This page is dedicated to travelling and this post is relevant to a certain extent. Some people work and travel so this will be useful too. More and more people are working from home over the years. Working from home could mean anywhere – it could mean at the beach, by the pool and even in a hospital! My dad lived overseas and when he was diagnosed with cancer, I was allowed to work from another country. He passed away a few months later and I am thankful that my company and my team gave me the opportunity to spend the last few months with him.
Not everyone is as fortunate. Flexible working is still not widely supported. Some companies have not actually prepared for situations like this. Storage on their cloud or their VPN just.can’t.cope.
However with the recent news on coronavirus, even more and more companies are encouraging employees to work from home. (Sad to see this is what it takes for companies to support this but it will only get better from here!). It is so efficient and I am so much more productive. I don’t get interrupted when I am halfway typing an email, I don’t have to stop and re-read the same paragraph twice because someone says ‘sorry to interrupt but I have a quick question’. I am not saying I can do this everyday but it’s good to have uninterrupted days.
Whilst some are used to this, others aren’t. Those of you who don’t support working from home possibly due to
- No proper set up at home
- Just ‘too difficult’
- Physical presence is your only way to prove performance at work
So here are my top 5 tips which hopefully helps. These are not the usual – ‘find a dedicated spot, don’t wear PJs, look sharp’ type blog post, you already probably are getting bombarded with these on Linkedin!
Find a dedicated spot– But seriously, find a dedicated spot. Definitely not next to your Nintendo Switch or TV. If you are used to having two screens at work, invest and get two screens for your home office if you’re doing this long term.- Don’t stop engaging – Use Skype for business or Zoom or even Whatsapp (whatever suits) to keep chatting with your colleagues and friends. Just like how you would when you’re making a cuppa or collecting something from the printer or having lunch at your office pantry.
- Frequent short breaks – I don’t know about most of you but I tend to start work earlier, eat in front of my screen during lunch time, end work later and less frequent visits to the loo because I drink less water (weird!) when I am working from home. THIS IS NOT HEALTHY. I am forcing myself to take short breaks – go out and get fresh air, drink more water, still make that cuppa as usual!
- Stop complaining and get on with technology – I understand this is not easy. Some are not use to chatting via Skype or when something doesn’t work, they give up entirely or just simply reluctant to change. This is easy to fix – most IT departments are very patient. Just ASK for help and LEARN.
- EAT and LOG OUT – make sure you stop and eat during lunch time. Log out before dinner. I always make the mistake of constantly checking my emails and wanting to do more after dinner and continue working until late at night. AGAIN, this is not healthy!
VioletFimz 