Do you remember the days when you have to rush your way to your cubicle to get your PC booted in time for work? Or perhaps you have a space to watch or supervise, and you need to get there before the rest of your team does. If you’re like the rest of us who experienced “the hustle” outside the house, chances are you had to work in an office. And it’s very likely that you somehow found yourself working at home - especially with a platform like Remotasks.
And while being a Remotasker has its perks (you don’t have a set schedule, for one!), you still need to make sure that you have room at home for your WFH setup. However, if you’ve never had experience working from home, what should you do when your home suddenly becomes your office? Here are some tips:
- Clarify what remote work you will do to your family and your expectations. Whereas offices become the perfect environment for you to be able to accomplish your work, being at home surrounded by your loved ones will not make it necessarily easier for you to accomplish your work tasks. After all, some members of the household might expect that your work is easy and that you have the time to do more chores now that you're at home. If you're working with a set schedule or at an hourly rate, it's important to clarify with the household just what remote work and tails and what kind of work you're going to do. That way, they will be aware of exactly why you are not supposed to be disturbed and not whenever they can approach you for other things.
- Build your ideal workstation as though you have a cubicle. Unlike offices where you have your own designated cubicle, a home office doesn't always give you the luxury of having a room for yourself. Once you start working from home, the best first step is to assign a space at home as your workstation and build it as though you have your own cubicle. This means you need to set up your workspace with necessary items such as your computer, relevant gadgets such as a second monitor, a calendar, or even a notebook for note taking. That way, this workstation serves as the definitive space for everything related to work.
- Create a conducive work environment within your workspace. Not all parts of the home are built for remote working. The living room, for instance, can get noisy with the television. Likewise, the dining room might always need room for food and snacks. Regardless of the space you're using for your work, it's important that this space produces a conducive work environment for you. This means that the space you assign for work is able to help you get motivated and focused on your tasks at hand. This means setting up the ambiance by getting headphones and good music, accessibility to windows and light, and even a means to avoid temptations to be lazy such as the TV and gaming consoles.
- Portable remote work means bringing work with you. If you're more of a laptop kind of person, then chances are you're excited at the prospect of being able to bring your laptop and therefore your home with you wherever you are at home. Unfortunately, certain parts of the house can be noisy and distracting. To ensure that you're still motivated to do work, you can make sure that you have a "work environment toolbox" or a container that has all the essentials you need for a portable workspace. This can include a means to bring and pack extra monitors, extension cords, and other gadgets your portable office setup may need.
- Doing this allows you to set up anywhere at home and pack up when you need to - giving room for people who need the room where you're in for things such as cooking food (if you're in the dining) or even entertainment (if you're in the living room).
- Sort your schedule involving the household. Chances are, working from home will force you to make adjustments to how things work with respect to your time for the household. After all, just because you're at home doesn't necessarily mean that people can disturb you when you're working or doing something else. That way, it's important to clarify your schedule now so people know that you're not to be disturbed when you're working and that you can allot tasks such as washing the dishes or even cleaning their parts of the house whenever you're free. This contributes to adding an element of balance when it comes to attending meetings but at the same time having the means to do your chores and other important things at home.
- Ensure you have the means to facilitate digital meetings. Once you're at home, chances are you would still have meetings with your workmates, albeit this time via video conferences or online calls. Unfortunately, a noisy household won't really make it easy for you to listen, pay attention, and even contribute to these meetings. In that regard, it may help to buy a high quality camera or decent headphones in order to make sure you have the means to clearly hear your workmates and contribute whenever you need to. It may help to remind the family that they need to get quiet while you're at a meeting so you can understand the scope of the other task you have to work on.
Create Your Home Office: Make Remote Work Work For You!
With the above tips in mind, always remember that it’s completely possible to transform any part of your house into a home office. You need to pay close attention to the tasks you need to accomplish and the tools you need to work on them. That way, you can arrange parts of your home office to accommodate your laptop and gadgets, as well as other tools you need for work.
And if you’re looking for a reliable work-from-home opportunity, you may want to try Remotasks! We offer a wide variety of projects and tasks for our Remotaskers, complete with free training! Registration is completely free of charge, and we have more than 10,000 members worldwide ready to welcome you to our community!
