Olivia Maier
Work from home and other flexible working options have grown in popularity over the past year. It’s no wonder, after COVID-19 made it necessary around the world. Some may have approached it as a temporary work phase, and others may have fallen in love with remote working.
Remote working can come with real advantages for employees, such as no commute time, comfortable work settings, increased savings and more. For a business, you may have seen increased productivity, happier employees, and so on.
However, when working from home, there is a potential for increased distractions, and less managerial oversight may lead to potential pitfalls. Creating an environment of success is a must, and when you are working from home it is really up to an individual to set themselves up for success. Of course companies should provide resources and tools to foster that environment of success, but the best thing to help ensure long term WFH success is to have a work from home routine in place.
This can lead to more consistent results, as a result of naturally becoming more in tune with your work functions. Having a work routine can lead to big benefits when working from home, and can help your team make the most from flexible work opportunities.
Your full day schedule will change each day, and trying to create a really rigid schedule may not be setting yourself up for success. Instead, block the time for “mini-routines” that you will be able to incorporate regardless of what pops up day to day.
For example, creating start-of-workday, mid-day, end-of-workday, and transition back to home life routines can help you have consistency in what you are doing, but with the flexibility to adjust when those routines take place.
Not everyone working from home has a designated home-office, which is okay. You don’t need a fancy setup to be successful. Instead, focus on what you can consistently surround yourself with, whether that means physical tools or taking advantage of different apps and software.
Your work from home setup should include tools that will help you stay on track with the routines that work best for you. For example, if your start-of-workday routine includes creating a to-do list for the day then have an online to-do list app or physical day planner ready to go.
Creating the most effective routine will take time, which is why it makes sense to periodically reevaluate what you are doing.
Maybe you hit a mid-day slump, or you continually are waiting around for information from your coworkers. Whatever the weak spots are, it is important to understand not only what is happening but why.
It can be helpful to discuss these gaps with the rest of your team in order to learn from each other’s routines, as well as to find answers to why those gaps exist. Maybe your coworkers have shifted away from a 9-5 to accommodate their children’s schedules. Or maybe you’d benefit from a mid-day standup call with your team. Figure out the solutions to those gaps before they become actual productivity killers.
Working from home can be supported by a good routine. But it isn’t the only factor that contributes to the overall success or failure of your WFH experience.
Beyond your WFH routine, make sure that your team is equipped with the tools necessary to support the WFH experience. As far as tools go, give your team access to the right devices to get work done. A reliable internet connection is a must, as is a working computer. Having a virtual phone system like Yodel is necessary to support phone communication in a WFH setup, and can help your team avoid giving out personal contact information to talk to your customers.
Creating an effective work from home routine requires you to understand how you work best. There is no one-size fits all model, instead you need to understand how to structure your time to best fit your goals. By using the tips we have provided, we hope that you will have a more effective wfh experience. That wfh experience can be further supported by Yodel’s VoIP phone system, which allows remote employees to access a centralized communication platform.
