Working From Home Tips

For many of us, working from home was a rare or foreign concept that has quickly became our reality. Some are now realizing how challenging it is to say goodbye to the office and hello to the kitchen table. Whether it’s a remote position or a global pandemic keeping you indoors, it can be stressful managing work through a computer screen, but it doesn’t have to be.

Learning new applications and tactics for keeping your employees on track is essential, especially with the change from in-person communication to virtual. It’s a learning curve, but it will only make your business stronger and more productive in the future.

Learn how to make the best out of working at home with these tips:

Communication Is Key

When going remote, you no longer have the opportunity to walk to a coworker’s desk. It’s essential to have a plan in place for successful communication. Applications such as Microsoft Teams keep communication simple and consistent by automatically linking to existing to Microsoft Office accounts. Other great programs and apps you can use to communicate with your team are Slack, Google Hangouts and Zoom, which have video capabilities as well.

Here are a few tips for online video chatting:

When you’re not talking, have your audio on mute to eliminate your background noise and make it easier for everyone to hear those who are talking and presenting.
Look presentable. You’re still doing work during work hours, so pretend you’re still physically going by getting dressed every morning just as you would if you were going into the office.
Make sure you have a good and secure WiFi connection.

Stay on Track

Schedule what time you’ll wake up and get ready, as well as what time you want to take your lunch. Also, make sure you’re organized. It’s easy to lose organizational skills while working at home. Have a calendar and look at it every day so you’re prepared for all meetings and for your workday ahead.

To guarantee your team is on the right track, utilize digital organizational tools to sort daily tasks. Trello is an organization tool that helps track ideas and separate your lists as “to-do,” “doing” and “done” in a visually fun manner. Google Docs is another tool that lets groups of people work on the same page at the same time. It promotes communication and is perfect for work that involves real time edits and eliminates the worry of edits not being saved. Basecamp, a project management tool, allows teams to communicate on projects more efficiently in one place. The website enables workers to create project boards and manage them using group chats, message boards, schedules and more.

There’s no reason why learning to work from home can’t be as efficient, productive and enjoyable as going into the office. With these small tweaks to your new at-home workflow, we hope you and your company don’t miss a beat. The world is ever-changing and the unexpected can always happen — so keep yourself on track, even if the world wants to throw you a few curve balls.

Learning to effectively work from home is important. If you need help with website updates or digital marketing needs to make working from home easier for your company, let us help! Appleton is an award-winning, full-service Orlando advertising agency that works with local, national and international clients to deliver impressive ad campaigns, branding, print, web, public relations, social media and video services — all in-house. At Appleton, we want to learn about your business, empower your marketing team and be your creative resource. Your advertising goals are worth a conversation: contact us at 407-246-0092 or info@appletoncreative.com.