Tips for Working from Home from Seasoned Remote Workers

 Due to the practice of social distancing and COVID-19, many workplaces wanting to keep their employees as safe as possible have moved to a remote working environment. Social distancing is a way to help minimize the spread of an illness like the Coronavirus. This includes a six-foot distance between you and another person and avoiding large crowds. This practice is the reason we have seen major sporting events, cruises, concerts, etc. canceled. While this practice has proven effective, it can cause a lot of hardships such as adjusting to a work-from-home environment.

Working remotely can bring challenges that you may have never faced. Navigating new technology and establishing a working schedule can seem like daunting tasks. The good news is, this is not an entirely new concept. There are many people who have been remote workers for many years. They have insight on many of these concerns you may have.

We reached out to some of our Remote Shoals Residents, who are working remotely from the Shoals through our Remote Shoals program, to see if they had any tips for those who might be new to working from home due to the Coronavirus. Many of them have gone through the trial-and-error phase of remote work and can give you some pointers. Scroll through their tips and tricks to see if any of them can help you adjust to this working environment.

From Jeremy:

• Having a space set apart from high traffic areas in the house, ideally a room all to itself.
• Maintaining/managing breaks away from my desk for a quick walk to stretch my legs, coffee, snack etc.
• Keeping distractions like cleaning taken care of outside of working hours to minimize the "chores" distraction

From John:

• When working from home, home stuff comes up. It's important to integrate our home and work roles to avoid frustration.
• It's difficult to maintain a 9 - 5 work specific focus. Better to realize there are a lot of hours in day and not compartmentalize work/life roles as much while being available to work peers and family members.
• Establishing a flexible routine is important.
• Understand that everyone is dealing with this. If a dog barks or kids run in when on the phone, everyone gets it.
• You may still have video interactions, so get out of your comfy clothes and pay attention to your backdrops

From Gary:

• My top two pointers are first to maintain a schedule and second to remember to "look away" from time to time. Working from home is still working. There is no interaction with co-workers, so we tend to get absorbed in work. You'll find that while you become much more productive, if you don't take a few minutes every now and then you'll experience burn out.