Before the COVID-19 outbreak, nobody could’ve imagined that it’d be possible for large populations to work from home remotely instead of working from an office. The situation’s quite different now, with most employees and freelancers working remotely. But as fun as remote work sounds, most of us know now that it can feel challenging and overwhelming at times.
In this article, we’ve put together five tips for you to succeed at remote work. From setting up a comfortable office at home and minimizing distractions to creating an intelligent workflow and communicating articulately with your colleagues, we’ll be covering all this and more.
1. Safety
When working remotely, you have to ensure your work is protected digitally. With the rise in remote work, there has been a significant rise in cybercrimes too. You can stay safe digitally by installing antivirus solutions on your devices, setting up a virtual mailbox service, and locking your devices when you’re not using them.
2. Set Up a Comfortable Home Office
Remember what your office desk or office space looked like? Organized. And that’s exactly what you must try to recreate when you set up your home office. You’ll want to make sure there’s minimal clutter so that you don’t feel overwhelmed or distracted by the things around you. It’s a bonus if the space is well-lit; that’ll make you feel energized.
Ideally, you want to set this office up in a quiet place, away from the house’s noise. If you share your living space with others (especially children), you’ll want to use a room with a door so that you have privacy and silence during your meetings and intense work periods. You also want to make sure your space is comfortable, but make sure it’s not so cozy that it makes you drowsy every time you sit down for work.
An advantage of having a home office is that you have more freedom with how you want it to look. You could personalize it with photos or other things that make you feel good or boost motivation and productivity.
3. Reduce Distractions
When working from home, it’s crucial to reduce distractions. The kind of distractions you’ll face depend on where you live and how many people you share your space with. Pets, small children, and noisy ambient sounds can majorly hinder your productivity. And the frequency or intensity of these interruptions could stress you out and make it difficult to get work done.
Nobody enjoys getting distracted when they’re trying to get work done. So when you begin working remotely, it’s best to set some rules for those sharing your living space. This could include not disturbing you during certain hours of the day, or being excessively noisy during meetings. The fewer the distractions, the faster you’re likely to get the work done. And once you’ve completed your work, you’re free to spend quality time with your family or friends.
4. Use Smart Workflow Tools
Remote work has massively boosted the use of workflow and task management tools, like Asana, Slack, Trello, and many others. With digital looks like these, you can skyrocket your efficiency and feel more organized than ever before. When you track your work, you’ll naturally be able to manage it better.
Each organization has its own go-to tool when it comes to workflow and task management. If your company is small and trying to figure out what tools to use, you could always check out user reviews and discover a tool that’ll be apt for your needs.
5. Communicate with Your Colleagues
Most remote workers would love that they have much more time available to them with this setup. But as fun as it is, it can make people feel lonely and isolated. While some people may have their family around, others may be living alone.
With remote work, it’s not possible to have those in-office interactions that made work fun for you. However, you can still keep in touch with your colleagues through digital messaging and conferencing tools, like Zoom and Google Chat. Although you won’t be physically around each other, you’ll be able to connect with your colleagues and have relaxed conversations.
Other than that, these tools can also boost your productivity by ensuring you all have clear communication channels to clarify doubts as they arise.
6. Balance Your Life
For most employees, work would end once they logged off from work. But with remote work, people often continue to handle work-related tasks well past their log-out time. With the atmosphere at home, it’s easy to lose track of time and continue working well after office hours.
It’s essential to stay organized and manage your time well so that you don’t continue working after your work hours. Once you manage that, it should get easier to log off on time and not overwork yourself.
