I am one of the few employees whose organization was ready for the pandemic, and they gave us the Work from Home even before the lockdown begins in the country.
However, we all thought the lockdown might be of a maximum of 3 weeks. No one at work thought that remote work was going to be so long.
As the duration of the lockdown keeps extending, I learned a few lessons.
#1 Chair is a Necessity
I think everyone will agree with me when I say that.
A comfortable chair is not a luxury item while working. It is a necessary object if you are going to sit for 8 hours.
For the first month, I did not use the chair or table. It was merely the Sofa, Couch or Bed, where I use to sit.
But soon, this model of working started biting me back, and it becomes evident that this is not sustainable.
I bought the table and requested a CHAIR from the office. And my organization (ServerGuy) happily obliged, and they sent me my chair.
The difference a good chair can make on working performance was clear from the first day. Of all things, a chair turns out the most critical tool to enhance productivity in remote working.
#2 Making Daily Task List
The second most crucial point to maintain productivity every day is to create daily tasks and completing them.
I have a habit of making a list of daily tasks in my mind every night before going to sleep.
It’s like sorting out the work I am going to do the next day. This simple habit reduces work anxiety, as I always know what I need to do at any given time, but it also keeps me productive.
When working from home, one tends to push the task to the next day, or later time. But when you have daily tasks, then you have a deadline that you created for yourself. The deadline motivates you to complete your tasks every single day.
#3 Schedule will Change
At the beginning of WFH, I tried to follow a similar routine as I am going to work.
Waking up early, taking a bath, and then having breakfast before starting the work. Then taking the time for lunch in the afternoon and then snack time in the evening.
But the whole facade fell in the first three weeks.
Instead of waking up at 8 AM, I was getting out of the bed at 9:45 AM. Breakfast, lunch, and snacks became part of the work time. Though I managed to create a comfortable schedule now, it is entirely different from the Office one, I tried initially.
I guess you cannot follow the office-schedule at your home, and your schedule will inevitably change.
But you have to create one, or you will find out that even after saving time by not commuting, you are still losing time in bizarre activities.
#4 Daily Communication is not Essential
Daily stand up became weekly standup, and now standup is for essential communication.
All of us just Cliq (Zoho Messaging App) each other, distribute the tasks, and then focus on our work. This ordeal saves time, miscommunications, and mostly, it provides a way to focus on my task.
Moreover, the time I am saving is the time I am using in learning and acquiring new skills. I am giving more time to my book blog.
Daily communication is not that important if you all can be in touch with technology and assign tasks to each other.
However, it is a little bit monotonous, and sometimes downright robotic, but the transparency and conclusion it brings to work are worth it.
#5 Home-Office-Home-Home
The final thing I learned is that when you leave the office building after 6 PM, you leave everything behind until the 9 AM of the next day.
But by making your home a workplace, you have brought the office at your place.
As it is working from home, it is also an office at home. To leave the office work behind after leaving the building is psychologically comfortable as you are leaving the building you associate with work.
That does not happen with the Work From Home option.
The only way to resolve the issue is to dedicate a corner in your house to the office work. And call it a ‘Rough Office.’
So when you leave that ‘Rough Office,’ it would be easy for you to leave the work behind and focus on your social life.
Enjoy the WFH
My last word is to enjoy the Work From Home.
The flexibility to the work, the liberty to make a schedule according to you, the freedom to not wearing the paints, and drinking in the morning.
All in all, Work From Home has more pros than cons.
Now you tell me what your new lesson you learned from Working from Home.