Lavorare da Casa durante Coronavirus | Come gestire tutto al Meglio

I was not planning to write an article regarding Covid-19, but then I had found myself working from home full-time now due to our current situation, and realized that many might need advice on how to juggle things, how to get organized, etc. I love working from home, but many don’t have experience in doing it. This article will, hopefully, help you to be productive but relaxed and organized while working from home during our Coronavirus Crisis.

Remember that being at home doesn’t mean you have to be multitasking. If you have been given the chance to work from home, do it and don’t feel like you have to spend a lot of time looking after your home just because you are spending more time in it. No need to clean everything 3 times per day: you would not have done it anyway if you were still working from the office, right?

Tips and best practices for working from home.

1) Work Space

The first thing you need to understand is where are you going to work at your house? Do you have a desk already? Maybe not because many were not planning to work from home, so we find ourselves a bit lost. Please do not improvise too much: designate an area of your home, specifically for you to work from.

You can use a guest room, but not many have this luxury, so how about a little space in your bedroom or even in the lounge area? You can set up a desk for your laptop (and screens) and documents in a specific area of the bedroom. Try to keep it simple and tidy. Make sure you work from that space only, every day, don’t be tempted to go back on your sofa.

2) Do you have everything you need?

Before starting working from home make sure you have everything you need: if you have started working from home due to Covid-19 and your Company asked you to self-isolate (or your Country in on lockdown), please make sure you grabbed everything you need from your office. Chances are you won’t be allowed back in before this is all over.

3) Work Hours

So, you have your home-based office now. Cool. Remember that this doesn’t mean you have to work 24/7 with no schedule and no routine. Do set specific business or work hours. Yes, you can be flexible but I strongly advise you to stick to your office hours, this means having your lunch break and closing your laptop at 5.00 pm if this is the time you used to finish working.

REMEMBER: Saturday & Sundays are OFF! Take tehse 2 days off like would normally do!

I also do understand that many now have kids around them, we are not used to that, we are not used to having to run both things at the same time: work stuff and the kids. So, try and plan working-hour-blocks: give your kids the time they need and ask for, but make sure they do understand you need to work. Organize the space and schedule with your partner, and if needed, yes you should change home-working hours compared to your office-based ones.

Make sure your team knows about this schedule, so they won’t expect you to answer the phone or swiftly reply to emails. Communicate your work schedule to co-workers, teams, and your boss.

4) Dress Up a little

Well not really, but have your breakfast in the morning, your shower and wear comfortable clothes, but try not to work with your pajamas on! By not doing so, you soon get into a new comfortable and productive routine.

5) Plan, plan…and plan!

Yes, now more than ever it is very important to schedule everything you must do. You are now finding yourself in an unprecedented situation, you are not used to this, sharing work-life with daily private routine. Google Calendar can help you to schedule everything you need to do in blocks, and please stick to those blocks. If you have scheduled that from 10.00 till 12.15 are going to do work related stuff, do it. If you have scheduled that you are going to take a break from 2.00 pm till 2.45 pm ….do it! This is the key; this is how you will avoid procrastinating and will manage to be more productive. Read “How to change your life and Be Happy”.

Review the schedule and your to-do-list every morning or the evening before. It’s easy to lose sight of priorities, tasks, and deadlines.

6) No Social Media

Well, I should not say this because it should be obvious, but please remember that while working from home, if you start checking your Instagram account or scroll down on your Facebook page…you will never be able to stick to your schedule and finish your work. This working-from-home experience might turn into a nightmare. Focus on getting more done. Consider putting your cell on Mute if you can.

7) Exercise & Stretch Regularly

You can’t go to the gym and maybe your flat is not big enough to set up a mini gym in there. But you must do some exercise! There are hundreds of videos on YouTube on home workout, easy stuff. Even a nice walk-at-home video will do. It increases happiness and this is very important for productivity. Regularly stretching is very good too, it takes 5-10 minutes, and very limited space. Plus, consider that you have a little more time now because you are not commuting in the morning and after work coming back home. Use this extra time to do some exercise, even meditation, there are a lot of videos of YouTube if you wish to start meditating.

8) Food & More Food.

Nope, it doesn’t have to be that way. We don’t want you to gain weight during this quarantine/self-isolation period, so stick to healthy meals. Don’t be tempted to get up every 5 mins and grab something to eat. Also consider you are not going out much anymore, so you burn fewer calories. Drink lots of water, keep a balanced diet and keep yourself busy with activities. Full access to the kitchen: snacks, cookies, some leftover pasta or a slice of that chocolate cake. NO! Grab a fruit, make yourself a nice cup of tea. This also doesn’t mean that snacking a little is wrong: after all, even at work, you do get up now and then to have a coffee and maybe a little snack. So even at home, you can “reward” yourself, you can decide that you will have something sweet after you complete your tasks. Ok, so it sounds like when you are trying to train your dog, but hey…new routine, new measures! 😊

9) Video Chat

We can consider ourselves very lucky, because we are going through all this when we have Internet and Social media, so we can still communicate with everyone. And we also need this, so please take a little break and make a video call with a friend, a family member. You can use Skype, WhatsApp Video, Facetime.

Believe me, it will help you feel less isolated, hence this will help your mental health too, and consequently your productivity.

What you should NOT do, is Social Media di read articles with a clickbait title, believe in everything you read on Facebook, etc – Always verify where the info is coming from. If you live in the UK, the best way to get correct and updated info is by using Gov.uk !

10) Think.

Number 10 is my key advice: you have been given this chance to work from home, so take advantage of it. Try and do your very best like you’d do from the Office. However, you will have to be patient will yourself and give it a little bit of time. The first few days might not be super easy to cope with.

Working from home also will allow you to learn a new work method that might also works once you are back at work with the rest of your team.

Working from home though will give you also time to go on over-thinking mode, so try and don’t get trapped in there. See the bright side of this over-thinking thing: try and see whether you truly like your job. This might be a good opportunity to understand if you want to do something else, and may start looking into it. Read “How to find a Job in London“.

Remember that once this crisis will be over, things will struggle a little to get up and running again. It will take time, and it will not be a stress-free period, hence the last thing you want to do now is to get stressed.