Working remotely or leading a team comes with a set of challenges. How often should I communicate with my team members? How can important meetings be conducted on a video? What will happen if my kid starts crying during a call? These are a few questions that strike everyone’s mind when told to work remotely. If you are also having these kinds of thoughts, then, no worries, here are a few tips to follow when you work from home.
Work from home jobs can be rewarding, but only if you stay productive, maintain a proper work-life balance, and nurture your business relationships. You decided to quit the world of open offices, found the wfh job of your dreams, and cleared the interview. Now, you must deliver your best. Working from a home office has its own advantages, but it takes a lot of smart strategies and dedication to make it a success.
Everyone who works remotely, no matter full time or part-time, must figure out the time to work, where to work, and how to develop boundaries between personal and work life. Thinking about internet connection, office equipment, meetings, career development, training, and building relationship with new employees? Most of the time, working from home means handling these issues along with many others.
Tips to Follow when you work from home
Lead the charge by giving an example
When in-person interactions are removed from our regular life, it can add uncertainty. Suddenly, we are not able to read reactions or see if our teammate is working. Most of the time this results in teams feeling uncertain about how to react. Luckily, the golden rule of remote working is very simple: lead the team how you want to be led.
If you are unclear or overwhelmed about something, be the first one to take initiative to bring people on the same page. If you want to have proper communication among your team members, first, you yourself should communicate more. You know the things that you want from others for an efficient workday, so use that to build a standard.
Maintain Regular Hours
One of the important tips to follow when you work from home is to fix a schedule and follow it. Having a clear set of guidelines for the timings to work and when to close your laptop helps many remote employees to maintain a proper work-life balance. Working on different shifts is bad for you. Sometimes, working remotely can demand extended working hours. When you work from home, be sure to finish everything earlier than regular or sleep in a bit the next morning. Installing an automatic time-tracking app will allow you to check in on whether you are sticking to your own time schedule or not.
Start early
Starting your work early is one of the most important tips to follow when you work from home. When you need to go to the office, half of your time is wasted on traveling. While working from home you can save that time. When you work from home, check your to-do-list as soon as you get up in the morning. Simply working on a project in the morning can play an important role in making progress on it slowly throughout the day. Or else, you will lengthen breakfast and allow the morning sluggishness to disturb your motivation.
Over communicate prospects
Being clear about expectations is always significant, but mainly so for the people working remotely. We lose a lot of “casual questions” when we work remotely. Small details that might have come up during the meeting can be lost in the remote shuffle. The more you can highlight certain expectations to your teammates or team, the better.
Be clear about the timelines and deadlines when you assign work. Set calendar reminders to ensure that your teammates are aware of when to update the documents. You must share what are your expectations from your team and fix a schedule for all the works.
Be fast to let your team know about any unusual circumstances
Life is uncertain. Sometimes at odd times during a remote workday, an uncertain thing may happen. It is important to update the team about it quickly. If by any means, you need to run an errand or you know you need to sign for a package during a video conference, then let the involved people know about it. Then, do the rest of the planning. Whenever there is an unexpected or potentially disturbing schedule change that will affect the team, it is better to inform your team about it.
Select a dedicated workspace
As you are not working from the office it does not mean that you cannot have a home office. Instead of shutting yourself inside a room or laying on your couch the whole day- spaces that are linked with leisure time-dedicate a specific surface or room in your home for working.
Take breaks
You must be knowing your company’s policies regarding break. Utilize them even when you are doing work from home. Though you do not have your team members to chit chat, you have your family members with whom you can spend some time during the breaks. If you are alone, close your eyes for a few minutes and relax in between your work. This is important for relaxing your eyes and mind.
Have a dedicated office space
Today, most of the people have two computers. One for work and another for personal use. It is more reliable for the employer, and it allows you to do all your NSFW activities privately. But it is not necessary that everyone has a separate has a detached office in their home and keeping two machines is not realistic. Indeed, dedicate one desk and some peripherals for office purposes. For instance, when you connect your laptop and your monitor along with an external keyboard, it shows you are working. On the other hand, when it is on your lap, you are using it for personal purposes.
Assume the best from your teammates and always try to understand first
Going remote essentially comes with an added “communication gaps” and “unknowns” during the day. And we humans, love to fill these gaps with assumptions. Why is my teammate not answering me in Slack? Have I missed any important conversation? Why is no one responding to my email?
Ensure to prioritize human moments in your day
Fully remote work very quickly dissolves those small, mostly unnoticed-social facts we share when working together in an office. Being remote means you will not catch-up casually with your desk mate before starting a project. Be sure to maintain a good pace of non-work connections with your teammates also.
Make use of VPN
Making use of a VPN is one of the significant tips to follow when you work from home. You must use a VPN when you are connected to a network that is not controlled by you. This includes wi-fi at cafes, co-working offices, airports, and libraries. Some companies have their own VPNs that off-site employees need for using certain servers or sites that store information which is meant for internal use. In such a case, you will need a VPN at home.
Fix “Working hours” on your calendar so that others know when you are available
When you are remote, it is quite easy to be 24/7 online. We can start working as soon as we wake up and work till late at night as nobody will ask us to leave the office. This practice is not only unhealthy for you, but it is an unhealthy experience for the entire team. To ensure that you are working within the right working hours, you must set some rules around your working hours just like how you have a fixed time for coming to the office and leaving office.