And so the dream came true: working at the comfort of your home! The era of commuting to and from the office and obligatory uncomfortable dress codes is over. But yet something is bothering us…
The controversy of human nature to always ask for what we cannot have! Funny? Not so much in this case! Only months after remote-work came into our life and we already read and hear how to avoid burnout due to the challenges of the new norm! Why does this happen?
We start realizing that the dream is not so dreamy; there are -as always – drawbacks. The main challenge is forcing our mind to concentrate on work tasks in a space we have connected with relaxation, family, friends, eating etc. We see the emerging need of setting some rules to auto-define and protect ourselves from procrastination. Therefore, we would like to share some tricks that we put together from our day-to-day experience since the advent of the covid19 outbreak.
Recognize and eliminate distractions
Our brain needs around 25 minutes to start focusing after being distracted! So, think big and act small as simple and small things can have a huge impact!
• Muting your phone and notification from different media channels
• Close unnecessary and/or unrelated to work tabs
• Park personal tasks
• Make aware the ones living with you when you are and when you are not available
Plan in advance
One of the undeniable virtues of traditional office work is that tasks are managed based on a plan. Shifting to the home office on such short notice has found us unprepared to tackle this, resulting in sacrificing a lot of free time working without a clear schedule and plan. Nevertheless, we all head towards adapting to the new norm, getting comfortable with different technologies and tools which allow us to PLAN! Invest wisely some time to get to know the tool(s) and way(s) that work best for you and your teammates, work together using online collaboration functionalities and make work fun, efficient and timeboxed.
Stick to the plan
After you have planned, stick to the plan! Acknowledge and respect when worktime begins and ends. Set your boundaries and control your breaks. Be the one ruling your system, don’t let it rule you.
Create the right working space
Try to use your own room/space and ideally not the bedroom that intuitively is connected to relaxation and recharging. Make sure you have the right ‘equipment’; office/table at a right height, proper working chair, the right posture and the appropriate room temperature. Additionally, consider creating a separate user account on your laptop; this will result in a more ‘clean’ working environment and will allow you to easily separate work from personal life tasks.
Embrace colleagues’ interaction
Working from home does not have to mean work isolated. Thanks to the new reality and the need to move our needs to a virtual environment, tech has made enormous progress during 2020. Embrace every opportunity you have to interact with your colleagues, employer or warm network. Take the lead and pave the way by arranging virtual team-building events to strengthen the relationships among team members. The latter has been proved highly efficient for improving employees’ engagement and focus on work tasks.
