The lockdown news we had all been expecting has arrived and, with it, comes working from home.
If you’ve come from working in an office, moving away from the usual face-to-face interactions can seem daunting at first, but it doesn’t have to be.
Here are some of our top tips on how to work effectively from home.
1. MAKE YOUR WORK SPACE A WORK-ONLY ZONE
As much as we might all love a 4-second commute at first, the novelty will wear off. You want your living spaces to feel like home so approach your new work space as you would your office. Dressed and ready for the work day.
2. WRITE A SCHEDULE AT THE START OF THE DAY – INCLUDING BREAKS!
Your plans and tasks may change but it’s important to feel like you have the same structure. Writing a plan for your day means you can fit all of your tasks in, whilst also allowing time for those much-needed screen breaks! If you’d normally get up from your desk to grab a coffee, chat through something with a colleague or get some fresh air at lunchtime. Schedule this into your home-working routine too!
3. BE CONTACTABLE
It might initially seem more productive to be away from the distractions of the office environment, but these conversations are often essential to keeping business running smoothly. So keep your team updated with where you are and how they can contact you.
4. COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR TEAM
Having an efficient way of communicating is important for both the efficient running of your business and keeping morale high. For our team, we love Google Hangouts. It allows us to have video meetings and share our screens, all whilst linked to our emails and calendar. With so many great conference and video meeting apps, have a look around and see what could work best for your team.
5. SOCIALISE AND CONNECT!
Home working can feel very isolating and, for a lot of us, a big factor of loving our jobs comes from the people we work with. Take time to check in with your colleagues to see how they are doing. At Holler, we book-end our day with team video calls. We discuss the work day and it makes us feel less detached keeping spirits high!
6. TIDY AND ORGANISE YOUR WORKSPACE AT THE END OF EACH DAY
At home, it’s easy to put this on a list with other ‘home’ jobs, but you’ll end up with a hectic workspace. This is a great way to wind down your day and feels great to start your next day of working from home afresh!
7. GET FRESH AIR AND DAYLIGHT
It’s more important than ever to take some time to get some fresh air and daylight. This could be a quick walk on your break, stepping outside when the kettle is boiling or simply having your desk near an open window. Any or all of these things will go a long way to alleviating the claustrophobia.
These new lockdown measures have made our working lives very different from what we are used to but it doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy and excel at our work the way we always have. Hopefully some of these tips can help you make your home an uplifting and efficient place to work, when the outside world is feeling a little frazzled!
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