The entire world is under lockdown situation from many days due to Coronavirus. Over 30000 people have already died and around 7 lakh people are infected as of now. To reduce the spread of COVID-19, all schools, markets, malls are shut down across the country. The companies have asked the employees to Work From Home (WFH) where possible.
If you are an office worker, and you do your most of the work on a computer, then you are 100% working from home during this lockdown. There is though a bit of challenge for the employers to coordinate with the employees who are new to this WFH status.
Here are a few tips for you to master the art of work from home without compromising with the productivity:
Dedicated Work Station at Home
You normally work for 8 to 9 hours in your office and your employer expects you to give the same productivity while you are working from home. Make sure that you have created a small workplace in your home where you can work without too much disturbance. The ideal workspace at home is a room with a table and a comfortable chair where you can work behind a closed door. Keep your laptop and desk clean and tidy.
Working in an Organised Manner is the key
Before you start your day make sure that you get yourself dressed the way you do it when you go to the office. According to psychologists, when you are properly and formally dressed, it helps to put your brain in work mode.
Your Phone, laptop, chargers, notepad, and pen should always be in place when you are working from home. During the lockdown, your children are also at home and since the house help and servants are also not coming, you have the responsibility to look after them as well. When your spouse is also working from home then both of you need to coordinate and take care of the children in turns. You need to figure out, how you will manage the other household chores at this time. All these things need to be organized if you really want to perform and achieve your targets while working from home.
Planning for the Day
Make sure that you have planned your work before you start the day. The best way is to make a task list and target sheet and keep that in front of you. Since you are at home you have some liberties but that doesn’t mean you deviate from your tasks. Yes if you are unable to complete the task during the office hours you need to ensure that you do it later but on the same day. Don’t pile up the work thinking that you will do it tomorrow.
Let there be Communication
Coordination between your team and with the other teams is required for completing any project that you are working on. You or your boss needs to prioritize how the teams are going to communicate between themselves. This communication is also important as you would like to know whether your team members are taking WFH seriously or not. Your manager would also like to know what productivity your team is giving while working from home.
Fix a conference call on a daily basis or on alternate days where you can evaluate the performance of your team members and brief the same to your manager or employer. You can use tools like Zoom, Skype, etc for your video conferencing.
It is better to call your colleagues on video or chat with them for routine queries instead of sending an email.
If you are a manager or an employer, kindly share more information than usual with the team members. Try to cheer them up with some jokes or some humour. Discuss with them how they are coping up with the lockdown stress. Keep the team spirit up in the calls.
Tackling Distractions
When you are home during the lockdown, there is no way you can avoid distractions. Your family, your children are at home, there will certainly be noises from the kitchen from washrooms, TV, etc.
Talk to your family members and ask them to coordinate. Speak to your children that try to explain to them about the importance of your working from home. Still, you cannot have a distraction-free environment, so you need to adapt to the situation and keep focusing on your work.
Do Yoga or Exercise
If you are lucky enough to have a garden in your home, then during the breaks go and get some fresh air outside. However, people living in flats and high-rise buildings do not have this luxury. They can take a walk inside their houses at the time of Covid-19 Lockdown. You should also do some Yoga and light exercise at home to keep fit. It will also keep you free from stress of lockdown.
Working from home especially during the lockdown can make you feel isolated and stressed. Reach out to others, will help you come out of this feeling of isolation. Because they are also feeling the same at this time
