4 Tips To Make Working From Home Effective
To thousands of South Africans, Working From Home under Coronavirus Lockdown might sound very cool, but its much harder than it looks.
You can of course settle in your home office, play your favourite music while working and enjoy a cup of coffee at any time. Let's face it, there are plenty of other things we need to consider during the work from home period. To help you stay on track we've put together the following 4 tips that you will need while working from home.
Take Enough Breaks
Make sure to leave the house at least once a day to get fresh air and to stretch your legs. This is for your own health and sanity. Take tea and lunch breaks, but make sure you take it away from you computer. You can rest your eyes during these breaks and try limiting screen usage. This will keep you refreshed and healthy.
Keep To Your Schedule
Under normal circumstances you have to wake up early in the morning for work, get dressed, grab something to eat for breakfast and drive to the office. However, its a whole different ball game when working from home. You might not be as disciplined and might not keep a tight schedule. To avoid getting into bad habits we recommend setting a regular work schedule and sticking to it.
Organised And Dedicated Workspace
If possible, physically separate work from the rest of your home life. It is very important to set up a well organised and dedicated work space whether its a home office, a corner desk in your bedroom or kitchen table. A dedicated workspace tells your subconscious that its time to work, whereas a bed or a couch will tell your subconscious the complete opposite. Our needs differ, so there is no perfect working place set-up, but its worth taking the time to create a space that sets you up for success.
Use The Right Tools
With the right tools you can get the job done easily and it facilitates productivity. For instance, some people like to work at a standing desk while others need a comfortable office chair that keeps a good posture.
We recommend that you invest in a decent wireless connection, a reliable computer (ideally a laptop) and a pair of decent earphones to eliminate or block out disturbance.
The Ideal Work From Home Laptop
You need a fast enough Laptop to handle your daily workload, with a fast processor and plenty of RAM for multitasking. You must be able to create and edit documents, do video calls like webinars, surf the web ect.
Lenovo Thinkpad T510 Intel Core i5
The Lenovo ThinkPad T510 Core i5 Laptop is a serious business laptop. Thin and Light 15.6" Laptop for doers on the go. It features a powerful Intel Core i5 2.5GHz CPU, 4GB DDR3 RAM, 250GB HDD for Storage, 2 x USB 3.0 Ports and a 15.6" HD Display and more! This notebook is a great buy for anyone that needs real computing power on the go and for WFH tasks! It includes all the necessary peripherals and Windows 10 Pre-Loaded.
Dell Latitude E4310 Core i5
Finally, the Dell Latitude E4310 Core i5 offers a premium laptop experience that boasts with an Intel Core i5 2.7GHz processor, 4GB DDR3 RAM | 240GB HDD | 114" | Win 10 Pro. This is a well built, good looking and very comfortable to use notebook, and it's also very fast. It's the best laptop for WFH.
In so many industries, the Work From Home phenomenon is quickly becoming normal, with companies allowing employees to "clock in" virtually and attend meetings via video conference. If you're one of the lucky people who can work remotely, you should take the time to set up your home office and get into the right mindset. It'll pay off in the end. And we're always here to help along the way.
