The New Normal: How to Prepare Yourself for Remote Work

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’d know by now that the world is in a bad place. People getting sick, companies going under, economies slowing down and it’s all because of the pandemic that is currently ravaging the world, COVID-19.

During this crisis, companies all over the world are sending their employees back home as part of a “Work-From-Home” arrangement. What this means is that a huge majority of those employees are going to be working remotely for the first time in their lives. For better or for worst, this is the new normal that 21st century employees have to deal with moving forward.

Unfortunately, this transition can be a scary time for many employees as they have numerous questions running through their minds. For example, schools around the world are shutdown due to the pandemic. An employee may be asking themselves; how do I manage my time between my kids and my work especially with me being in close proximity with them?

Below are some strategies to help you navigate the new world of remote work and successfully work from home during the coronavirus pandemic.

Understand That This May Not Be Temporary

Countries like Malaysia and The Philippines have extended their lockdowns numerous times due to the coronavirus being unpredictable in when it will peak. Doctors have said that it is impossible to put an end date on the coronavirus pandemic due to it being able to reside in people without showing any symptoms and that’s how the virus spreads.

The reality is that it is difficult to predict the impact how and where we do our jobs as many companies have contingency plans such as the “work-from-home” arrangement but what can be done is to understand that this situation only requires us to adapt to it.

With that in mind, we should be proactive in preparing for the reality that we may be working remotely for much longer than expected.

Change Up Routines

When working in an office is the norm for most of your career, a sudden change in working environment can be very disorienting. While your brain has psychologically separated that the office means work and the house means leisure, working at home contradicts your subconscious. Being at home makes the work-life distinction much more ambiguous. For one thing, you’ll be surrounded with distractions such as family members, the way your desk feels and the cravings for the favorite cup of coffee you always pick up before work.

Within this non-corporate setting, you must designate time to work on company projects and reach your deadlines. If you don’t proactively determine your work schedule, you will almost always find yourself absorbed in household chit chatting or if others are working remotely with you at the same location, constantly pulled off-task into inessential conversations.

Learning to Time Block

To avoid being distracted, split up your day into time blocks to identify, in advance, predictable daily schedules and routines that you can use to make sure you get your work down. Time blocking essentially means indicating on your calendar, a mobile app, or even a piece of paper which hours you will spend to check off things from your “To-Do” list and since you are working from home, you shouldn’t only have work on your “To-Do” list but also for your own personal time in order to keep your mental state healthy and refreshed thus making you more efficient in the long run.

An example of this would be to give yourself an hour to cook breakfast for your family before 9am. Then once 9am reaches, you focus in completing the tasks that your employer has given you before 12pm and so on and so forth.

Finding a conducive environment

Working from home can bring many challenges. One of which is trying to fight off being too comfortable while doing work which leads to feelings of being lazy and sleepy. In the office, it is often considered taboo to fall asleep at work but being home means a place for you to relax and be comfortable. One should find a place to work such as the living room or even a home office but we wouldn’t recommend to get used to working where you sleep like the bed.

Switch out where you work such as working in the living room, the balcony or even the drive way as long as you feel comfortable working in that area.

Working remotely in the new normal of a global pandemic is far from ideal. But if you take some time to familiarize yourself with remote work best practices and prepare yourself to work at home as effectively as possible, you’ll decrease the learning curve and feel better in the process.

Learning More About Remote Work

Slasify is a platform for remote workers, providing one-stop services from job recruitment, remote cross-border team deployment to cross-border payroll settlement. Slasify specializes in creating teams without borders for enterprises and increasing the flexibility of employment.

A majority of our corporate clients are from large MNCs with an employee size of more than 1,000 people with services covering more than 200 countries and regions. If you have any further questions, please visit our website or drop us an email directly at hi@slasify.com