Important tips for an efficient WFH:
1. These are NOT Holidays:
Remember, these are not holidays, these are regular working days with the benefits like lunch with family and savings of commutation time to office.
2. Suitable Place to Sit:
Decide a suitable place in your house where you can work for long hours and have long calls without disturbances.
3. Use chair and desk:
Preferably use a chair and a desk to work, instead of a sofa or bed with laptop on your lap.
4. Inform family members clearly:
Inform all your family members clearly , though at home, during office hours, you are not available at their will. Their complete support is a must to make your #WFH productive.
5. Communicate with your colleagues and managers frequently:
Communicate with your colleagues and managers frequently and keep them updated about the progress of work at regular intervals.
6. Strictly adhere call timings:
Strictly adhere to the timings of periodic update calls, as planned by your employer during the day. Most companies monitor WFH through logins, online meetings and calls at regular intervals.
7. Keep break timings same:
It is advisable to keep the timings of all the breaks intact as they were at your office place.
8. Internet Backups to be available:
Make sure to have alternate internet arrangement, in case if the primary internet fails. (Mobile data etc).
9. No movies, fixed social media breaks:
STRICTLY avoid watching movies and other social media temptations (FB ,Whatsapp, etc) in office hours. Most effective way to handle this is to decide periodic “Social media breaks” after say every 2 or 3 hours for very few minutes. Check your social media during these small breaks only. Many employers have blocked most of the social media websites on their machines, for those who haven’t blocked these, a due care from employees will serve the purpose.
10. Combined responsibility:
Making WFH successful is the combined responsibility of all of us. WFH is a preventive measure in the interest of employees and to support the efforts to restrict spreading the COVID 19.
If not managed well, WFH days will turn out to be more stressful than the normal working days. You will end up neither enjoying your family time nor getting the most out of the working hours spent.
All the best.