How to Walk a Thin Line When Working from Home?
Working remotely has become a norm of the “new normal” situation imposed by the continuous surge of the deadly COVID–19. But to retain your standard of performance has become a daunting task due to the difference between the workplace and home ambiences. The responsibilities that you need to shoulder while staying at home influence your work life, as well. Here, are some tips that would help you contribute to your employer organization the productivity that is required by it in a greater quantity at this hour of distress.
Make Room for Work
An effective work-from-home regime has no room for depression or a laid-back environment irrespective of the change in work location. Fix yourself a temporary home office that could be anything from a wall built-in study desk to a spare room in the basement. Whether or not you have a large space, arrangement of a proper working setup is essential to prevent your concentration from getting divided. The right posture and furniture empowers you with a positive drive to virtually work in a systematic order.
Become Digitally Mature
Make the most of the global technological revolution by equipping your home office with updated desktop or laptop including other compact versions of the computer. Investing in the most powerful router or broadband connection is worth the assurance of your job’s continuity, which is the need of the hour especially during the intermittent phases of lockdown in different states. Designations involving team management demands technology at its best for staying connected with the team members throughout the office hours and on special occasions like emergency board meetings due to rigid project deadlines. Do not hesitate in spending on any software or tool that will accelerate your manual performance despite the restraints of remote working conditions.
Prioritize Ergonomics over Style
Get ergonomically designed furniture units for your working space at home. It not only provides with the same level of enthusiasm as you feel sitting at your work station but also keeps your body erect thereby, preventing the musculoskeletal diseases. You feel energetic enough to work at a faster pace, which saves you time for your household tasks. Focus on the design of the desk or chair for serving the purpose instead of searching for brands since no one will be around to appreciate the furnishings except your mind. Furniture placement also influences the atmosphere of your work station at home. Fetch yourself a monitor arm of appropriate size to organize the space on your work desk. A window side seating can leave you brimming with positive energy. You will find yourself at the zenith of creativity the moment you view the world outside at this stage of home imprisonment.
Plan a Schedule
Even if you are not obliged to leave biometric impression on the computerized padlock of your office door, you must be committed to a definite work timing each day to make your physical presence felt virtually. You must make it a point to share your work schedule with the others and check their availability to make adjustments in your plan, if it may seem necessary. Don’t forget to include break hours so that you neither become weary nor get blamed at home for escaping your duties intentionally. Maintaining a fixed timetable instead of working at odd hours of the day will help you remain focused on the productivity and the submission deadlines.
Choose Your Time Slot
Different parts of the day influence the level of concentration and creativity in different individuals. Fix your entire day’s schedule in a manner that your office work timings fit into within those hours of the day when you don’t need to slog away.
Slip into Formal Attire
The way you dress while working from home influences your mindset and approach towards handling the affairs with the similar sincerity and a sense of urgency that you were used to while working in the office. So, put on clothes that will help you recreate the same feeling and compulsion of limiting yourself to a particular time frame. Bedtime casual wears simply destroy the constructive spirit and switch on your holiday mode that should be avoided.
Wake–up Call
Sleeping or waking up to late hours distorts the entire day’s schedule regarding both office and household responsibilities. Start your day early to end it early and make the most of that time otherwise wasted in commuting from office to home and vice versa. Strategize an organized alarm system with the help of multiple devices or a single one so that the sounds get too unbearable to keep you in bed. The idea is to retain your anxiety of reaching the office till you are finally ready to sit at your home work desk.
Time Management App
Are you tired of being unable to go by your to-do-lists and end in filling up trash cans with them? Well, go the digital way by letting time management applications to account for the time consumed by your individual tasks including breaks. You will become more punctual in the process and get habituated to not letting an hour or minute go futile.
Limit the Use of Social Media
Apart from the requirements of your job assignments; try to do away with unnecessary fidgeting of social media sites. These not only distract you but hamper your analytical thinking skills. Prevent your mind from meddling with matters that are not related to office or house projects.
Work cum Entertainment
To prevent your focus on office work from getting diverted, you can log onto Facetime, Google Hangouts, Cospace or any other such live video platform to virtually interact with colleagues over a cup of coffee and brainstorm ideas.
The varying facets of digitization are getting handy in this 21st century pandemic and are the sources of survival for business enterprises and organizations from small to large scales. Technological gadgets feature a brighter side in letting you follow a synchronized home and office life. It is high time that you start adopting these and re-instill the previous office-working mode within you.