How to work from home efficiently and effectively during COVID-19

Some of you may already be used to working from home either because your are a consultant, freelancer, a small business owner or similar, or you are lucky to work for an organisation that has 'home working' as part of their flexible working policy.

For those of you that have not worked from home before, or have not done so for a while and now will be working from home due to COVID-19, not only do you need to adapt to working from home, find a style that works for you, but you may also need to juggle the added responsibility of overseeing and managing your child(ren) learning from home, isolated in the vicinity of your home, in not so great circumstances.

Don’t worry, it is not all doom and gloom, we humans are an adaptable specie, this state is temporary and it will be over soon and we can and will get through this together.

In the meantime, here are my top 20 tips on how to work from home, effectively and efficiently during COVID-19:

1. Routine - Try to maintain a similar routine to when you used to go to work. Try to start your day at a similar time and finish at a similar time every day, so you have consistency and develop a pattern. This will also help ensure you have a decent work life balance.
2. Health and Fitness - Schedule time for exercise, even if it’s just 30 minutes per day. If you are missing your gym, several gyms are renting out smaller exercise equipment for hire. If you are lucky to have your own private garden, have a walk in the garden. If you don't, perhaps move around some furniture and do some exercise indoors. Try and get out in the balcony/terrace or a roof if you have one and try to get some fresh air every day.
3. Work space - You don’t need to spend lots of money on setting up a home office. Move some furniture around perhaps. Arrange your work space ideally in a quite place, free from too many distractions. I appreciate that not everyone will be able to do this. The kitchen dining table is also as good as any. The weather in the UAE has been good some days (although a little last few days too). On the good days, why not set a table and chair outdoors in your garden, in your loggia/terrace, balcony or roof and work from there? Organise yourself, so you have your laptop, phone, internet all connected, your video camera and your microphone all tested and working, so you don’t get stressed about something not working when you have your online meetings. If you will be having video calls, what will your background look like to your callers? Can you move perhaps have your desk or work where you have a wall behind you rather than children or a messy kitchen behind you? Organise your desk/work space, the same as you would have done at the office and now that you are home, personalise it a little more with, your personal possessions, or daily motivators, print out and stick your favourite motivational quotes on your wall/around your desk, or on your laptop screensaver etc, whatever motivates you, so that working from home does not feel so alien and it feels good to work in your self made, working from home space.
4. Ergonomics - Although this situation is temporary, arrange your work space so it's conducive for you and is correctly set up with regards to ergonomics. For example, to ensure minimum stress on your back, neck and wrists, ensure your laptop/monitor reading level is at eye level, your desk and chair are at the right height for you. Try and follow the Occupational Health and Safety guidelines to make sure if you have existing conditions like me, you are not placing yourself at unnecessary further risk.
5. Company policies and insurances - Check our your company policy on using courier, mobile phone for approved work activities, (if you don't already receive a company paid mobile phone/mobile phone allowance) and ensure you claim your expenses on time as per your company policy. Do you have a company laptop to use, if you don't, can your company issue/lend you one, so you can work from home with efficiently. If you are a business owner, does your insurance cover you and your employees to work from home? Does your and/your employee personal accident insurance, if you have this in place, cover them from working at home? Does your business have portable equipment insurance such as computers, laptops and printers?
6. Meals and Breaks - Make sure you have a good healthy breakfast to kick start each day. Schedule regular breaks during the course of the day, including at least a 45 minute healthy lunch break. Even better, if you can plan and prepare your whole days meals in the morning and place them in the fridge (bearing in mind, not everyone has a cook). This way you don't waste time during the day thinking what to prepare and procrastinate and end up grabbing just an energy bar. Stock your fridge with cut, ready to eat fruits, vegetables, juices, healthy snacks and meals for you and your family. Ensure you drink plenty of liquids throughout the day to keep you hydrated. If like me, working from home, you lose track of time, put multiple alarms on for yourself to remind you.
