Nowadays, many businesses are switching to a remote working environment. Employees are no longer required to come into the office as often. Many people are also discovering the joys of working as self-employed entrepreneurs, running entire drop shipping operations from their own bedroom.
Indeed, the business world is rapidly changing. But this shift in industry practices has brought about its share of difficulties for many remote workers.
Without further ado, here are our top 5 tips for working from home.
Invest in a good laptop
If you are working from a laptop all day, you want to ensure it is the best laptop possible. Ideally, your laptop should have lots of memory and plenty of processing power. Luckily, we have put together this list of laptops to help you find the right one for you. We recommend one that offers lots of battery life and a good built-in speaker and webcam for Skyping. However, if you are required to participate in many virtual face-to-face meetings online, you may want to invest in some quality hardware — more on that in a moment.
Don’t be afraid to purchase a video conference camera
If you work in the corporate world, you will be required to take many video conference calls, even from home. For these meetings, you do not want to rely on the run-of-the-mill computer webcam. Instead, you’ll need a conference camera that you can rely on. Many modern conference cameras offer unparalleled video and audio quality. Some even come with special features, such as facial recognition and 360-degree vision. As such, let us direct you towards our best video conference camera buyer's guide.
In short, if you will be spending a lot of time on Zoom, you’ll need a camera that can handle the workload.
So get dressed in the morning
This sounds like a silly tip for people working from home, but take it from somebody who has been working as a writer for the past five years; if you get dressed in the morning, you will be a lot more productive. We don’t mean changing into your suit and tie, just put on some clean daywear and don’t spend all morning in your pajamas. Getting showered and dressed will put you in the right frame of mind for work. Of course, this tip is easier said than done on some days, but you’ll be surprised how effective you work when you’re not wearing your pajamas at noon!
Have a designated workspace
If you find yourself working from home, do yourself a favor and set up a workspace dedicated to all your professional tasks. You do not want to spend the entire day sitting on the couch, hunched over your laptop - that is a sure-fire way to develop back and neck problems. Instead, invest in a desk and computer chair, then set up a corner in your home where you go to work. If you’re like me, you’ll find great joy in keeping your working nook as organized as possible. Maybe a standing desk is a good option for you, too.
Stay off social media
I don’t know about you, but I tend to fall down a social media rabbit hole whenever I take a break from work. So if you are working from home, do your best to avoid Facebook and Twitter until the working day is over. We all know how easy it is to get suckered into mindlessly scrolling through people’s status updates and photos of their lunch. So do yourself a favor, keep your phone on the other side of the room and work offline whenever possible. These steps will help remove the temptation and ensure you stay on task. Plus, if you have added your boss as a friend on social media, they’ll know if you’ve been slacking off!
These are just a few tips to be more productive when working at home, but there are countless others we could have mentioned. Most importantly, you need to develop a routine that works for you and your goals. Figure that out, and you’ll never have to work in an office again.
