How to be Safe & Productive Working from Home

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most of us are now working from home, some still adjusting to this new normal with all its distractions. Consider this a survival guide to assist you with the juggling act.

Be Kind to Yourself
Remember, there’s only so much bandwidth in the day, this goes for emotional, mental, and physical. When juggling all these balls in the air some of them are bound to drop. Don’t beat yourself up, it will happen. Thinking every day is going to be perfectly productive with zero disruptions is setting yourself up for failure. Start to plan for ‘good enough’ days and roll with that. Rome wasn’t built in a day, neither will your ‘distraction-free’ work location.

Desk Devotion
Set up an office/workspace. It’s best if you have a dedicated office space that isn’t used for any other purposes (maybe the guest room, since we aren’t supposed to have guests if we’re practicing good social distancing). Whatever you end up designating as your workspace, try to commit to that location. It’s best to work someplace where distractions will be minimal, and you feel comfortable enough to work and can avoid the allure of Netflix.

Fluid Routines
We may be dealing with anxiety about things we have zero control over; one of the best ways to help lower this is to have a plan in place for the day. For example, you may be expected to also serve as part-time teacher to help your children stay on task for remote-school assignments. Or you may have pets that want extra attention now that you’re home. Whatever it is, try to keep some sort of routine, but be fluid with the approach. Your totem pole of priorities will change daily. Expect it to change, and be ready to shift things around (not unlike a normal day at the office). Things will go wrong, and when they do remember the first rule: be kind to yourself.

Accepting Aberrations
While you may have a routine and a plan for the day, interruptions can knock you off track. Resisting them will just make the problem worse. Accept them and come up with a plan for when they happen.

Kids may be the biggest challenge for parents working at home full-time face right now. Try to have a plan for them as well, but again, be fluid. This is a great time to reach out on social media and see what other parents are doing with their kids. Some do better with charts that reward them at the end of the week (my daughter is a fan of Roblox and Pokemon Cards). Other kids do better with some independence. Remember the two rules: be kind to yourself and stay fluid.

Keeping Connections
Remember those water-cooler talks or hallway conversations? You might be missing that little bit of human contact at the office, now that social distancing has entered our vernacular. It’s good to still try to keep that practice up remotely. It will help your mental well-being and let your colleagues know you’re available for assistance. Here are some ideas

• Set up a weekly one-on-one with your direct manger. This is a great way to let them know what you’re working on and if you’re encountering any difficulties. They even have some real nuggets of wisdom to share from time to time.
• Create an informal Teams/Slack channel internally, or even a weekly 15-minute anything-goes Zoom call.

Technical Trickery
Working at the office, you may have had a sweet, dual-monitor setup, along with a docking station for your desk. You may be missing that now that you’re working from the casa. Here’s a sweet tip for getting that sweet dual monitor smorgasbord at your home without having to salvage anything from your existing desktops.

Use the Remote Desktop Connection to connect to your laptop. Note: you’ll need to know the IP address or computer name of your laptop.

The Great Outdoors
Remember to take a break and go for a walk. If you have pets this is a great time to take them along and get them some exercise as well. Some of my best solutions to problems have come when breaking away from my desk for a 20-minute walk.

Worry Not
Anexinet is here to help your organization survive the Coronavirus pandemic. For instance, your organization needs to ensure it’s prepared to handle the remote-workforce surge needed to keep your employees productive and safe. To learn more about everything Anexinet can do to accelerate the scaling of your remote workforce, please click here to schedule a call with one of our consultants now. Oh, and one last thing. If you find yourself worrying constantly, remember this: “Worrying is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do, but gets your nowhere.”