COVID-19: Effective Work From Home
In light of recent events, with COVID-19 taking over across the globe and the PM Modi’s announcement of a lockdown for 3 weeks, companies have instructed employees to work from home. While working from home can be beneficial when it comes to travel expenses, working to your own agenda, and so on, living quarantined in your own homes with little to no social life can take a toll on one’s mental health, thereby affecting one’s productivity.
With the current scenario, it is uncertain how long one might have to stay at home, but these tips will help you get through this tough time.
To-Do Lists:
Make your to-do list in the morning with all tasks big and small. This helps avoid feeling overwhelmed. On completion, cross it off your list. This helps you gauge how much work needs to be done and it is all the more satisfying when you cross it off your list.
Time Management:
Plan your day basis length of tasks, deadlines and your most effective time of day. Segregate the tasks on your to-do list on the basis of 2 scales: Importance and Urgency. Divide them into 4 quadrants: Urgent-important, not urgent-important, not important-urgent and, important-not urgent.
Everyone has different times of day when they are most effective. Use your most effective time of day wisely. Maintain your office routine for breaks and meals. This helps your mind to slowly process as per the working hours.
Communication:
Communication is of utmost importance—with a client, employer or peers. Clearly communicate the deliverables you can complete within a day’s working hours. Update your employers, clients and peers about your progress in a timely fashion. Nowadays, technology has become extremely friendly with remote working. Conduct your tasks on collaborative platforms like Google Sheets. This way your employers and peers can monitor your progress in real-time.
Maintain a workspace:
While working from home, it is very important to assign a workspace. Work from home, doesn’t mean work from your bed. Find a spot, preferably with a desk and chair, which you treat as your workspace. Treat this as your designated workspace and maintain it how you would your desk in an office.
Minimize Distractions:
It is very easy to get distracted when working from home. Identify your biggest distractions and knock them down before settling into work. Put your phone on silent for all non-essential notifications, strictly no Netflix or TV during work hours. Along with social distancing, practice social media distancing too.
Inform those also quarantined at home with you about your work schedule and understand theirs. Set some ground rules and boundaries. If you can, wake up before the rest in your house as it will be the most peaceful time of the day.
Stay motivated:
Stay motivated and motivate others—peers, family members, employees. Take the appropriate number of breaks to stretch and breathe. Go to a balcony or a window for some fresh air. Most importantly, take breaks to wash your hands and face. This will refresh you and also help get rid of germs.
These are some tips to help you get comfortable, but not too comfortable with working from home. Achieving everything is not easy and we live and learn. You’re not going to ace this in one day, give yourself time to ease into this setup and figure out what works best for you.
