Olivia Maier
We wanted to share a few of our favorite tips that can help your team thrive when working from home. Whether you are counting down the days until your office reopens, or hoping to wfh indefinitely, you can see improvements in your time working from home with these tips.
Get ready for your work day
It might be tempting to go for a “Zoom formal” dress code when working from home, aka pajama pants and a blouse on top. We don’t need to address the potentially embarrassing mishaps that could happen if your less than impressive work from home wardrobe suddenly finds itself on camera. Instead, we wanted to speak to the psychology of getting dressed. When you put on traditional business attire, you are signaling to your brain that you have made a transition from sleeping or lounging to “work mode.” This can help you hit the ground running as you sign on for the day, and help you maintain focus throughout the work day. It can also help you transition from work to your personal life, as you are able to change out of your work clothes signaling the end of the working day.
Create a schedule that makes sense for you
There is no “perfect” work from home schedule model that will work for everyone. However, you are ultimately responsible for creating a productive environment for yourself. You can set yourself up for success by creating a schedule that makes sense for your life, your wfh situation, and your team. In general, having mini-routines throughout your day can help keep you on track. These mini-routines can be incorporated as you start your day, following your lunch break, at the end of the day, or wherever it makes sense to have consistency.
Maintain consistent working hours
Along with the schedule comes your working hours. It can be tempting when working from home to take extra breaks, log on a little bit later in hopes of staying late to make up for it, and more. However, a lack of consistency can be harmful to both you and your team. If you team isn’t able to count on consistent hours where they can expect a response, it makes it difficult to stay connected as a team. This doesn’t mean a 9-5 is necessary, work with your team and your personal circumstances to create working hours that make sense for you.
Stay on top of important tasks
Working from home may lead to tasks falling through the cracks. In a traditional office space you may see team members and remember a task they asked for an assist on, or a client walk in who you know you have to get work done for. That is why you need to take advantage of tools that can keep you on top of important tasks. Using a physical planner is a good option, as are online to-do lists. It may be helpful to use a tool like Trello to organize your tasks, and to see what tasks your teammates are currently working on.
Give your team access to the right tools
Make sure that you and the rest of your team are set up to succeed when working from home. Your team should have a platform to facilitate internal conversation and collaboration, a software to easily report expenses incurred while working and tools that can be accessed by members working from home. Cloud-based software is a great way to provide this to everyone. For example, when using Yodel as your phone system, team members are able to easily access a cloud based phone system wherever they are as long as they are connected to the internet.
Don’t let networking fall through the cracks
Many companies will offer professional development courses, networking events, and more to give their employees additional exposure. Even if you are working 100% from home, those opportunities can still provide a lot of value. If there aren’t any virtual events being offered, reach out for virtual coffee talks. You may be surprised at how much you are able to learn just by talking to other members of your team.
There are so many ways that you can make working from home work for you. Take advantage of these tips in order to optimize your remote working situation. If you are looking for a phone system to support both wfh employees and an in office team, look no further! Yodel is the business phone system that is trusted by thousands of teams for their phone communication needs, and can be used in a wide variety of working environments. Get started today with a free 14 day trial!
