13 brillant hacks to make your ‘Work From Home’ efficient and well balanced
‘’90% of remote workers plan on working remotely for the rest of their careers.’’
And why not?
Today brands don’t just hire anyone, they want like minds who can help their brands grow better.
See it in this way, since you are a part of a brand or if you run a brand, which one would you choose, an employee who has the skills you need but lives remotely or an employee who won’t suit well for your brand’s productivity but is available to join your brand tomorrow?
Jump Directly to
1. 4 Confident reasons to practice ‘Remote Working’
2. 8 Proven ways of ‘How to work from home’
3. Benefits of blending VPNs with Remote working
4. 5 Work from Home Tools to enhance work activities
When you prioritize quality over quantity, the latter doesn’t fit in. For this reason alone, there are employees and multiple brands that are in support of remote working. Remote working conducts the job just like how you would do sitting in the office, except there are certain factors that make it better such as lesser distractions, a quieter space and so much more.
Remote working is necessary and should be appointed by the brands across the glove because at the end of the day what matters to your brand should be how your business is growing and if you have someone who is conducting the actions on the same route as you whilst working remotely, your brand is bound to skyrocket.
Let’s get a deeper understanding of remote working by viewing more reasons for its investment in such a solution.
4 Confident reasons to practice ‘Remote Working’
1. Better comfort
You have the liberty to stop having back pains. Instead of sitting in the chair all the time, you can now sit on a sofa or a comfortable seating area with pillows behind you. Did you know that due to the pain you receive, it deprives you of staying fully focused since the pain is at the back of your head all the time?
You’re not able to sit well and hence the ability for you to finish a task can take up a lot of time. With remote working, you can create your desk and sit back in a comfortable position. When you are comfortable with your posture, it becomes easier to finish work quicker since the focus is more on getting the work completed.
2. More focused
In the office, you have multiple distractions such as someone walking, or closing the door or even a phone ringing. For some, even a minute noise can spark distractions for them. With remote working, this isn’t in the case. You have no noise and no one to disturb you. You can calmly work in peace and honestly, when you are focused wholely, the amount of work that gets completed is witnessed in just a few hours.
For a brand, the number one tactic to make their employees more productive is to ensure they are away from any distractions and remote working provides just that.
3. No wastage of time
When you’re comfortable in your seat when you’re focused on what you need to do, do you believe that you would have the time to sit idle? With no distractions, no one to intervene, remote working can help employees function better. There is no time being wasted and instead, all of the time will be drawn towards helping the daily goals to be achieved.
4. Productivity increases
As mentioned earlier, remote workers will continue to function since there is no such disturbances or stoppages taking place. ‘’75% of people say they are more productive working remotely due to fewer distractions.’’
For a remote worker, it is not necessary that they need to end their work according to the 8-hour shift, they can start early and end late depending on the work they are performing. When this happens, productivity starts to increase and the results reach the expectation of the organization.
Despite the advantages of remote working holds, not many are able to conduct the actions. The reason being remote working affects moods and can go on to affect the mental health of the employees as well.
For instance, the time we are currently facing the COVID 19 crisis, we are asked to work from home and for someone new to this concept, their productivity and concentration can go downhill which is why remote working activities must be conducted in the right ways.
The online data or articles will provide you with multiple ways on how to work from home, but this article wants you to focus on what is more important which is why the below factors will help you practice efficient work from home tactics that will help keep you sane and safer without any hassles.
8 Proven ways of ‘How to work from home’
1. Clean your surroundings
The number one thing you must do now that COVID 19 is present, is to ensure that your surroundings, which is the table you’re working on or the seat you will be sitting on are clean. When your place is clean you stay much safer from getting any illness. Dust or clean your place regularly.
2. Balance your personal and professional life
Work is there and it will always be there but what you need to understand is that you have a personal life as well. In remote working, many employees tend to work round the clock giving them less time to spend with their loved ones and also affects their health. This can be bad as if you are not happy from within, it reflects in your actions.
