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Many of us are stuck at working from home due to COVID-19. These are very surreal times. For some of you (us), being at home trying to work might be a whole new world. Well, we’re here to help navigate these uncharted waters. A lot of ThreatConnectors have worked remotely for years, so we went to these sagacious folks and asked them to give us some tips, best practices, and overall sound advice on how to do this “work from home” thing. Their collective answers are below:
- Maintain regular work hours. So, this one may be tough during these times, if you have to deal with having kids home that are not normally home during work hours. That said: Set a schedule and (try to) and stick to it. Having clear parameters for when to work and when to stop work helps you maintain a work-life balance. And here’s the contradiction – working from home offers flexibility, and sometimes you need to extend your day or start early to accommodate someone else’s (i.e. either another person who is in the house right now).
- Take breaks. Scheduled breaks. Port your “office” routine into your “home” routine. Those mini-breaks where you get a cup of coffee, go out for lunch, or take restroom breaks are important to your workflow! Find a good way to replicate that at home (walking the dog, emptying a dishwasher, etc.) so that you can keep the innate rhythm that works for you. It’s not as productive to sit and grind out an 8-hour workday, so find breaks that are conducive to home life!
- Make an extra effort to keep your home clean. When you’ve got dishes in the sink, laundry strewn about, and other clutter at home it’s just “home.” Those things would be incredibly distracting in the office (shared spaces notwithstanding) and you may find that keeping a tidy home equates to the same tidy office environment you’re used to…plus when you log off for the day you’ll have a tidy home. [Caveat: if you are working at home with kids who are normally in school, this may be a bit tougher to achieve. We get it.]
- Establish a location that will be your work space. You don’t always have to work in that space, but having a specified location in your house where you do work can help get you into the work mindset. It also can help you leave work alone when you’re done for the day. Working from home, it’s easy to blur the line between work time and home time. Having a dedicated space for working lets you both physically and metaphorically leave work there when you’re done for the day and pick it back up when you start again the next.
- Socialize With Coworkers. Loneliness and isolation are common problems in regular remote work life; most likely a bit worse now. Companies with a remote work culture usually offer ways to socialize like Slack, Zoom, GoToMeeting, or Google Hangouts. Extroverts and introverts will be affected during this time, especially. It’s important to figure out how much interaction you need to feel connected. So, even if you’re highly introverted and don’t like socializing, give a few interactive experiences a try.
- Keep your calendar up to date. Seriously. Saves on a lot of: hey, are you free? And, of course, as we are all working from home, the need to schedule time helps set expectations for the day. If you are not the only person in your house who has to work from home and/or there are children at home, it also helps to coordinate time away from shared duties.
- Schedule a catch all at the end of your day for 15 minutes. Anything you’ve not been able to complete throughout that day – jot it down in the catch all so that you can circle back to it and not leave any loose ends. If at the end of the day you still have items left – schedule items for the next day (outside of the catchall) to ensure you complete the list then.
This goes for any time: Try to get out of the house at least once a day even if it’s just walking around the block. You don’t have to actually interact with anyone outside, but everyone does need some fresh air! Also this (thank you to the person on LinkedIn who shared): Extra distraction is going to be the new normal for awhile. Address and mitigate it, but accept it as well.
Our Customer Success team has always been remote and are here to help during these times. Reach out to your CSE/CSM if you have any questions.