In this post I thought I would cover my personal working from home again thoughts and tips. Because my experience of working from home again is very different this time around.
To set some realistic expectations here, my tips later in this post are mostly for those who work within a team. Especially teams who are not used to working from home full time.
For those of you who do not know, up until a couple of years ago I worked from home. After doing it for a couple of years I decided to give that up. So that I could work for a Dutch company here in the Netherlands.
However, like a lot of you at the moment I am having to work from home due to the current situation.
For me the experience of doing it a second time around is very different.
Last time I only had to think about myself. Now I am taking others who have never worked from home full time before into consideration.
Working from home tips
For example, due to the fact that I have worked from home before I have shared tips with other team members for a client. For example, the tips below.
- Use video during meetings as often as possible.
- Get into routine for hours and take regular breaks.
- Try and do something different outside of work hours.
- Work in a different place than where you relax at home if possible.
- Test your different conferencing platforms to see which works best for you.
- Talk to your colleagues verbally more than usual online during the working day.
I do have a bonus piece of advice for those of you who live in the Netherlands as well. Amazon in the Netherlands now sells a lot more than just books.
For example, they also sell monitors at a competitive price. Which you can see for yourself here.
Other things whilst working at home
As well as the above advice I have done other things as well.
For example, I have started wearing a different SQL Server conference top every day. Because I want to make sure my colleagues notice and are engaged in the meetings that we are in.
In fact, if you are reading this post on the day it is published I will be wearing an old SQL Saturday Exeter top as below.
Luckily, I am able to use a fairly good webcam as well which shows these tops in high quality. I can vouch for the fact that the red T-shirt I was given at SQL Saturday Cork looks really good with a Logitech webcam.
Another thing I have done is distance where I work from my coffee machine. Because it forces me to take a break away from my laptop when I want a drink.
Stay in touch whilst at home
I hope everybody in a country that’s affected at the moment takes care of themselves. In addition, remember to stay in touch with others in your life as well.
Like I talked about in a previous post here everybody has different levels of stress. While you may be calm you have no idea what is going on inside other people’s heads.
With this in mind, talking to them might help them more than you realise.
Final word
I hope my post about my personal working from home again thoughts and tips will help some of you. I know that others have also shared their own ideas and advice recently.
However, I wanted to share my tips with others who work in teams. Because it’s important to look after others as well as ourselves during these times.
If you have any other tips about working from home feel free to add below.
Be First to Comment