WORK FROM HOME DURING CORONAVIRUS QUARANTINE

How I recreated my work setup at home during the Coronavirus quarantine.

Try to recreate your work desk.

Consider a few things that can make you more comfortable and productive.

If you simply bring your work laptop home, you might find it’s kind of fun to work from your couch for a day or two. Then you might find yourself slipping into terrible posture, if you’re working from the dining room table, ducking into the kitchen every 15 minutes for a snack.

What about your productivity?

When you're working remotely, skeptics assume that you do less work than employees who can't easily slack in an office setting.

Now that I am working from home I found that I work longer hours but more flexible hours which has improved my quality of life. In addition, my performance has increased since I've started to work remotely now I can focus on my work day-to-day.

Let's go through the essentials for any home office!

Choose a dedicated work space.

Just because you're not working at an office doesn't mean you can't, well, have an office. Rather than cooping yourself up in your room or on the couch -- spaces that are associated with leisure time -- dedicate a specific room or surface in your home to work.

Trust me, you’ll be glad to have a desk that’s dedicated to work, and that feels much more like the one you use in the office, especially if you’re planning to spend weeks working remotely due Coronavirus quarantine.

Get the right equipment.

Here are the basics of what you'll need to work from home in a professional way during quarantine:

Desk

Ergonomic desk chair

Bluetooth keyboard and mouse

A webcam

Strong WiFi connection

Adequate lighting (natural if you can)

Notepad & pens for jotting down quick thoughts

Noise-canceling headphones

Printer

Plants, art, or other inspiring and calming elements

Here some tips for you:

Invest in a real desk chairs

You can spend a lot of money on desk task computer chair if you want to get a proper one for good posture. I do have a proper leather desk chair I bought from a furniture store, and it’s far better than squatting on a stool or a chair borrowed from the dining room table. Consider something basic chair with arm rests, an adjustable seat so you can sit level with your desk, and wheels so you can move around.

Get a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard.

Your wrists, neck and back will thank you. This way, you’re not leaning over your laptop, or trying to move around big spreadsheets and websites with just your laptop’s keypad. And you’ll have a full-size keyboard to spread your hands out across. Most come with a dedicated wrist rest, too. If you don’t want to spend too much, I’ve had pretty good luck with Logitech keyboards and mice.

Get a noise cancelling Headphones and a Lamp

if you have construction going on at home, or kids walking around the house, that it's pretty oblivious during quarantine.

Maybe you’ll want a plant to spruce up your desk, and a Lamp in case you’re finishing work later at night.

Consider a few other items, like a smart speaker if you want to talk to smart speaker with Alexa for podcasts, the weather, or for playing tunes.

Get started early.

Making the adjustment to working from home if you've usually worked in an office environment can be a big change. It takes self-control, motivation, and strategy to succeed in working independently and creating your own schedule.

I wake up, put on a pot of coffee, and start working immediately -- much earlier normal working hours. I

only start making breakfast once I've hit a wall or need a break. I'm a morning person and find I can get a ton done in the early morning hours, so this works really well for me

Environment plays a major role in those who are able to easily make the transition to telecommuting.

When working in an office, your morning commute can help you wake up and feel ready to work by the time you get to your desk. At home, however, the transition from your pillow to your computer can be much more jarring.

Believe it or not, one way to work from home productively is to dive into your to-do list as soon as you wake up. Simply getting a project started first thing in the morning can be the key to making progress on it gradually throughout the day. Otherwise, you'll prolong breakfast and let the morning sluggishness wear away your motivation.

Pretend like you are going into the office.

The mental association you make between work and an office can make you more productive, and there's no reason that feeling should be lost when telecommuting.
When working from home, do all the things you'd do to prepare for an office role: Set your alarm, make coffee, and wear nice clothes.

Structure your day like you would in the office.

When working from home, you're your own personal manager. Without things like an in-person meeting schedule to break up your day, you can be quick to lose focus or burn out.
To stay on schedule, segment what you'll do and when over the course of the day. If you have an online calendar, create personal events and reminders that tell you when to shift gears and start on new tasks. Google Calendar makes this easy.
Use the same schedule at home. While you probably will get tasks done faster at home than at work, this structure will help keep you focused and productive.

Find your ideal routine, and stick to it.

In the morning I wake up, shower, get dressed, put on my make up, have my breakfast and drive to work. I get to work, make my tea, do some morning reading, respond to emails, and start my day. I have my morning routine, and I have another routine at the end of the day to wrap up.

We are creatures of habit - having a clear routine gives us structure and enables us to be productive. And that's doubly true when you work from home.

At the beginning when I started to work from home I found that my routine was just off. I woke up and was unsure what to do next. Do I start responding to emails? Do I make breakfast? Workout? What do I do first? At the end of the day, I had the same conundrum. When do I stop working?

Then I realized that creating structure is essential when

working remotely. I tend to block times in my calendar for work, lunch, personal activities and kids. I am actually

sticking to them to the best of my ability. Without structure, I end up losing my work-life balance.

Allocate time to do housework and time to do business work.

How many times have you sat down to do your business work and thought ‘I’ll just fold that washing, or I’ll just wash those dishes.’ We all do it, it’s so easy to be distracted with household chores when you’re working from home.

To combat this, I allocate myself time for the housework and time to do business work. I find that if I get all the housework done (well, as much as I’m willing to do because let’s face it – I don’t actually like doing housework) first up then I’m not going to be distracted by it later. I usually make sure the

kitchen is clean and tidy and the dishwasher is unpacked, put a load of washing on and sweep the floors before settling in for my business work.

I also allocate some time in the afternoon, usually

around 3pm when I hit a productivity low, to take on the next round of housework and start getting dinner ready.

Enjoy your time at home with your family and be happy and productive!

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