Is Working from Home New for You?

At this moment in history, immersed as we all are in a pandemic, the skills to ‘transition’ from workplace to a work-at-home model may not simply be intrinsic. You may need help.

Affiliate links: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means that if you click such a link and/or decide to purchase something, I may get a small commission. You are never obligated to buy anything. Also, I only link to sites I know, use, and personally feel comfortable in recommending.

I have a set of built-in resources, gathered from (a) my training and graduation as a virtual assistant (VA) some years ago, and (b) because I’ve worked from home part-time for decades (and full-time since late 2019). I want to share a few tips I’ve shared with a local neighbourhood group, and then provide you with a couple of more really good resources about how you, you perhaps as a new work-from-home person, can get through this.

Here are three of the tips I’ve shared:

1. Set ‘office’ boundaries. This can include where your office is and when you’re in it. I know, this may be difficult with young children at home.

2. Set ‘office’ hours. My own experience from working at home is that I tend to overdo it and forget breaks. Create some ‘water cooler’ time!

3. We’re asked to practice social distancing, but I feel a better take on this may be physical distancing, while trying to maintain social contact. See below for some ideas of how to stay in touch with coworkers.

In addition to the above, use good tools, many of which (but not all) are free: for example, Skype, Zoom, and WhatsApp for audio and/or video messaging, Microsoft Office for collaboration, and even time tracking apps that have free versions, like Toggl.

There are many good – and recent – resources that have been made available if you need a few more tips, or a lot more information on how to manage your work from home. I’m a member of an association called VANetworking and their recent blog post on working from home is great. I am also a longtime user of LinkedIn, and just discovered a new group called Suddenly Working From Home.

If you’re working from home and need a second set of eyes, I am a writer who loves writing. Contact me in care of rob@successfulmessages.com. Your first consultation is always free!