Guide to teleworking at home in times of corona virus

In the last month and a half, our reality and our daily life have changed radically. One of the most significant changes is that millions of Spaniards are working from home, something that in our country was very little implemented until just a few weeks ago. For this reason, many of us are new to this and we could use a guide to telework at home with guidelines to follow to manage the situation in the best possible way and be as efficient as possible in our work from home. Here are our recommendations.

Prepare your job

The first thing of all is to change the chip: you are at home, yes, but you are working, so your job has to be adapted to your work. Find a comfortable and comfortable place where you can be calm and feel comfortable since you will spend many hours there. In addition, it is very important that you have good natural light and, if possible, enter from the side (not from the front or from the back). It is also very important to have an adequate temperature.

When it comes to locating the elements of your workplace, think about your health and well-being: place the computer in a good position and height and use a comfortable chair to avoid damaging your back, keep the table clear and tidy and, of course, place yourself in a place where you have plugs, wifi, telephone, etc. in short, all those elements that you need to carry out your work.

Plan your day well

It is very important that we plan our working hours well, especially if they have reduced our work time, as is the case with many people. Start the morning reviewing the agenda and seeing all the tasks you have to do on that day and the approximate time each one will take. Also consider calls, meetings, courses, or other digital appointments/meetings that you will have during the day. Obviously, unforeseen events can always arise, but the more organized we have everything, the more control we will have over the development of our own work and the management of our time.

Prioritize

The previous point inevitably leads us to this: prioritize the most important/urgent tasks and go down the scale to the least, so, if at the end of the day you have something to do, it will not be the main thing. The next day you can start because of what was left pending the previous day (unless new priorities arise).

Flexibility is important (whenever possible)

If possible it would be very convenient to have some flexibility to organize our work hours. As a general rule, teleworking allows a greater level of time flexibility (the important thing is to do our work and not so much what time). This allows us to better combine work and home/children, but it is not always possible since many times we depend on the schedule of our colleagues, clients, suppliers, etc.

It should also be borne in mind that excessive flexibility can lead us to be “busy” with work all day without disconnecting (even late at night) and also that the time a task is carried out may increase the more stops. are made in it. Therefore, like everything, flexibility well understood and in its proper measure.

Maintain constant and fluid communication

Maintain daily contact with colleagues, customers, suppliers, collaborators … Being in contact with them is essential to do your job well and continue working as a team whenever necessary. Despite being physically far away, new technologies allow us to be closer than ever. And for communication to flow as only a few years ago was unthinkable.

So, apart from emails, calls … let’s take advantage of the possibilities that technology offers us to carry out meetings and meetings online, even physically seeing ourselves to feel closer. For this, there are many tools, such as the GoToMeeting platform or even WhatsApp video calls.

Of course, communications must be clear and have a specific objective. There should not be an overabundance of communication that could lead us to waste time and not carry out our work well.

put on your clothes

Surely what the body asks us is to stay in pajamas or, at most, put on the tracksuit. But experts advise that we take a shower and dress. And groom ourselves almost as if we were going to go to work at the company. Apart from clearing and feeling better, we unconsciously send the order to our brain that we enter “work mode”,

And it goes without saying that if we have any online meeting or video call (which perhaps we had not planned) we will be “presentable” if we see it through the webcam.

More difficult still… telework with children

If we have children and we have to work with them at home, the most difficult still comes: looking after and caring for our children while we work.

For this double task, which in itself is quite incompatible, the first thing we must do is arm ourselves with patience and recognize that we are not supermen or superwomen and that we will go as far as we can. In these circumstances, more than ever, both bosses and peers must be more understanding and empathetic than ever with others, since in many families they are experiencing difficult times, never experienced until now, and difficult to manage.

From here it is essential that as autonomous and responsible people that we are supposed to be, we know how to prioritize what is most important at every moment, the personal or professional dimension.

Therefore, everything also depends a lot on the ages of our children and their behavior. If they are very small (less than 5 years old) it is more complex because they demand much more of our attention. In these cases, we must “throw” activities that they can do on their own, such as painting, doing simple puzzles or puzzles, playing with their toys, using educational applications on the tablet (there are many) and we will always have the resource of the drawings animated. If they are older and have homework, ideally they should do them while we are working. That is, for example, that we establish that mornings are the time of work/study of the whole family and the afternoon of leisure and enjoyment.

Do not get frustrated

But above all, we must be aware that, as we said in the previous point. We are human and we cannot perform miracles. We are in an exceptional (as well as dramatic) situation and we all – bosses and employees – have to try to be especially understanding and as flexible as we can so that we can all cope as well as possible.

You may also like to read- http://www.dinosystem.com/