As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect the world in dramatic and previously unforeseen ways, people have been thinking outside the box to keep pushing forward. Families have had to work closer together, while people in the business world has had to move further away in order to survive this crisis. That ultimately means requiring employees and team members to work remotely. Whether that means working form home or working from a remote office, there are going to be some challenges ahead.
We’ve previously discussed some of the common challenges employees may face while working from home. Now, we would like to offer some helpful tips to those same employees to help them manage what appears to be the new way business is done, at least for the foreseeable future.
1. Invest in the right technology
Setting up a home office or workspace may require a small investment. If you don’t already have the necessary tech, you may have to purchase items such as a desktop, laptop, tablet, or remote phone system to help your employees do their job every day.
Additionally, a high speed router will save you from many technology hassles. Since working from home often requires more than chatroom messages, you’ll probably need a router that can keep up. If your router is more than a few years old, you may run into network speed issues more frequently than not.
Depending on the nature of your work, you may also need to purchase hardware or software. But it’s critical that your company invests in whatever you need to comfortably and efficiently do your job.
2. Define real work hours and stick to them
In order to make working at home a productive and efficient experience, you need to set specific business or work hours.
The beauty of working from home is that you can be flexible in setting your working hours. For example, if you are most productive in the morning, or if you need to get the kids to school, then you may want to set your work hours from 7 a.m. until 3 p.m.
Use your deep focus to zoom through your tasks. Enforce a hard stop work mentality at the end of the day. It’s important to distance yourself from work, so you don’t get into an unhealthy cycle of working nonstop.
Regardless of your schedule, be sure to establish set work hours to strictly follow each day. Communicate your work schedule to co-workers, teams, and your boss.
3. Pay attention to your high productivity hours
Every person is most productive at different times of the day. For example, some folks are morning people, and they are more productive and focused during the morning hours. For others, their most productive time in the workday is the evenings.
Pay attention to when you’re typically working at your best and then build your daily schedule around those peak productivity periods.
4. Keep a To-Do list and update it every day
Working from home probably means you don’t have a supervisor or boss constantly checking in on the status of assigned tasks. It can be challenging to keep track of what you have to do throughout your workday without that regular check-in, making it easy to lose sight of priorities, tasks, and deadlines.
Start each work day by reviewing priorities for that day. When you make your to-do list, stick to it. It may be tempting to just dive right into your email, but with a little extra focus, you can move the needle while working from home.
Set goals and time limits for each task. After you complete each task, cross it off your list. This simple technique is both effective and fulfilling.
5. Get out of your pajamas – seriously
Believe me, I know — this is one reason why people love working from home. If you enjoy working in your PJs, then you are killing your productivity. “Dress for success” isn’t just a corporate catchphrase; it really matters when you work from home.
Beyond psychologically getting you in the right mindset for work, you’ll be ready to handle any kind of video chat or check-in with a teammate. You’ll be prepared to get work done, and you will be mentally and physically prepared for the day.
Even if you don’t leave the house, dress for work as if you were in the office.
6. Set alerts and alarms
Even if you don’t have to be up as early to leave for the office, you should still set an alarm to commit to wake up at the same time each day. This will prevent you from sleeping in too late as well as keep you on a healthy sleep schedule.
Human beings are creatures of habit. We are incredibly dependent on routines, schedules, and structure. Alarms aren’t just for waking up. Consider adding an alarm for lunch and at the end of the work day since working from home tends to blur these lines.
If you follow a strict routine and set specific work hours, you’ll set yourself up to be more focused, more alert, and more productive.
7. When you eat, eat healthy
Another work from home reality is that we have full access to our own kitchen. So, when it’s time for lunch or a snack break, we are immediately drawn to the usual snacks such as chips, cookies, or leftover pizza.
When we work in an office, we have limited options of take-out menus, nearby restaurants, or whatever you brought to work from home.
Research has shown that eating fruits and vegetables has a direct link on overall productivity levels. You can also avoid buying unhealthy snacks altogether. With extra planning, you can purchase more nutritional snacks rather than buying on impulse.
Reward yourself with a sweet snack on Friday after a successful and productive week.
If you are prone to snacking, then make it a point to make yourself a healthy lunch, just as you would if you had to go into an office.
8. Stay away from social media
I think we can agree that we are all guilty of this one from time to time. Social media can be a giant time-suck if you aren’t careful.
There are several mobile apps that you can use that will reveal just how much time you spend on social media platforms. This can be eye-opening, especially for casual social media users.
Get familiar with your company’s social media guidelines. They might even want you to engage in their approved channels like LinkedIn. Minimizing mindless use of social media helps avoid distractions, so you can focus on getting more done. If you love using social media, then make it a habit to shut off social media notifications during the day. Consider muting your notifications on your phone.
9. Check in with co-workers
Take the time to meet with your team regularly. These meetings should have an agenda actively involving all members, so they contribute. Dedicate time to meet privately with each member so they can share status updates, receive help, and discuss developments from their personal life.
Be mindful under the context of why we’re all working from home. Remote employees might miss some aspects of the office. Beyond handling phone calls, be sure to discuss the bigger projects they are working on.
Make remote employees feel valued and included through live video meetings and conference calls regularly.
10. Invest in a good pair of headphones
Even if you have a brand new laptop or a new smartphone, you will want to invest in a quality pair of headphones with a mic. Noise-canceling features can really help improve the clarity of your phone calls. With modern virtual phone systems, you will appreciate the higher clarity of your calls.
Look for headset features such as long battery life, Bluetooth compatibility, microphone, and noise canceling. These all work together to make your remote working duties a little easier.
Get a good pair of headphones. If you don’t, ask your employer to purchase them as part of your work-from-home toolkit.