How to properly organize work from home

In the context of the global crisis caused by the Coronavirus pandemic, recommendations on social distancing have been adopted at the national level to avoid the collapse of the health sector. Businesses had to look for opportunities to continue working despite the apparent crisis.

Many organizations decide to actively use so-called home offices. Home work during a pandemic is the best approach to distance employees who are in isolation or forced quarantine.

They switched to remote work:

1. Financial institutions, including banks.
2. Utilities of various types.
3. Shops and outlets with delivery.
4. Schools, universities and other educational institutions.
5. Advertising and marketing firms.
6. Representatives of the high-tech industry.
7. Civil servants.
8. For some groups of workers, remote performance of professional duties is not a new and unusual form of work. However, employees who are used to sharing office space with their colleagues on a daily basis feel uncomfortable. Adapting to the current situation by transforming the workflow is a challenge for teams that are willing to work together in an office environment.

One of the most common difficulties faced by workers is the lack of concentration. Performing professional tasks in a specially equipped room increases work discipline, including the ability to prioritize and complete tasks in a timely manner.

In order to work in a home office environment as productive as possible, it is recommended to follow several rules. These relate to both changing work schedules and optimizing personal space.

Create a comfortable working area

Working on the sofa or in bed may seem attractive, but in terms of performance it is not the best solution. Position your home office in a well lit location. A comfortable chair and desk should be used to create a comfortable work area. You will also need a mobile phone and a personal computer with the software required for professional tasks.

Important! Try to keep the work area clean without cluttering the table with useless things. This way, having a special workspace will be much easier to switch to work mode. The probability of a drop in productivity due to distractions will be significantly reduced.

Setting to work wave

One of the advantages of working from home is the reduction of travel time to and from the office. This is an absolute advantage for employees who have to travel to work for more than half an hour. Simply put, there is extra time that can be spent on vacation or entertainment. In addition, during the Coronavirus pandemic, travel by public transport, even on passes, is a health hazard.

Remote performance of duties will allow:

• •      Wake up closer to 8:00 to 9:00 in the morning.
• •      Doing my homework until late at night.
• •      Avoid long morning preparations.
• •      Saves money on travel expenses.
• •      Reduce the possibility of COVID-19 infection.

However, to be as productive as possible at home, the employee will have to tune in to the working wave. It is desirable to get up early, dress appropriately, have breakfast and communicate with home before the workday. Otherwise, the optimal work schedule will be disrupted, and returning to the original rhythm of life after the end of self-isolation will cause a lot of unpleasant complications.

Important! Develop your own work schedule to create a comfortable atmosphere without additional risks. Keep your household’s schedule and pet’s needs in mind.

Setting of priorities

The correct allocation of time and planning of tasks for the whole day is a key solution that will increase productivity. Proper prioritization leads to the employee performing his or her duties as efficiently as possible without incurring additional resource costs. Planning is extremely useful in situations where there are urgent tasks to be performed remotely.

Important! Start each morning by looking at the list of important things to do, with a preliminary deadline. If you manage to plan your time wisely, you will be able to complete urgent professional tasks without the risk of worrying about your work. Simply put, you won’t have to deal with overdue projects outside of work hours (at night and on weekends).

Choice of time for rest

When you have to work in an office, the work is interrupted by many things. These include conversations with colleagues, business meetings, lunch breaks, sun loungers and other aspects of normal office life. Such interruptions are ways of psychologically relieving employees. However, when working from home, the number of distractions tends to decrease. Employees can spend extended periods of time without leaving their computer.

To maintain optimum concentration and high efficiency, it is recommended to take short breaks every hour or two. Prolonged work at the table in one position can lead to dangerous health effects such as stress, spinal deformation, vision impairment and headaches.

Working in the home office, you can maintain good physical shape with a few simple exercises:

1. 1.    Extend arms and legs, make circular movements with your head and turn your wrists.
2. 2.    Tension and relax your abdominal muscles until you feel a slight tension in them.
3. 3.    Lift and stretch your legs to relax your calf muscles and get rid of the stiffness of movement.
4. 4.    Tilt your head alternately left and right, trying to reach your shoulders to relax your neck muscles.
5. 5.    Slowly tilt your head forward towards your chest and turn it from left to right.
6. 6.    In a sitting position, straighten your back, close your outstretched arms and place them behind your head.
7. 7.    Slowly move your shoulders to the left and then to the right to improve the tone of your back muscles.
8. 8.    From time to time, take your eyes away from the screen and fix them on a remote object.

In order to protect your eyesight, you must adjust the lighting correctly. Bright light in the workplace should be avoided. The contrast on the monitor can be adjusted to suit personal needs. If there are problems with vision, the ophthalmologist may recommend special drops or goggles for computer work.

Important! Give your body a rest from your normal working posture if you feel the slightest discomfort. To prevent this from happening, you should exercise at least once every few hours.

Thus, in recent years, more and more companies are offering the opportunity to work at home. Flexibility in scheduling, along with achieving a balance between personal and professional life, generally makes employees satisfied with the quality of their work. Consequently, the remote performance of professional tasks increases motivation and productivity. However, employees during remote work have to make a lot of effort to be as efficient as possible by completely changing their schedule. Employee Productivity Monitoring Software gives management the insight they need to learn from their best employees and solve drops in workplace productivity.

For employers, moving the state to a “home office” mode can significantly reduce the cost of renting office space and packing space, as well as paying for electricity and consumables. By providing an opportunity to optimize the work schedule, enterprises are able to change business processes for the better by allocating additional resources for the development of operational activities.