Working from Home Essentials
Last year most of us have been struck by the fact that we have to work from home and it comes faster than we could have imagined, due to COVID-19.
But even before COVID-19 became a factor, increasing numbers of people have been saying goodbye to their onerous commute to work, this becomes possible thanks to the huge advancement in the technologies like skype, slack, zoom, G suite, and more other softwares, which almost all of them have an option for free use.
The pros and cons of working from home
To make the most out of working from home, It's important to be aware of the pros and cons. There are a lot of pros and cons, and it could be different from person to person.
Here are the most important:
Pros:
No commute time
For many of us, this means saving a couple of hours, the expense of commuting to work, and even energy so you show up to your work with a calm mind and more focus.
More work flexibility
More time flexibility will allow you to do many small things during the workday that are not related to work. This will give a sense of accomplishment.
No office distractions or chitchat
You have control over your environment, and that will help with tasks that require focus.
Cons:
There is no physical separation between work and leisure time
Mixing the workspace with leisure time space means the limit between work and your personal time is less clear.
You will find yourself working around the clock since there are no definite start or end times,
making it difficult to shift to the post-work relaxation mode.
Increased isolation and less face time
There is a good chance that you become quite isolated working from home if you spend most of your time by yourself, working independently.
Since you barely see your co-workers, it's hard to make a strong connection with them, and many people will miss the coffee time.
Distractions at home
At home, there are a variety of distractions: from your pet or family member to your phone or your gaming console, and you need to deal with controlling them.
How to improve your WFH experience
Not all of us have the perfect environment for working from home, this could be due to distractions from family members or simply we don't have the proper place designated for work.
And this requires us to get creative at setting up your working space.
You should know that creating a good workspace is a process requiring trial and mistakes until you figure out what suits you.
Don't start by browsing the internet looking for what to purchase in order to improve your WFH experience, because that could cost you a lot of money and would not bring satisfaction or even the result that you want.
So start with what you already have until you figure out what is missing and what you need, for example instead of getting a new monitor arm, try to raise the monitor with books first and observe how it feels.
Start by identifying your needs and what's important to you in the working environment, write them down and start tackling them one by one.
Another highly recommended idea is to check what other people have done to improve their working environment. I will leave a couple of helpful links down below.
