Are you telecommuting and afraid of staying in your pajamas all day and being distracted by everything around you? Don’t panic, we’ll help you cope with some essential best practices!
Telecommuting should be as transparent as possible for your contacts. Your suppliers, service providers, customers, colleagues… must not realize that you are not physically present! To do this, just follow a few rules:
1. Get dressed
No, really, don’t stay in your pajamas. I know you’ve thought about it! It’s tempting, but it starts off badly if you’re too lazy to dress! Keep the same routine as when you go to the office, it will help you switch from “home” mode to “work” mode. And in any case, you will be doing videoconferences with your colleagues..
2. Set yourself schedules
Stick to your work schedule as much as possible to maintain your usual routine. These cues during this exceptional situation will help you get in shape and focus. Don’t blur the line between private and professional life by letting one overlap the other: at the end of your day, stop working at the usual time, and during the day, isolate yourself from possible distractions.
3. Organize your work
Create a precise schedule, based on the schedules of your colleagues. Make your to-do list and take advantage of the calm to move forward on the issues that tend to come after the demands of everyday life.
Also make lists of what you have to do on the personal side (shopping, laundry, etc.) to successfully fit these tasks into your day at times compatible with your professional activity, without risking dispersing yourself and wasting time.
4. Create your workspace
Having a space dedicated to work at home is the guarantee of succeeding in concentrating quickly. Whether in a dedicated room or not, create your environment, with your landmarks and all the equipment necessary to achieve your mission at your fingertips.
5. Notify your relatives
If you are not alone at home, let your loved ones know that you are not available and cannot respond to their requests. There is a time for everything, hence the need to fix you’re working hours.
6. Communicate with your colleagues!
You are not geographically present but you are still in post. Let your colleagues know and strengthen the bond as much as possible! Do not wait for people to think of you, they will naturally tend to ask you less than usual, take the lead by showing up and being responsive. There are many collaborative tools that you can set up if your company hasn’t already done so.
7. Take care of yourself
You cannot interact with your colleagues as you usually would, to preserve your well-being, especially if the period of teleworking lasts a long time, take breaks, work to music, listen to audio books, and get some air. Mind…
Try to exercise, move around and stand up regularly. Take advantage of your breaks to do a few chores that can be done in a few minutes, for example (laundry, etc.). Sitting is not good for anyone, get moving whenever you can. Move away from the screen for a few moments to rest your eyes, and if possible, avoid the laptop, which damages your back and neck.
8. Use all the tools you usually have
Don’t cut yourself off from your colleagues and miss tasks by forgetting the tools and software you have available.
9. Optimize your connection
Use an Ethernet socket as much as possible to ensure you get the best speed available in your home and not risk losing your network at an important time. Likewise, if you need to transfer large files.
10. Secure your data
Take regular backups to the cloud, or better yet, set up a local NAS for shared files.
Be careful, when you are at home you no longer use the same network as the work network, which is specifically configured to ensure the protection of your professional data!
The first thing to do is to verify that your internet network is secure at home. If this is not the case, configure it as soon as possible in restricted access with a strong password. Then, you need an antivirus-firewall on your workstation to protect all the data that passes through your machine and prevent malicious software from harming your work (spying, loss of data, blocking of the device, etc.).
In some cases, companies make arrangements and install VPNs on their employees’ work computers, but if this is not the case or if you are using your personal device, you must also install a VPN that will be used for encryption. And secure all the data you exchange with your business.
