Work from Home Best Practices

With the current COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses have moved their employees from working in the office to working from home.

Working from home has its' challenges. Challenges being your cats suddenly come up to your desk and lays on your keyboard or your neighbor is suddenly cranking up the volume and sing karaoke, etc.

In this blog, we have identified great work-at-home tips and tricks to ensure working from home is productive and successful.

1. Set expectations with others who will be home with you.

• Just because you are working from home does not mean you're home. The people who live with you should respect your space during work hours. You need to negotiate some ground rules.

2. Do not forget to take a break

• Take your breaks. It can be easy to get distracted when you are on your own, that you avoid taking your break altogether. Set an alarm if you have to. Walk away from your desk, stretch, go for a walk, or talk to some who is with you in the house.

Will Mitbrodt, Engineering Lead at We Work Remotely said "Being a workaholic, you often forget to be physically active throughout the day. I find it's important to get up out of your desk every 30 minutes or so and just stretch and walk around a bit. Heck, even pulling out a yoga pose now and then works for me. Sometimes this is easier said than done because being a remote worker means there may not be anyone around to remind you to take a break once in a while. This drive often must come from within."

3. Maintain Regular Hours

• If you plan on working an 8-hour shift, stick to it. Having a set schedule and when to call it a day is a healthy practice. There will be days that you have to extend your schedule because of some work overload. In that case either you communicate with your boss for an extension or you can do overtime that particular day to get the job done. But do not do this every single day because then it will be unhealthy.

4. Interact with other people

• Telecommute can get pretty lonely, especially if you are used to being in the office surrounded by your colleagues. So what can you do? Communicate. Regular communication with your colleagues can fight monotony and isolation. Contact them to ask how a certain system operates or when and how to check-in, etc. With technology nowadays, it is not hard to communicate with other people. We have Zoom, Facetime, Slack, and a whole lot more that allows you to interact with your workmates.

5. Build a Permanent Work Space

• This could be an empty or an extra room that no one uses. Not all have an extra room that they can convert to a home office, so a dedicated work desk with a comfortable office chair will do. Once everything is set up, commit to working in this space every day.

6. Create a Routine

• Work on your sleep schedule. Whether you start work in the morning, afternoon, or evening, you have to have at least 6 hours of sleep. Lack of sleep or sleep deprivation can have various effects on your productivity.

But in reality, it does not always work that way. So the next best thing is up to you. Whether you having a cup of coffee to start your day right, you might do yoga or meditation, or take a quick jog, it is up to you how you kick start your day.

7. Prepare meals before you go to sleep.

• The advantage of working from home is your free access to the kitchen. But what if you only have a limited amount of time and not enough to prepare a meal? The solution is to prepare the meals before you go to sleep. All you have to do is get the meal out of the fridge, put it in the microwave, heat it, and you’re all set to eat.

Eat Healthily. It will help you to become more productive and have more energy. Here are some ideas for Meal Preps. Click the link: https://www.budgetbytes.com/category/extra-bytes/budget-friendly-meal-prep/

8. Get Ready for Your Work Day

• When working from home, most people just get up, do their morning routine, and start the workday. They do not get out of their sleepwear. Of course, why would they? They are in the comforts of their home, so why would they get out of it. But no, that is not how it should be. I do not mean change into something that you usually wear going to the office, heck no! What I mean is, just change into something comfortable. Our brains are wired that when we get dressed, it’s like an alarm signaling our brains that it’s a start of a new workday.

9. Invest in Quality Technology

• As I said earlier, working from home has its’ challenges. One of which is technology. As much as we are already advanced in technology, office technology is a far cry from home technology. So with that being said, people who work from home should invest in proper and quality technology. Depending on what type of work you do, you might have to buy a desktop, a laptop, a high-performance router, a tablet, or even a remote phone system. Just invest in what you need and not on what you want to competently do your job.

10. Take Sick Days

• We are all humans. So there will be a time that you are not well. When that time comes, do not hesitate to take a rest day. It is better for you because you will not be able to work at full capacity. Worst case scenario is you might get sicker if you do not rest.

Most of us miss the office but working from home can be good for you. We hope that these tips help you improve your efficiency. Figure out what is best for you and start putting these work-from-home tips into practice to establish your routine.