Work From Home💻⌨️️🖱️

My first experience with work from home was when I was feeling unwell and did not want to go to the office yet still work. I took Work From Home then. I found it very comfortable. I started liking it but I never imagined this could be everyday life.

I never had thought back then that we have to operate in this model for a prolonged period of time.

It all started with the Corona Pandemic Situation in March this year, when there was no other option, but to Work From Home. The number of cases all around was increasing rapidly and so was the lockdown being extended. Gradually work from home became an everyday thing and we started realizing problems that were blocking our work. viz.

1. No proper Internet connections
2. Delayed message replies
3. Difficult pairing with people
4. Productivity
5. Finding a margin between personal and professional life
6. Remembering to take regular breaks
7. Team Collaboration
8. Social Interaction
9. Home Interruptions/ Distractions
10. Bad Health Habits etc

As time went by, the number of cases were nowhere close to reducing nor had the lockdown ended.

As always with our species, we are quick to adapt and hence have managed to survive on this planet for so long. I started retrospecting how WFH works for me and how we can get the most out of it.

I started finding a solution to reduce the inefficiency listed above, In this blog, I am sharing with all of you what I did to tackle some of the challenges listed above.

1.No proper Internet connections:

First and foremost was to get a good Internet Connection that was a must for solving any of the other problems.

2.Delayed message replies:

Delayed message replies can be solved by simply calling the person by either checking his/her calendar for their availability.

3.Difficult pairing with people:

Yes, some work/stories did require pairing, and I found out some tools that could help us do that.

4.Productivity:

This was something that was very important. Being at home, Initially made many of me lazy, thus affecting productivity. For getting the most out of ourselves, I needed to have some special working place for doing office work. Because working on the bed or couch didn’t work for me at least. A defined space with an office type table helped me and many like me concentrate. And soon I saw improvement in my productivity. This also needs a lot of self-discipline and there is no shortcut for this.

5.Finding a margin between personal and professional life:

It was very difficult for me to find a margin between personal and professional life. Sometimes I worked too much and sometimes “no specific updates”. It’s very important to define our working hours so as to find the balance, this is tightly linked with the above point, and having a proper schedule and dedicated break goes a long way to achieve this.

6.Remembering to take regular breaks:

Sometimes I get stuck at a point and in such situations a break is necessary. Your mind gets tired after working for long hours. Giving it a Tea break will surely help to solve the issue or at least enhance your productivity.

7.Team Collaboration:

The remote standups were the only source that made Team collaboration easier. But for every other thing that needs to be asked, it is required to call the person. Instead getting a complete context and then doing work would help solve this problem during WFH.

8.Social Interaction:

Social Interaction is the best thing that we all started missing when Working from Home.Maybe having a “tapri” channel/link where people can get together and have some interaction surely helps.

Or even having weekly catch-ups will boost the energy in you.

9.Home Interruptions/ Distractions:

It’s obvious that the working atmosphere at home and office is different. There are many aspects because of which we can get distracted rather than diverted from work. Having definite working hours and defined workspace has helped us reduce this problem.

10. Bad Health Habits:

It is very well known that, if we get busy at work, we prefer picking up something from the refrigerator as lunch or maggie! Well, that’s something that’s going to affect your health. Skipping breakfast or lunch is not at all a good option. Having definite working hours with breaks and utilizing breaks for eating healthy food is the best way to get over it. Not only that, exercising after sometime regularly will keep us healthy.

There are many other things I have to overcome and learn to make working from home / remote working effective and efficient for myself. I also realized and understood it’s a good option for the future.

Post-COVID, this is definitely going to increase the scope of industries that can increase their business boundaries because everyone has realized having a physical office is not a necessity.

This opens up the gate to tap into many talented people who belonged to different cities and were unable to move away from their homes for various reasons. Now they too can work into professions and companies of their choice and still be around their loved ones all the time. There is a long way to go for all of this to fall in place to ensure the bonding with the organization remains and people can relate to the culture of an organization. Looking forward to a very different workspace of the future. A new era and the change in the mentality of the people has already begun.