4 minute read
WORKING FROM HOME? OUR TIPS TO NAILING IT
We’ve heard all the advice from experts on social distancing and making sure we wash our hands. What we discuss less is the psychological disruption working from home has had on millions of people around the world. Here are some things to consider doing to make sure you feel in control of this disruption.
PREPARE YOUR WORKSPACE
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Find a space in your home where you’ll be able to have enough room for your work equipment, including your laptop, phone, books, files and anything else required for your daily workflow. Consider having more than one place to work. Switching up your workspace and heading outside to your back or front yard, if possible, for a portion of your day can be a great bonus to working from home and helpful to maintaining good mental health.
START YOUR DAY WITH NO SCREEN TIME
dog outside, chat with family, go on a walk. This is a good way to manage your mental health as well as prepare you for the day.
GET DRESSED, STICK TO YOUR ROUTINE
One of the perks of working from home is that you can wear whatever you want, but, if you’re planning to stay in your pajamas for the workday, you might want to reconsider. Studies found that people are more productive when they dress to work from home. However, the choice to dress or not to dress is all up to you.
MANAGE MULTITASKING AND CHUNKING YOUR TIME
A popular feature on the phone of a home-worker is the timer — use it to carve out uninterrupted chunks to work on projects that require focused thinking. Constantly switching between tasks weakens our memories and concentration skills. Chunk time for texts from friends or emails from colleagues that are not related to anything that must be done on a particular day into the afternoon and group more involved tasks for the time of day when you are most efficient.
TALK
Verbal communication can help you focus on work. Just as you would sometimes go to a co-workers office to chat about the task, rather than email, this is still important. For many of us, in-person contact is important because we are able to read social cues when talking with someone. When we work from home, our in-person contact with co-workers disappears; as such, it becomes important to see the people you talk to. It can save time, dealing with something within a few minutes rather than back and forth messaging or emailing and having contact is good for our mental health while isolating.
TAKE A BREAK, STAY ACTIVE
If your shift entitles you to a lunch break, make sure you take it. Before heading to the kitchen to whip up a light snack, check in with your team to let them know you’re offline. Keep your body moving and try to avoid cabin fever by taking a walk, preferably outside. Remember to practice social distancing. Fresh air and a casual stretch of the limbs never hurt anyone. Taking breaks will be critical to your sanity, but also make sure you rest your eyes from sitting in front of the computer. When you’re all done, let your team know when you’re back.
If you’re working from home, it’s likely you’ll be using the internet to access your work emails, update your company’s website, or conduct work through the company’s servers. Before heading to your humble abode to work from home, be sure that you have access to your employer’s virtual private network, VPN. Connecting to your company’s VPN will give you online privacy by creating a private network from a public internet connection.
COMMUNICATE WELL
Working from home will require you to be in constant contact with your team.
● Be clear concise and direct
● Ask questions sooner rather than later
● Fully understand what your role is in each project
● Be proactive in your assignments
TIPS FOR HANDLING WORK AND KIDS
With school districts across the country shutting down for weeks or months, many parents are finding themselves working from home while parenting. It’s a challenging balance.
Explain about the coronavirus pandemic to your kids. The easiest rule of thumb is to try to be direct and honest and brief. Keeping a plan and a schedule can really help the juggle. Giving consideration to unconventional working hours is probably necessary. Working around your kids schedule to give you the most effective work hours may be something worth setting up with your boss.
For two-parent homes with both partners at home, plan to work in shifts if possible. Accept that your working capacity is likely to be a lot less than in the office. Including home-schooling into the juggle is near impossible. Reach out to the school to “triage” and ask, “What are the most high-priority items I’ve got to get done during the day?” Again, work this into the time slots that suit you and go easy on yourself.
WINDING DOWN YOUR WORKDAY
Just as if you were physically working in the office, continue your natural habit of winding down your workday. It could be following up on e-mails or writing out your to-do list for the next day. But before signing off, remember to check in with your team to let them know you’re signing off for the evening.
