Marketing from Home

Working from Home

The Daily Grind

Still in pyjamas. Headphones glued to your head. Did you brush your teeth this morning? Or, yesterday morning, for that matter. In fact, what day is it? It’s about 4:30 PM on a Wednesday, or a Thursday. One of the ones that ends in a Y, that’s all you know for certain.

Sound familiar? That’s because you’re working from home, which suddenly means a lot more than it used to. It’s learning how to mute a conference call when the kids want more milk on their cereal. Or, how to mute WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok…

With all the white noise in our lives right now, is it even possible to get down to those non-essential jobs on your to-do list, like content creation, or blogging? Well, first, start with the basics.

10 tips for working from home:

Get dressed

The novelty of wearing PJs all day, every day, quickly wears thin. Choose an outfit you would actually wear to work, giving you a small achievable goal that sets you up for the day.

Stretch

Did you ever hear the Baz Luhrmann song ‘Sunscreen’? In the mornings, your body has been dormant for hours. Give it a chance to wake up with some basic stretches or follow a yoga class on YouTube. If that isn’t your thing, go on your state-approved walk in the morning to release some endorphins and get a brief taste of freedom.

Find your space

The likelihood is we’re in for a few weeks more of this, so you’ll benefit from finding a permanent workspace that’s as free from distraction as possible. We’re not all lucky enough to have an office room, or even a dining table, but try not to fall into the habit of sleeping with your laptop and working in bed all day.

Take a break

Try to stick to business hours and give yourself a break. Just because you’re working from home, doesn’t mean you should always be working. Go for a coffee, network. You never know what the kitchen appliances have been up to until you ask.

Hydrate

You didn’t think there wasn’t going to be any science to this blog post, did you?

Remember all those times people told you that water is a basic need? Turns out, it’s true. Water makes up 65% of your bodyweight, and studies suggest up to 60% of people don’t drink enough of it. Waking up with a dry face, lips and mouth in the morning is your body’s way of asking for water. Even 1-2% dehydration can affect your mood, energy levels and internal bodily functions:

Specifically, mild dehydration has been found to affect short-term memory, alertness and concentration, and subsequently impair performance on tasks such as visual-motor tracking, perceptual discrimination, arithmetic ability and psychomotor skills.

So, if you have a big meeting in the morning, give yourself plenty of time to hydrate, fuel up and prepare to be on top of your game!

The Analysis of Sweat in Performance and Health Management from AZoNetwork on Vimeo.

Eat well

You no longer have the commute as an excuse to avoid cooking. Use this extra time to develop healthy eating habits: stick to mealtimes; avoid aimless snacking; and eat your greens. There are plenty of good, completely free resources out there that can make you a thriftier, healthier cook.

Set achievable goals

Write down your list at the start of the day/week and give yourself the satisfaction (and mini-endorphin high!) of crossing off items.

To-do list

Set a to-do list with the most important things as red, medium importance as amber and less urgent tasks as green.(or the other way round depending on your outlook!)

Make the most of your extra time and money

The time and money you would usually spend on the commute is invaluable. Stay positive and spend that time with your nearest and dearest.

Quality Family Time

Collaborate online with your colleagues

Communication is now more important than ever before, here are some tips for running online meetings:

Share your webcam, there are plenty of quality services which make the experience better than ever.
Use the mute button, don't be the "keyboard warrior" tapping away over other people who are speaking!
Have someone chair the meeting to keep it on track. This is so important as only one person can speak at a time.
Send an agenda ahead of time and stick to it. The meeting will take half the time if you do this properly.
Consolidate your key points beforehand and only speak if you have something valuable to contribute to the conversation.

Also, try avoid any of the situations in the hilarious video below!

Bulk up personal security

With everyone now being forced to work from home, security has become a real issue, single sign on services help with employees to safely access the applications they need to do their work and VPNs are a good idea to encrypt your data and protect your team against malicious threats.