Are you longing for the days of working from the office? Or are you relishing working from home? Love it or hate it, for many professionals—including marketers—working from home might be here to stay, or at least a viable option post-pandemic.

Maya Middlemiss, published author and founder of Healthy Happy Homeworking, started working from home and managing remote teams over 21 years ago, and couldn’t imagine going back to the office or having to commute. She’s dedicated her career to helping people do the same. That said, one year ago her advice took on a new level of importance, as many people had no choice but to start working from home for the first time. 

In today’s interview, Maya sits down for a chat with Shaheen Samavati to share her tips on setting boundaries to make remote-work life sustainable and enjoyable, which is the subject of her latest book, “Finding Your Edge: Establishing And Maintaining Boundaries When You Work From Home.” Maya also discusses the future of the workplace and how to cope with going back to the office—or not—one year after the pandemic hit. 

“We shouldn’t force people to go back to the ways things were,” says Maya. She stresses that the key to working from home is embracing flexibility and building a life that’s tailored to your individual needs. Now that we’ve all got a taste of what remote-work life is like, we should take this opportunity to really think about what we want going forward—whether that means working from home, at a co-working, hybrid working, or going back to the office. 

Maya also talks about the exciting but gradual shift we’re seeing in the world, as more and more people flee from city centers after living in small apartments during lockdown and see the perks of not having to commute any longer. Many business centers are now vacant and will turn into something new, and smaller cities may undergo a renaissance. 

You can watch the full conversation in the video above or on YouTube, and listen to the podcast on Apple or Spotify.

Rapid-fire recs  

  • Recommended book: 
  • Productivity hack: 
    • Step counter apps to help meet your fitness goals. “I am in an intense walking challenge with a bunch of distant friends, all coordinated over screenshots in a Whatsapp group.”
    • Finding the times that you work best: “The whole point of working from home should be about greater flexibility. The most important thing is to develop your self-awareness and know what you need, whether that’s when you take breaks, when you eat, when you rest, what time you start, what time you do your deep-focused work. It’s more up to you to define your day.”
  • Learning resources:
    • Linkedin Learning, Udemy, Coursera:Healthy Happy Homeworking course is still in development! But I love that you can now learn ANYTHING in the world online. For someone originally educated in a pre-digital era, this is still occasionally mind blowing.”

“After a year, we have to start thinking about what’s the sustainable strategy for bringing people back into the workplace. And I think people also really need to ask themselves what they want.”

Check out Maya’s website and join her Facebook group

Maya has written a free eBook about how to plan for your own future in the hybrid workplace. You can grab your copy here

You can also buy copies of her book on Amazon and on her website: “Finding Your Edge: Establishing And Maintaining Boundaries When You Work From Home” and “Out Of The Office: Making The Transition To Working From Home”

Connect with Maya and Shaheen on LinkedIn.

This post was edited by Daphne Binioris.

For more insights into the future of working from home:

To read the full transcript, click on page number 2 below.