7. Plan and schedule your work -  Schedule you online meetings/telephone calls in your calendar and send calendar invites, the same way you would have normally arranged and scheduled a physical in person meeting. This way both parties know when it’s happening, how it’s happening, ie what platform the video call will be on etc. and neither party will forget. If you are used to keeping to-do lists and prioritise and they work for you, continue with that. If you are likely to get demotivated or go off course at home, perhaps even set up a timetable for the day for yourself, similar to how school children have a subject timetable for each day. This way you have variety and it keeps you focused. Experiment with various strategies and choose what works for you.
8. Technology – If you are a business owner, I am sure you already have or are planning to move your business as much as possible online to ensure some continuity. It’s a blessing to have so much technology at our finger tips. Utilise this technology. Develop and implement your trainings, workshops, business offerings, online where possible. The silver lining is that, as you fully or partially move online, although it will take time for some of your clients to move mentally from physical to online, however, once the initial resistance to change is overcome, you will have a business that can cater to customers globally, not just in the UAE.
9. Plan and schedule your home life - Plan and arrange your daily/weekly errands such as picking up dry cleaning or food shopping which you normally may have done at weekends or on the way home from home during the week, online. Most supermarkets, dry cleaners etc. will deliver to your home. Schedule these for the week and this will keep you stress free and productive. Don't forget as more and more people will start ordering online, it makes sense to plan and order your food shopping at least a week in advance, currently several large supermarket chains delivery waiting time is at least 3/4 days, the key is to plan ahead.
10. Social distancing - This means you distancing yourself physically from people. Please don’t distance yourself mentally and socially from people. We are a relational species. Take time out to call at least one family member/friend every day to check in on them, catch up with them, remind them you care about them, this will be appreciated by them, you will maintain the emotional connection and it will help you feel better too.
11. Flexibility - Although its good to have a certain amount of consistency and rhythm with working from home, some of you will be supporting your children learning from home too, that means, there will be days where 9-5 or thereabouts working will not always work. So be open to flexibility, don't be too hard on yourself, perhaps you start earlier and finish earlier, perhaps start your day later and finish later. Do what works in the end for you and your family and of course ensure you communicate and get the green signal from your employer too out of courtesy if nothing else. For sure, some days will be tougher than others, but it does get easier with time and definitely so, if you follow all these tips!
12. Human connection - If you are working from home, some of you will miss the office environment, the banter and your colleagues and of course there are some of you who may not! Most of you will most definitely miss the adult conversation though, especially if you are not an introvert. If you were used to having coffee breaks with colleagues, lunch meet ups with clients, drinks with friends after work, continue, but virtually instead!
13. Your team - If you are a leader (for me, anyone who has people or a function reporting to them is a leader), don't forget your team and your colleagues. They will also be going through similar challenges, similar highs and lows and that is ok, it is normal. Be there for them, arrange a weekly conference call with them and check in on them, support them and be patient with them. Assume positive intent, it will make life a lot easier for everyone. It has got a whole lot easier, thanks to the TRA announcing the opening of Skype and Google Hangout earlier this week in the UAE!
14. Dress up or down – I enjoy being casually dressed whilst working from home, I feel more relaxed, however that does not work for everyone. Some people feel the need to dress up as if they are going to work, so they feel mentally, motivated to work. There is no right or wrong answer. Dress up or down, or whatever feels good and right for you. There are days I dress up for a board meeting conference call, there are days when I am in lounge wear with my hair slapped back in a pony tail and no makeup! There are also days when I feel a little tired and 'down' with managing a small business during challenging times, working from home, whilst supervising home learning for two highly energetic boys, I simply throw on a bright colour to my outfit and straight away I perk up, try it, it may work for you too!