Make a list of the work that needs to be cleared on priority and work according to that. Any work that can take more time can be conducted, you can always conduct it later. Schedule your work hours and after that shut-off work completely. Engage with your loved ones, walk-in your compound or balcony, get some fresh air.
This all can help you keep your mind fresh and prepare you for a productive workflow the next day as well.
3. Communicate with your peers and friends regularly
Work from home is restricted, you’re constantly working and only engaging with your peers in times of doubt. While this can help increase the productivity of the business, it can also harm your mental health. Once your work is over, video calls your friends, communicate with them over a phone call.
Or when you are taking lunch breaks speak to your peers about everything else except work. This gives your running mind the stop it needs to think about work continuously.
4. Take frequent breaks
Another important aspect of work from home is to ensure that you are taking breaks when needed. Have a headache? Need to get some air? Too stressed? Need to just stop work to walk around? Whatever may be the reason, take a break.
Our minds are constantly on the run to fulfill the task we need to conduct in a day that we grow to become exhausted. Our mind alerts us and soon we tend to stop focusing or lose our concentration. This is normal which is why when you take a short break it eases your mind and gets you back on track.
5. Workout
Once you are done with your work or before your work, include even 30 minutes or more workout sessions. It could be walking, running, dancing anything that you like to do. You need to have workouts because it helps to ease your body better. For more than 7 hours, you would be seated in order to work.
It would be better if you are able to stretch out as well. Also with frequent exercising, it helps to boost your mood and make you feel healthier and happier from within.
6. Insert the two-factor authentication
Whether it is your Gmail login or log in to any other files or applications, always have a two-factor authentication which alerts you of anyone signing in your processes. This increases security and lets you know if any hackers have entered in. Since you will be alerted sooner, it will become easier for you to take the necessary actions to prevent any mishaps from happening.
7. Find a good spot to work
Beds are not considered a great way to work because it makes you either lazy or sleepy. Find a good spot to work, You can sit on your couch or make a desk for yourself. Ensure that your body posture is always seated and not lying down. You can try the bean bag or sit out in your balcony, choose any place which gives you the ability to work in peace, let’s you stay focused and be free from any distractions.
8. Conduct your regular work routine
Just like how you would be ready for the office, dressing up, making notes, logging in on time, taking lunch breaks, the conduct of all these actions when you work from home as well. Remote working isn’t different from what you do in the office, the only change is the environment. The function just the way you would if you were in an office and the difference wouldn’t be evident.
The above practices will work in your favour whenever you want to conduct remote working actions. While you have the strategies placed, did you know that when you work from home whether it is because of the current situation or if you are a full-time remote working employee, there is multiple information that will be passed between you and your organization?
At this point, you must secure the process because despite the online world being great to grasp information, the security is however weak. There are more chances of your data being read or your work activities being detected during research that can place you in a tough spot.
Refrain this all from happening by investing in a unique solution.
A solution that can secure your work activities better, a solution known as ‘VPN.’
Benefits of blending VPNs with Remote working
VPN, Virtual Private Network is the modern solution for users and brands of today. VPNs main focus is to help users and brands safeguard their online activity. For instance, say if you want to research a topic and a few of the websites are restricted or say that you want to send confidential information but are scared that the information will be tapped.
With a VPN none of the above risks will take place. A VPN will act as a shield to secure your online activities. Since you would be connected to WIFI at your place, the connection may not be as secure as it is in your office. To ensure that everything you do which could be researching from restricted websites or sending vital data, with a VPN in your system, there will be no case of accounts blocked while surfing or data being read by hackers.
Working from home becomes easy when you apply the above practices as well as use a VPN to conduct the action. Along with this, you can even use a few of the remote working tools that can help you to stay connected to your organization and enhance your productivity better.
