10 practical tips, while working from home, which seem obvious but always slip our mind!

As we move into nearly a quarter of living with #COVID-19, working from home has become the norm rather than the exception. There are many articles advising how to work best from home and extract the “best value” from it. They are useful however I found that I was forgetting the obvious and landed up in some sticky situations due to that. Therefore, this article. All views are my personal views. 

1.      Home Office is NOT the office

Firstly, remember that the word “home office” is misleading. Working from home is nothing like working at the office. The level of focus that you can have in the office is simply not possible at home. You can never completely isolate yourself. So keep that in mind and do give some extra allowance for certain loss of focus, disturbance and distraction from family members and some extra effort required for those activities – like a phone call to a colleague or a client - which were far easier in the office. Don’t get demotivated with these challenges and being aware of these challenges will keep you real and motivated.

2.      One email to register them all

Another thing to keep in mind that you are being inundated with a lot of cool webinars, with amazing subjects. You would never have been able to access some of the experts, who are presenting, in normal circumstances. It is like a wine connoisseur being left alone for a few days in a vintage wine cellar – too many choices and a possibility that you will end up dead drunk! Choose wisely and select the webinars which enhance your knowledge, rather than those which are “nice to attend”. Once you have made the choices, please try and ensure that you register for ALL the webinars using the same email address and link it to the same calendar enable you to have a complete picture of your schedule at one place. In the office, it is quite possible that a colleague attending the same meeting as you, reminds you of the meeting and that is a saviour. No such luck at your home office. Also remember to keep a reasonable “break periods” between meetings as in “normal circumstances”, you will take time off between meetings. 

3.      We are all in the same boat. Empathy is crucial.

This is a fundamental human quality we must imbibe. As you are facing complications working from home, the others you are interacting with are also potentially facing similar, if not worse, challenges. If you had planned a meeting in the office, you will most likely have a very focused meeting with all participants giving the meeting their undivided attention. In a video conference, there will be a need to make “changes on the spot” due to dynamic circumstances concerning one or more of the participants. Empathising with the other participants is crucial and must be consciously undertaken. Building bridges and relationships take time, but a foolish error can burn down both in an instant. The risk of that happening is now more than ever.

4.      Presenters beware! Content is King.

Picture a normal meeting in your office. You welcome your guest at your swanky reception and lead him into the office. He takes in the amazing view of the Singapore skyline and you have some initial chit chat about how things are changing around Singapore and discuss world affairs and Trump! Then you serve a cappuccino which your guest requested. Then begins the meeting and you make a speech, full of passion and impact, on the subject matter and seal the deal. Today, you cannot depend on any of these supporting mechanisms – office ambience, Singapore skyline and cappuccinos! All you have to back you is the content of your speech or webinar or meeting. Never has so much limelight been shone on the content. If you do not have powerful and appealing content, the audience will simply “switch off” and you will not even possible be aware!! Thus, focus very closely on the content and its richness.

5.      Accept it - Participants’ focus level is not 100 percent

I have briefly touched on this point earlier. Working from home will mean distractions from family members or a broken pipe or whatever. In addition to that, you will most likely only see what your other participants decide to show you. To put it simply, he will be right in front of you on the screen but may be texting his friends at the same time and possibly performing some other tasks on the laptop. You must assume that the focus of the other participants is likely to be less than 100 percent in the meeting. Thus, please do use methods to reaffirm your points and get a confirmation from all the participants that they have understood the conclusions and tasks to be performed from the meeting. The required standard is much higher than a physical face to face meeting.

6.      Family, you are born into! Friends, you consciously choose! Technology is your friend - choose wisely!

If, even after last 3 months, you have not woken up to the importance of technology, you are possibly living in Mars. This is the time to invest in the right technology for both the companies and individuals. The hardware – being the wi-fi infrastructure and the PC/Laptop/Phone/Tablet – is crucial but even more crucial is the software. Do not go wild investing in a “state of the art” or “customised” software. Try and invest in off the shelf good products which are as close to your office software and compatible with it. You don’t need to break the bank on this one. You also don’t need to spend needless time “learning” new software to do the day to day job. The key is collaboration and the ease with which you can share files, data, insights and store them and communicate them. The work you are doing today is as crucial as any other you have done in past, make sure the fact that you are generating it at “home office” does not risk losing it.

7.      Alone you are not! Use the “Force” of the global expertise around you

This is the silver lining in the cloud. In preparing for your previous meetings to talk to a client about the markets, you used to push your research analyst weeks before to create a presentation and go through with him or her on that. In that meeting, you were “alone” fending some tough and complicated questions from clients. Use the changed scenarios to your benefit. In a video conference today, bring in your experts from around the world – internal and external. It is easy, efficient and “normal” too. This is a huge advantage.

8.      Is Public Speaking the No. 1 Fear in the world? Now, there is a solution!

I have seen this a lot in Asia as well. There is a reluctance in a public forum to ask questions. It is either due to your shy nature or a feeling that your question may not be a “good one”. This means a missed opportunity to enhance and complete your knowledge. The webinars are a god send for you. You can post/chat your questions (in most cases anonymously) and still enhance your knowledge. So, fire away those questions, without any fear or complexes.

9.      Do you mind? Use the recordings instead!

Carrying on from the tip above, your questions are only one of the sources of knowledge. These webinars have participants from around the globe who ask insightful questions and that interaction is invaluable. Furthermore, in past meetings, all that remained from a meeting was “your notes” and “your memory” and you relied on those to act on the points made. Today, a recording of the webinar or the VC meeting, is available to be vaulted and referred to. This is a huge value addition, which must be extracted to the maximum. It can also be a fantastic tool to train the current and future staff.

10.  What is commonly followed becomes the new “normal”

Finally, when you mentally accept that all that is happening around you is not a temporary phenomenon but a fundamental change in the way we perceive “normal” – in terms of work practices, technology, travel and a host of other things – this can bring about an acceptance of the new normal and calm you down to perform more efficiently and take things in the stride.

Good luck and stay safe.