We all, around the globe, are fighting a battle against a common and invisible enemy COVID-19, that is. Novel Coronavirus, a disease that attacks the respiratory system of the humans, has been found in late December 2019 and has put the world on halt since then. It has been almost four months and now this disease is declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO). All the nations across the world are trying everything to curb the spread of this virus as, in a short period of 4 months, COVID-19 has infected as many as 7, 50, 000 people around the world until now. Unfortunately, we may see these numbers increase more significantly in the next few weeks. There are no countries left in the world that are not affected by this pandemic. The governments of a lot many countries, including India, have declared a total lockdown in their respective countries to control the COVID-19 spread.
All the private and government sectors in India, except the ones that produce and supply essential services, are instructed to shut down operations for 21 days until April 14, 2020. Consequently, companies in India are bound to shut down their physical offices and warehouses to maintain social distancing. As a result, a large number of companies have moved to remote working or many people call it, work from home. As per the Bloomberg News, this is the world’s largest ‘work from home’ experiment. Considering the intensification of the work from home, we would like to provide you with some of the most important tips that will help you make your work from home successful.
Acknowledge Distractions
The most irritating part that we have to face while working from home is the distractions that occur in our homes owing to many reasons such as for taking care of kids and infants, the disturbance created by the television volume, frequent doorbells ringing for delivery services and/ or neighbours, social media, and frequent poking by our partners, along with other household work, especially for female employees. You must know that you can prevent some of these distractions whereas some of them are simply unavoidable. Hence, you must adapt to these situations. However, you can try to explain to your children to cooperate during your work from home hours. Though we understand that ‘children being children’ will not grasp it completely, still, it is good to instruct them to obey some ground rules. Recently, a renowned company announced online that if their employees are attending office video calls and their kids entered the room where they are working from, employees can allow their kids to say hi! Now, we understand not all the companies will allow this; however, it is better if your company will cooperate. We all must realise that employers, by asking their employees to work from home, are entering the kids’ space, and not the other way around.
Assume As if You Are Working in the Office
It is exciting to have work from home luxury once in a while; however, we are in a situation where working from home has not been a luxury anymore. Now, you have to dedicate a certain number of hours to your office work only. Where working from home will save you a couple of hours that you spend while commuting to the office, it can make you lethargic to stay at home for a good 21 days straight. Hence, adhering to a strict schedule is very important to maintain your productivity. We would like you to get up in the morning at the same time as you do when you go to your office, get done with your morning tasks and/ or exercise and set up a space from where you can work for hours comfortably.
Prepare a Healthy Timetable
We understand that working from home messes up a lot of things including your timetable. Therefore, it is very important to structure your day, have breakfast, lunch and dinner at the proper time and take regular breaks while working from home. Take very good care of your health, especially while being lockdown.
Prepare a List of Tasks and Daily Goals
Since working from home carries a lot of chaos, especially nowadays when almost everything is shut down, it is important that you must make a list of your daily tasks and plan your next day accordingly. This way, you will already know things you are going to focus on for the next day(s).
Have an Entrepreneur’s Perspective
Since the COVID-19 pandemic has a huge negative impact on the global economy, you must understand that nothing is ascertained. This is the time when we need to buckle up ourselves to prepare for the worst. Therefore, it is important that we think like an entrepreneur and add value to our organisation so that it can cover the huge losses this pandemic has been causing the businesses globally for months.
Keep in Touch with Your Teammates
One of the best things that we have in this technologically advanced world is that we are always connected with people even if they are not around us. Hence, working from home does not mean that you have to work in isolation. You should keep in touch with your colleagues to make sure that you all are on the same page. This way, you will not only be able to maintain the progression of your projects but also get a feel of the office environment while being at home.
We understand that this work from home thing is completely new for millions of employees and hence it would take some time to adapt to the situation. However, concentrating on your job while being mentally and emotionally stable in this bizarre situation is the key. As we all know that we are in this unprecedented situation with COVID-19 upon us, it is important to realise that we all are in this together. Therefore, we must stick to one another until this whole pandemic situation is done with. We would advise you not to put unnecessary pressure on yourself and/ or your kids or partner. Let us face and overcome the Coronavirus pandemic successfully and graciously. Stay Safe!