Since we are living in the COVID 19 crisis currently, multiple brands have offered their services for free or have upgraded their practices so that it becomes easier for employees like you and the ones working in your brand to function better.
5 Work from Home Tools to enhance work activities
1. Adobe
Adobe is a solution that offers software design tools and web conferencing. It is offering free access at home for students as well as the teachers with regards to its Creative Cloud suite of tools which will be available till May 31st. It is also offering its web conferencing services for free as well to schools, government agencies, and businesses on a 90-day license which can run till July 1st. Also, Adobe has created resources in the form of blogs for distance learning so that readers can get an idea of how they can go about it.
2. Airtable
When it comes to getting organized, Airtable can be your friend. Airtable offers a spreadsheet where you can manage whatever activities you conduct by including long notes, checklists, priority icons and more. It is a solution that can help you understand what you need to do next and to never miss out on any of your events or meetings. All you need to do is just make a note. Airtable is now offering its Airtable ‘Pro’ feature for free for the next three months. This free feature is soon to be applied for students as well. All you need to do is fill out a form and Airtable will get back to you.
3. Atlassian
Atlassian offers work tools to increase efficiency and productivity. It offers workflows and team collaborations tools so that work can be aligned in a better manner. They are giving away their main products such as project tracking software and confluence team collaboration software for free. This offer applies to a team of 10 people and that too without any time limit. Also, from the educational front, Atlassian is offering a one-year free subscription to its ‘Trello Business Class’ section so that the tutors can easily schedule and manage their students’ coursework and other performance activities.
4. Blue jeans
The best way to connect with others in times like this is through video conferencing. Blue jeans are offering its video conferencing services to all the NGOs who are taking care of communities of COVID- 19. The software is free for 90 days and it can be extended if the circumstances ask for it. All you need to do is sign up here. Blue jeans are great because in times all like this, connecting with communities and managing this virus becomes easier. There is more room for communication and every activity can work accordingly without any confusion or hassles.
5. Box
Box is a convenient tool that stresses its focus on storage, cloud content collaboration and simplified workflows for all its users. On such a situation being faced currently, the CEO of Box, Mr. Levie had stated in his twitter, that the brand is offering unlimited storage and data loss protection for free for the next 90 days. Sign up for their free trial and get started today.
6. Time Doctor
Time Doctor is a time management and time tracking tool that boosts the productivity of remote teams by over 22%. It streamlines the process of employee management especially with regards to monitoring employees’ activity, measuring employee productivity and generating accurate payroll information. This productivity tool helps remote workers to focus on critical tasks. Users can create a to-do list for every workday. It nudges them whenever they seem to be getting sidetracked by unproductivity tasks and apps.
Besides tracking work hours, Time Doctor also generates and emails reports on projects, productivity and web and app usage. These reports can help managers evaluate employee performance, measure time spent on specific activities, specific projects, and specific tasks.
Many business owners consider Time Doctor to be the most reliable time tracking software in the market. Perhaps it’s because this app is famous for boosting employee productivity by over 22%. It might also be because Time Doctor includes valuable features such as screenshot monitoring, payroll module, report generating, chat monitoring and desktop and mobile tracking features. It also integrates seamlessly with other popular productivity and collaboration tools.
The Bottom Line…
‘’By 2020, organizations that support a “choose-your-own-work-style” culture will boost employee retention rates by more than 10%.’’
And remote working is one work style everyone would like to opt for given the advantages it holds and how easy it is to practice.
Also keep in mind that when investing in a VPN service, ensure that you choose one who is more reliable, secure and offers added benefits with it. The VPN should not keep you at risk, instead, it should help enhance your workflow better.
Another important thing is we are living in a tight situation with the COVID 19 surrounding us, so you need to understand that while you continue your daily life with the practices being displayed above, ensure that you are also contributing to the habits of being healthy and safe too.
So, what are your views on this concept? Do you support such a working style? If you too are working from home, do share how you manage your work activities. We would like to hear your opinions as well.
