While some of us enjoy not having to take a 30-minute commute to work and spending more time in the comfort of our homes, for others working from home is extremely challenging.
From having kids run in the room during meetings, lacking the motivation to get out of bed, and reducing communication with co-workers, working from home presents its own hurdles to overcome.
Luckily, whatever career you’re in, working from home can be both enjoyable and productive if you keep the following tips in mind.
Organize your finances
Aside from getting your usual work done, this can be a great time to catch up on your finances. If you’re in the United States, Tax Day tends to sneak up on many people. But with the recent news that the tax deadline being extended July 15th, that leaves you with more time to straighten anything out with your accountant and file your taxes appropriately.
This is also good news for small business owners who are running a satellite office from their living room. With so much changing every day for your business, utilizing an online small business bank that allows you to share access with your bookkeeper can save you time and money come mid-July.
With many local businesses running on abbreviated schedules, or not closing until it’s safe to reopen, your spending may drop below what is usual. This is another good time to personally experiment on what you deem essential purchases vs luxury. Take this time to live a bit leaner and create a basic budget that you can stick to. The best part of experimenting this way is that it will be much easier than when you have all the surrounding temptations.
Self-care: Take small breaks
Working from home can provide you with a comfortable environment, but it can also be difficult to separate the personal and work-life balance you desire. You may be tempted to turn on the television or get caught up in a mess of unorganized paperwork since you aren’t in the office. That’s why creating a physical separation between your workspace and living area is important.
A good tip for managing work output and concentration is to work in 60–90-minute intervals on a singular task. When that time is up, you will be more likely to feel burned out, so take a quick mental break or sneak in an at-home workout. Breaking your day into segments will help save you from burnout and also give you milestones to work toward rather than just a long, eight-hour workday.
Another thing to consider for your remote office is to make sure you always get plenty of natural lighting in the room, if you are working on a division with no windows, try switching to one that is more connected to the outdoors. It will help you stay productive while keeping sane mental health.
Prepare for the Future: Move to online
If you’re in a management position, taking advantage of digital tools and moving daily operations to online is the best way to be successful in remote work. Right now and in the future.
If your company isn’t at all prepared to work remotely, a digital knowledge sharing software can help keep everyone organized and on the same page, staying productive, while also decreasing stress due to lack of knowledge in new procedures or services. Not only is this a great asset to stay organized, but it also allows you to move quickly for future unknown changes in your day-to-day operations.
In addition, with the increasing popularity of remote work, onboarding new employees online might be something that you need to consider in the future. While digital tools like Zoom and Slack will help you communicate with new hires, tools like Helppier allow you to teach how to use internal Software or standard procedures inside your company’s website. You can, for example, create in-app interactive guides and tutorial videos so new hires can learn while performing tasks on your platform. Being much more effective than reading onboarding presentations and long documents.
Another major challenge to have in mind is online customer service. In times of remote work, support tickets tend to increase as customers can’t keep up with policy changes. In a previous article, we mentioned how you can take advantage of automated replies and popups to quickly answer common questions. Informing users on your website beforehand will reduce possible questions while implementing automated answers via email, chatbot and phone calls will reduce the workload of your remote teams.
Working from home can be a challenge for anyone, from seasoned vets whose families are suddenly all at home, to the jet setter who’s not worked from a hotel room and airplane.
Taking your work from home approach task by task and day by day will help you be just as productive as usual. Between the tips, we touched on, and your normal routine, you will undoubtedly be able to accomplish all the tasks you need while also enjoying your time home.
