Tips on Working from Home
(Updated 6/25/2020)
Working from home has advantages and disadvantages in the best of times. With the current social distancing that is being required of us to help flatten the curve of COVID-19 working from home can be isolating and challenging. Below are some tips on working from home that were recieved from our listserv and other resources. Feel free to add your tips for working from home in the comment section. We would love to here from you!
- Make sure to create a routine and a schedule. If your work does not require you to look at emails after you are supposed to be done working, don’t.
- Try to keep a boundary between work and home life.
- Remember to get a little exercise in during your breaks as well as some other form of self-care, maybe meditate for 15 minutes.
- Check in with someone from your organization daily by phone or a video chat, it can be someone from your team or a friend from work. This will help you feel less isolated.
- Every 20 minutes try to reset your posture and give your eyes a rest by looking at something in the distance.
Here is a link to a blog post by a friend of CVT’s International Programs with tips and tricks on working from home. He has years of practice in working from home and seems to have encountered nearly all the potential pitfalls:
Here are a few articles you might find helpful:
- 4 ways to manage remote workers when you don’t know how long they’ll be working from home (Fast Company)
- Working from home? 7 smart tips to help you get more done (Fast Company)
- 8 strategies to set up remote work during the coronavirus outbreak (Fast Company)
- 8 Tips To Make Working From Home Work For You (NPR)
- 7 Tips for Successfully Managing Remote Teams (Inc.com)
- The Manager’s Manual for Remote Work (Slack)
- COVID-19 Has My Teams Working Remotely: A Guide for Leaders (Gallup)
- Employees: How to Cope with Job Stress and Build Resilience During the COVID-19 Pandemic (available in Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese) (CDC) (Posted 6/25/2020)
This document from USAID contains some helpful resources for working from home, specifically breaking out day-to-day work, team meetings and tech practices, in addition to highlighting the role of managers in supporting virtual employees and teams.
Switchboard also has some great blogs on working from home including:
- Making Remote Work Successful: Tips for Employees Working Remotely
- Making Remote Work Successful: Tips for Managing Remote Workers & Teams
- Making Remote Work Successful: 6 Tips for Being IT-Ready to Work from Home
If you are noticing an increase of pain and body aches while you are working remotely, here are some resources you may find helpful:
- Coronavirus: How to combat back pain while working from home a video from BBC to remind us about proper set up of our computer at home to make sure our posture is correct and to make sure we keep moving during our work. From the description: “As millions of people are told to work from home and adjust to doing their jobs remotely, there are likely to be inconsistent desk set-ups where injuries are more likely.Alishah Merchant, a physiotherapist at Rebalance Sports Medicine, gives some tips on how to optimise your home workstation.”
- Another helpful video on setting up your remote work space ergonimically as well as tips on taking breaks while working from home: Ergonomic essentials for remote working.
- Managing your bone, joint or muscle pain is from the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy which has collated some key resources to help you manage pain in different body parts if you are unable to access direct physiotherapy care right now. Select the body part you are struggling with and they provide suggestions for ways you can help manage and ease your pain.
- It is important to keep your body moving when you are working from home. Here are two seven minute exercise routines that do not require weights, you can easily do in your home, and you only need a chair. The Scientific 7 Minute Workout Video – Bodyweight Only Total Body Workout has more coaching and talks you through proper form. 7 Minute Workout Song (with timer) Tabata Songs includes music. With these videos there is no excuse to say you don’t have time to exercise. There are plenty of other workout videos on YouTube, including beginners workouts, dance, and yoga. Find what fits you best and get yourself moving! We have added some other videos on the Self Care during COVID-19 page as well.
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