. We had to create a strict routine at the end of the day to pack things away ready to get out for the following morning.”

· Keep to your working hours

It is 7pm and you hear your laptop ping! Its so hard to switch off when you are getting constant reminders from your devices. When you have finished your working day make sure you switch your laptop off to reduce the temptation to log back in to do that one more job or check your emails as most of the time it can be picked up the following morning.

Simon is Head of our Sales and Development at Drew Smith.

“Its really hard to switch off when you don’t have a change in location from work to home and I think the team have had to adopt a new stricter way of working to ensure that our work does not creep into our home life. You have to remember that you are working from home and not living at work!”

· Take a break

Living in Fair Oak is a great place to work from home as you are surrounded by beautiful countryside. Make sure you get out and into the fresh air as much as you can. Take a walk in the surrounding fields on your lunch break, walk into the village at the end of the day or even enjoy some time in some of our spacious landscaped gardens when you need a break.

Sam is in our Customer Care team

“When Covid struck and we were all sent to work from home I struggled to remember to take breaks. My role means I am on the phone for large periods of the day and before I knew

it, I had worked all day without moving. I now schedule an hour into my dairy each day and take some time out away from my desk, or dining room table!”

· Stay in touch

Are you missing the interaction of your colleagues dropping by your desk, chatting over the printer, or doing the tea and coffee round? It can be a lonely business when you work from home so make sure you check in with your team on a regular basis as they will probably be feeling the same. There is also a great community at Pembers Hill Park and they have their own dedicated Facebook group so why not reach out to your neighbours and see if they fancy a cup of tea and a chat over your break times.

Vicky is our Marketing Manager

“I do really miss the social aspect that comes when you work in an office. I mostly miss my commute; it acts as a buffer between home and work and gives me some time to switch off. I now try and drag my family out for a walk at the end of the day which is a nice way to get that break with the additional advantage of getting some family time to chat about our days”.

· Stay positive and don’t be hard on yourself

If working from home has made you realise that you need a new home, then take a look at available new homes today.