COVID-19, aka Coronavirus, has changed the way we are living our lives today. If you, like most of the country’s workforce, now find yourself working from home, productivity can be facing all kinds of challenges. Being a team player and building a career outside of a traditional office setting comes with a unique set of challenges. Hopefully, these few tips will help you remain in the pocket as you are working from home.
- Set a schedule – Staying on a schedule from the beginning is a great way to make sure you don’t lag in your productivity. Letting your team members know your work schedule can be helpful as you all will be on the same page. Putting “deep work” times on your calendar, or using a status update in your chat tool to indicate your availability can be very helpful.
- Plan weekly check-in’s – You may be communicating with your boss or people who report to you on a daily basis. This is a good thing. However, a once-per-week video call is a great way for teams to stay cohesive, answer questions, discuss setbacks and celebrate “wins”. Check out Google Meet (Hangout), Zoom, or any other video conferencing platform to stay connected.
- Create a remote work company culture – Working from home doesn’t mean you will miss out on all the fun office antics. You can set up team-building activities over video that play into the strengths of remote work, like hosting a “lounge-wear” competition, sharing your office view or introducing your pet to your coworker’s pet on “Bring Your Pet to Work Day”.
- Multi-task in an entirely new way - You may have children around your feet all day at home and you may even be in charge of their education these last few months of the school year as well. The struggle to not be distracted is real here! Just like a schedule for you is important, it is even more important for any children you may have at home now. We are adults and even though things may be crazy around us, we have a better understanding of those stressors than our little ones do. A schedule is a great way to maintain structure in their lives while continuing their education as well.
Remote workers are getting up and going to work every day just like everyone else, except we now just have a shorter commute! You can do this and hopefully, these tips can help make the adjustment to working from home easier on you and those around you.
Stay safe out there and keep working toward your goals!
