Working From Home
…so many of us now find ourselves in the situation where we are working from home but how can we do this successfully?
Life has been tipped upside down, children are at home, we can’t escape our own four walls except for necessary provisions, we can’t see friends or loved ones but let's put this into context... the world is facing the biggest challenge it has ever faced, an epidemic, and now more than ever, we all have to work together as one big team to minimise the effect it is having and stop it in its tracks.
We have to think positively and make the best of a bad situation. How do we make this predicament work for us? How do we stay productive, sane, keep our families upbeat and our working teams together? We’ve put together a few tips to help you along your way!
Get organised
‘Tidy house, Tidy mind’ is a very true saying and if you're trying to work with your desk upside down and last night’s take away staring at you, guaranteed you will not have the task in hand at the forefront of your mind. Create a clear, calm space for working, have everything you need at hand and set yourself clear working times.
Motivate Yourself
Self-motivation is key. Set yourself goals at the beginning of each day for what you need to achieve and work through them methodically. If you are struggling to stay motivated, don’t beat yourself up, take a break for 15 minutes and then get back to it.
Minimise distractions
This is harder than it sounds, especially if you have children at home at this present time! Limit the urge to check in on social media or the news and concentrate on the tasks at hand. If you do have children at home set them a timetable to work alongside yours, explain what you are going to do and the importance of why you are doing it. Children strive on structure just as we do.
Communicate with your colleagues
The hardest thing about working from home is the isolation but in this day and age there is no need to feel cut off. We’re all in the same situation at the moment, so let’s help each other. With skype, video conferencing, facetime etc there’s no excuse for not staying in touch. Your colleagues might not be across the desk from you but they are at the end of the line. Teams need to work together and stay united.
Create a work/life balance
Set your times for working and stick by them. If you want uninterrupted work time you need to give your family uninterrupted ‘you’ time which means if your working hours are between 9 and 5, come 5pm put away your laptop, phone and any other IT device that you use and relax.
Stay active
It is so important to look after your own wellbeing and when your rolling out of bed to sit in front of a laptop its easy to feel sluggish. Currently you can still go for a short walk or if you are in self isolation there are plenty of fantastic online coaches offering short workout videos to get you motivated. Joe Wicks is doing a live stream every morning at 9am for the children which is highly recommended – how about doing this with your kids to start your day before settling into your wrk day routine?
It’s important at this time to think clearly, appreciate the small things we normally take for granted, stay safe, keep our families safer and stand united with your teams to keep your businesses running.
We’re all in this together, normally at the time of year we're working with groups to promote teambuilding and working together – this year we are working world scale!
We might be home-bound but if you have any questions or, like us, your thinking positively and want to look at booking an event for when we reach 'the other side' as an incentive for your team, our events team are only a call away. Drop them a line on: 0800 975 0728 and they will be happy to help.
In the meantime...
