Here at Pipcorn HQ we’ve transitioned to working remotely due to the Covid-19 pandemic, something we know plenty of other people are also doing right now. It’s been an adjustment, but we’re so grateful that it is an option for us when so many people, including front line medical professionals and first responders, as well as the grocery store clerks and mail carriers who make sure our products are still available for you, aren’t able to.

Even though many of us have worked from home at some point in the past, this time is different. However, we’ve been finding ways to meet our deadlines and to stay connected as a team while we figure out this new way of doing our jobs. One thing we’ve learned for sure is that setting good work-from-home habits goes a long way to making us feel productive and positive during this weird time. Here’s what’s been working for us—we hope some of this can help you too!

1. Set a routine and stick to it.

Morning routines are key for keeping your daily commute on schedule—and that’s still true when you’re commuting from your bed to your dining room table. Get up at the same time each morning so you can make sure you have plenty of time to do whatever it is that makes you feel ready to take on the day, whether that’s doing your morning yoga, setting your kid up with an activity to do during your morning staff meeting or making sure the coffee brewed.

2. Don’t wear your pajamas to work.

As tempting as it might be to hop out of bed thirty seconds before your 9:00 a.m. conference call and sit down to work in your PJs, don’t do it. Changing clothes and running a comb through your hair signals that it’s not a lazy Sunday morning—it’s time to get up and get things done. You can still wear a T-shirt. Just put on a clean one.

3. Remember to take breaks.

Some people find that when they work from home they end up working longer and harder because there are fewer distractions (although if you’re holed up with young kids, we know it’s a completely different story). And while that’s awesome for work productivity, you’ve still got to make sure you’re taking care of yourself so you don’t get burned out. Schedule breaks into your day—put them on your work calendar if you have to—so you have a chance to step away from your screen and reset. Take 10 minutes every day to get outside and enjoy the spring weather if you can do it safely—maybe take a walk around the block or pull a few weeds in your flower bed. We always find a little bit of sunshine goes a long way to lifting our spirits.

4. Keep better-for-you snacks on hand.

We don’t know about you, but when we’re working from home, we find ourselves making quite a few trips to the kitchen to graze. It’s a handful of corn dippers here, a cookie or clementine there. After all, when you’re working from home and need to stand up and stretch your legs for a minute, you can’t just pop over to your colleague's office to “check the status of a project”—so to the kitchen it is! Rather than vow not to snack (an insurmountable task), just make sure you have good snack choices on hand, like carrot sticks, grapes, and, you know, whole-grain heirloom popcorn and cheese balls.

5. Have some fun with your colleagues. 

One of the biggest challenges of working from home can be feeling disconnected from your coworkers. When you’re in the office, it’s easy to catch up while you’re waiting for the coffee to brew or for a meeting to get started. But when you’re working remotely it can feel like all communications are strictly for business purposes. To keep everyone connected, we like using Slack or other instant messaging tools to share cat photos, get everyone’s take on Tiger King and trade dinner recipes—in addition to talking about work, of course.

We’re also big fans of adding some levity to your staff Zoom meetings with fun virtual backgrounds. Disguise the view of your messy living room behind you and give your coworkers a chuckle at the same time, which brings us to this fun challenge...

Pipcorn Zoom Backgrounds!

We’ve created Zoom backgrounds featuring our snacks so you can change it up on your next video all. If you download one and use it, we'd love to see your screenshots!

Vegan Caramel Popcorn Zoom Background

Cheddar Cheese Balls Zoom Background

Corn Dippers Zoom Background

Everything Bagel Crackers Zoom Background

Cheddar Crunchies Zoom Background

Here’s how it works:

1. Right-click on the Zoom background of your favorite snack and select “Save As” to save it to your computer.
2. Upload the image to Zoom and use it during a video call.
3. If you'd like to share take a screenshot of yourself using the background, post it on social and tag us @pipsnacks!

For example, share something like this!

(What happened to Jen?!? This was the first and only time we experienced this glitch 😂😂😂)