How To Work From Home Effectively

How To Work From Home Effectively—Infographic

Is working from home a good idea? No longer does “I’m working from home” translate into “You’re having a jolly.”

M.I.N.D.S.E.T.—How Can I Work From Home Myself?

1. Manage

Managing yourself. Almost 10,000 people in the U.K. type “time management” into Google each month. Here are 4 best practices you need to adopt to be an effective home worker.

• Establish a routine. Choose 3 times.
• Do eat that frog. Identify your frog each day and eat it first.
• No more cabbage butterflies. Remove distractions (e.g., turn off email notifications) and do “start to completion.”

Write a daily to-do list. Write a new to-do list each day and asterisk what must be done that day.

2. Isolation

Don’t isolate yourself. You’ll want to “get your head down” and work. But remember that “you working” is about you “being productive” and “you being productive” is about “you being happy.”

Three key stages of isolation:

1. Guilty freedom
   You’ll feel guilt working from home in the first few weeks.
2. Busy, busy, busy
   When you realize that you can get so much done.
3. Strike a balance
   You’ve made mistakes, learned lessons and started to find balance.

Isolation best practice: Minimum every two weeks, get out. Go to a coffee shop. Meet a friend for breakfast. Walk into town. This must become part of your weekly routine to look after your well-being—lockdown permitting.

3. Neat

Dress for home working. So what’s the problem? Not only do we need the proper workspace, but we also need specific working-from-home clothes.

Neat best practice: Select your working-at-home clothes. Put these at one end of your wardrobe. Don’t mix them up with the other “wardrobes.”

How Do You Manage Employees Working From Home?

4. Deliverables

Focus is the key. Change is hard. The question we need to answer with each report is “Why are you on the payroll?”

• Set S.M.A.R.T. targets
  Your 121s move from tactical discussions about what’s happening and emails sent to “What can I do to help you identify your $1 million opportunity?”
• A great opportunity to invest in you
  Work is tough. You’ve been crazy busy. Now you can find that you have a little bit more time to get things done. We want to help your team develop while they are working from home with our virtual classrooms.

Deliverables best practice: Have a 121 with your line manager. Or line manager have a 121 with your reports. Agree on S.M.A.R.T targets for the year. Then talk about those targets at least once per month.

5. Space

This is a checklist for your work-at-home space. Use it to create your productive space at home for you to work. This will help with your mental state.

1. I work in this space and relax in a different space.
2. I can set up a desk of my things.
3. I have all the necessary things I need around me: sockets, a place to write, a really comfortable chair, space to move, etc.
4. I will not be disturbed.
5. I can get the technology to work (i.e., the WiFi and phone signal work).
6. I cannot be seen by delivery people at the door.
7. I have natural light.

6. Emotions

Sharing how we feel is imperative. When we change to work at home, our colleagues can no longer see how we feel.

Emotions best practice: we have 2 responsibilities:

• To ask “How are you feeling?”
• To articulate how we are feeling.

7. Technology

Broadband and mobile are the foundation for effective productivity. It is about getting the most out of the tech that you use.

Technology best practice:

• Test your broadband and mobile phone signal. If they are not up to the job, get them upgraded because your productivity will suffer.
• Use A.C.E. (Agenda, Capture, Evaluation) to manage your meetings to be effective.

The key to not feeling isolated, being the best version of you, and achieving the highest productivity is M.I.N.D.S.E.T. Your mindset is the key. To unlock the advantages of working at home combined with the challenges it presents, you need to be prepared to learn and then change. The evolution is to do that remotely by adopting the 7 best practices above.

Top 8 Advantages Of Working From Home

1. Flexible schedule
2. Cozy clothes
3. It’s easier to make calls
4. Knock off some weekend to-dos
5. No office distractions
6. Zero commuting
7. Forget crowds and traffic
8. More time with loved ones