COVID-19 has changed the world – It’s changed how we travel, socialise, shop, and work. If you’re one of the lucky ones who is still employed, chances are you have been given the opportunity to work from home – although, this presents a new set of challenges.
As the pandemic hit in early 2020, the world’s economy crawled to a standstill leaving many (and most) businesses and employees wholly unprepared. If you find yourself stuck in ‘work-from-home-limbo‘, how can you make the best out this tricky situation?
Daily check-ins
The most obvious change to our work life as a result of COVID-instated work-from-home rules is the distance between colleagues. Physical distance, of course, but also psychological distance. If your colleague arrived to work one day looking unkempt, frazzled or upset, it would be a simple thing to note out of place that would trigger a conversation to ensure they are OK. Humans are social, comfort and community-seeking creatures; we’re not designed to be in isolation for any length of time. A 15-minute video call or a quick message at the start of the day is a great way to check on the mental state of your team, as well as follow up on tasks and projects for the day.
The social coffee ritual
For many of us coffee ‘enthusiasts‘, working from home took away the simple social pleasure of the coffee break. It deprived us of seeing our daily barista and their well-crafted coffees. Taking a break when juggling your workload can often be a challenge – but if you can make time for a coffee/ tea over a video catch-up once or twice a week, you’ll benefit from the double whammy of a refreshing break and a relationship boost. This small act reinforces and maintains many important relationships in your team and fulfils that basic human need of community.
Communicate early, communicate often
Even in the 21st Century where technology is always within arms reach, communicating important aspects of a project or task has become much more difficult. Even video calls are poor replacements for a room with a whiteboard -, especially with a poor internet provider. It’s easy to become disengaged or distracted while on a video call and miss important information, or struggle with technology and feel disinclined to contribute. Additional clearer follow-ups, email confirmations, assigned action items, and supplementary one-on-one conversations are a necessary ‘evil‘ in these times.
The art of note-taking
Let’s face it, work-stationary is different from home-stationary. At work, you have those nice notepads and planners, colourful post-its, obnoxious highlighters, and a set of Officeworks whiteboard markers with your name on it – not to mention a printer, scanner and, if you’re lucky, a laminator. The typical office worker thrust into this work-from-home-lifestyle is lucky to have a few dried-up biros and a half-full lined notepad left from university – that they couldn’t part with for sentimental reasons. This is not conducive to organised, thorough note-taking. Given the difficulty of engaging through long video calls, you must get yourself a nice stationery set. Splurge and purchase those obnoxious highlighters and post-its – if you must. If you’re one of nature’s technologists then, by all means, use Trello or Evernote or note-taking tool of choice. If you’re kicking yourself for dropping balls, missing details or forgetting names – do yourself a favour and write it down. Despite the above, don’t assume someone will follow up with meeting notes – own your business and make sure you have what you need.
Work-from-home-life balance
The separation between “work” and “life” pre-COVID couldn’t have been clearer. Travelling from one location to another gave us an unavoidable start and end time, a neat timebox with which to structure our days. When work is synonymous with home, the hours and days have a dangerous tendency to blur together. To maintain some semblance of balance, sandwich your day with something to get you away from the computer. Take lunch into another room – or even better – out of the house. Schedule in your calendar to go for a walk or a quick bodyweight session to start, break up or round off your day.
Once you’ve finished your day – clock off! Close your laptop, sleep your notifications, put your work phone in another room and have some well-deserved downtime. This needs to be a conscious choice now more than ever – default is not enough.
The silver lining
While this new normal comes with a new set of challenges, it also brings opportunity for those with an open mind and a little extra motivation. The time which once was spent commuting can be put to better use. If you ever dreamed of learning a new instrument, writing a book, or just picking one up to read, now’s your chance. With a little attention paid to structure and discipline, working from home has given us more time than ever to put towards leisure pursuits. What new skill will you come out of isolation with?