15. Time for reflection - Working from home means your most likely to save commuting time. This means, its highly probable that you have free time, which you would not have had otherwise. Why not use this time to reflect. Use this time to take a step back and review your life goals, your 2020 goals, your career aspirations, your business goals and make a plan. Reflect on what you need to focus more on, less on and what to continue working on, in the immediate, short term and long term. This will help your refocus, re-organise and feel re-energised. Try making a vision board and use that as a motivator tool. Now, imagine what it would look like once you have met all your life goals... now that should motivate you enough! 
16. Invest in yourself - You may find now that you have less work (due to no fault of your own), you are not commuting, you are following all of the tips I am sharing, you are therefore super organised and as a result you find, that you have some spare time on your hands. Instead of scrolling through social media or binge watching on Netflix, (by the way, its ok, you can do that too on some days!) perhaps use that time to invest in yourself? Now is a great time to learn a new skill, perhaps a technical skill, or a soft skill that you have been longing to do for a while. Perhaps find yourself a mentor or a coach to help you? There is an abundance of trainings and short courses available online for free currently from some very generous forward thinking organisations such as LinkedIn, Harvard Business School etc. Perhaps read all those books you have been meaning to read this year. Even Amazon have opened up their library of books for free, for children whilst they are off school!
17. Mental well being – This is indeed an uncertain and sometimes stressful time for everyone, you may find the pace of everything has slowed down too. This can be great for some people, however this can be quite scary for others. Be assured that there are lots of people who are really supportive out there, from HR professionals, coaches and counselors, offering free online support, free webinars and free workshops. Take advantage of these. If you are feeling any negative emotions such as fear, uncertainty, feeling low, its ok, its normal, reach out and have a chat to someone. You will not be judged, as we are all going through the same emotions and same challenges. You can reach out to many on LinkedIn and Facebook. You can meditate, exercise and/or yoga at home, there are lots of amazing selfless fitness and yoga instructors publishing their recorded and/or live fitness/yoga classes and routines online too for free!
18. Quality 'Me' time - With working, managing kids, managing the home, whilst trying to remain calm and sane, don't forget to look after yourself. Change is always difficult at the beginning. Uncertainty and juggling home and work simultaneously is no easy feat. Although you may not be able to pop out to your favourite spa for a treat, you can still treat yourself to a nice long hot bubble bath, or a well deserved afternoon siesta, or a lounge in the afternoon sun in the garden. Don't forget you are also entitled to annual leave and sick leave the same as you would if you were going to office. If there are days where you feel unwell, or need to book a few days off for leave for rest and recuperation such as a long weekend, then please do not, not take sick leave and annual leave and continue working. You will only make yourself feel worse if you are ill and burn out if you are scheduled or its been a while since you last took some time off. Although it may not sound like a good idea, but remember if god forbid you do catch COVID-19, you will need a strong and healthy immune system to fight it. In these cases, you need to ofcourse if you are an employee, inform and request approval form your HR/employer as per company policy. If of course you feel unwell and have COVID-19 like symptoms, you need to inform your employer AND follow the UAE government guidelines immediately.
19. Reward and Recognition - As you are most likely saving on commuting costs, dining out, movies, kids entertainment etc too. Perhaps put this money in a 'treat jar' and reward yourself with a weekly treat for yourself and your family such as, ordering in dinner. Perhaps save up instead, so that when normality does return and it will, you can treat yourself and/or your family later with a bigger/better reward. This will be something you can all look forward to too!
20. Gratitude - In the end, its your mindset that will determine how easy or difficult this working from home experience will be. During World War I and II, there was no technology, no T.V and no Netflix.. The men had to go to war. The men who could not go to war due to age or health, along with the women, ran the factories and unfortunately regularly having to run to the cold, dark underground bunkers when the sirens went off of an imminent attack by the enemy. Let’s be grateful for the people in our lives, the tools and resources we have at our disposal, to be able to sit at home, in peace, with family and of course the amazing, unwavering, strategic, pro-active support from the UAE government. I am blessed and grateful to be in the UAE during this pandemic, how about you?

Together we will overcome this pandemic. Stay well, stay safe and stay home. Happy home working!

Any further questions or if you would just like to have a chat, feel free to reach out to me on [email protected].