Coronavirus Impact: Adapting to Work from Home

World Health Organization has declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Everybody is taking preventive measures, like social distancing to minimize the impact of COVID-19. In this hour of need, work from home is no longer a luxury, it has become a necessity. Chances are that your employer has already asked you to work from home, or they will ask you soon. Nobody likes change. It is hard to adapt to new environment. But we need to make some changes for ourselves and for our near and dear ones. Right now, need of the hour is to work from home, and setting up our home as a workplace. Here are some suggestions and best practices for you to be productive while working from home.

  • Stay at home and protect yourself from infection
    Organizations are allowing work from home to protect their employees from infection. One should understand the seriousness of the issue and physically isolate oneself from the outside world.
    Drink enough water. Eat healthy food. Maintain social distancing. Avoid going outside. Maintain personal hygiene.
  • Stay in touch with your co-workers and support each other
    Social distancing can be tough and employees who live alone can feel lonely and stressed. Contacting your co-workers can calm you, and it can increase your productivity. If you are stuck in a work related problem, they can help you with your problem.
    Managers can call their employees to motivate them and help employees in keeping track of their progress.
  • Use Technology to get the work done
    Technology can help you in achieving your daily goals when you work from home. You can use tools available online to communicate with your team. These tools help in increasing your performance and decrease the virtual distance among co-workers, while you work from home. There are tools which can help you in dividing and planning daily tasks.
    Use applications like Slack, Cliq, Skype, Zoom to connect with your co-workers and applications like Google calendar to plan your daily schedule. These applications can help you in working from home with the same efficiency as you work within the office.
  • Create a dedicated workspace
    Set up a workspace which works best for you, depending upon whether you prefer pin-drop-silence or some white noise. Your sitting arrangement should be comfortable so that you can spend 6-8 hours in it without getting tired but it should not be too comfortable, else you might wind up sleeping.
    People with family should look for a place far away from their living room like a study room (or an attic, if your kids are loud) because living room is the most happening place of a house.
  • Follow your daily morning routine
    Wake up at the same time and follow the same morning routine as you would when you go to office. Following the same routine will mentally prepare you for the office. Your daily morning routine sets tone for the day, and it helps you in controlling your schedule.
    The essence of morning routine could be a small thing like making a coffee or it could be something which requires lot of physical efforts like morning walk or gym.
  • Follow the schedule you follow in office
    Following your morning routine will set the pace, but to maintain the pace you should follow your office schedule.
    Plan your whole day in the morning and follow the schedule. You can divide your work into multiple tasks and add these tasks in your planner. You can try to track every hour and see what you have done in every hour. Tracking each hour can help you in achieving your daily target.
  • Stay away from distractions
    Noisy environment and social media are the most common distraction when you work from home. A quick look at your best friend's post can easily ruin an hour.
    Turn off social media notifications on your mobile phone. Isolate yourself from all the distractions like social media, television, neighbours, etc. You can invest in noise cancellation headphones to protect yourself from noisy environment.
  • Take small breaks
    Taking short breaks can increase productivity and creativity. A small break can refresh your mind and help you in becoming more focused. Working for long hours without breaks leads to stress and exhaustion. While small breaks are useful, long breaks can make you lazy. So, avoid taking long breaks.
    You can follow 20-20-20 rule when you take a break. Take 20 seconds break, every 20 minutes and focus on an object 20 feet away from your eyes, to relax your eye muscles. You can take a 10 minutes break after every hour or two, and perform neck, leg, and back stretches.
  • Avoid family, friends, and pets
    Working from home can be the most difficult task if you have kids or pets at home. Kids don't understand that you are not on a leave.
    You need to set up boundaries with your family. Talk to them and make them understand that working from home is not same as you are home on vacation or weekends. You can ask your kids to do their homework when you are working, most of the times this hack works perfectly and you can kill two birds with one stone.
  • AI Assistants can help
    AI Assistants can help you during this work-from-home period. Since working from home can be lonely sometimes, AI Assistants can have interactive conversation with you while helping you with your work.
    AI Assistants like CogniAIm Appointment Assistant and CogniAIm Business Assistant can reduce your workload. Appointment Assistant can schedule and manage appointments for you, while Business Assistant can help you in generating leads and retaining customers. Coronavirus AI Assistant can provide you with focused information on Coronavirus, while also helping with social communication through its conversational ability.
 
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