Due to the worsen situation of Covid-19 outbreak around the world, many people suddenly find themselves managing the complexities of working from home while sharing a crowded place.
Dining table, kitchen, and bedroom have become office desk, pantry and conference room. For people with children, these spaces are also the daycare and an impromptu home-school with everyone trying to remain productive. While all these sounds like recipe for productivity disaster, here we list out 5 tips that can help you work from home effectively.
1. Create a home office Have a dedicated work area – set up a desk specially for work purpose. Also make sure you have chair and desk are comfortable enough for multiple hour use. You may consider investing in noise cancellation headset like this, or this speakerphone, for perfect speech transmission.
2. Act like you are going to work While we are not asking you to dress up and make up at home, but it is important to not let yourself start working in pyjamas and on bed. We suggest you to be an early riser, take a shower and change into a new set of clothes before work. It will give you a psychological boost and let us handle office work better.
3. Establish work and break hours Set break and lunch hour. Take a change of scenery, either coffee station at the kitchen or fresh from the balcony, it will help you feel refreshed and ready to get back to work.
4. Create a schedule
Listing out a time table that replicates that of a normal school day is helpful for all parents. Parents can speak to children during breakfast about the activities and expectation for the day. When the children are on lunch hour, nap, and technology time, parents can try to get bulk of the work done.
5. Communication Clear communication is essential to deliver the right work. If messaging is causing up confusion, have a phone conversation. Work at home may often make us feel isolated, lonely and depressed too. Reach out to colleagues if you wanted to. Consider scheduling group meetings by videoconference. It is never too much communication when working from home. Thanks to technology such as WhatsApp, Microsoft Teams and our Hosted PBX solution, which can be easily integrate with most office management software, communication is easier in this crisis.