With the COVID-19 pandemic drastically altering the daily routines most of us are used to, more and more offices are encouraging employees to work remotely. While those who have spent years in office environments may at first feel liberated as they contemplate a fully remote lifestyle, it’s likely they’ll later experience firsthand the challenges of home-based employment. As 17-year veterans of remote working, our team at The Harbinger Group has put together a list of seven of our top work-from-home tips to help smooth the transition to working remotely in the age of coronavirus. We hope these tips help you stay safe, sane and productive.

1. Set up a designated workspace – or two

If you’re lucky enough to have a home office set up, this tip is not for you. For everyone else, find a space in the home with room to spread out the things you need to work and maintain some level of privacy if you don’t live alone. Good options include a dining room table, kitchen table or even a couch. If possible, avoid working from your bed. What may seem cozy in the morning may feel like a public health crisis by 3 p.m.

Spend some time decluttering your workspace. Put away unnecessary items and make room for anything you need to be productive. It is equally important to find a designated work storage space that is protected from any roommates, family members, or animals. 

2. Rely on simple rituals

Commuting is the worst, but it does serve a purpose: a designated transition time each day to signify when your workday starts and ends. You may find it helpful to create a simple morning ritual to get into the right mindset to tackle your day. 

Research has shown that getting dressed each morning impacts your attitude and your performance. We’re not suggesting you sit around in a suit, but putting on nicer clothes than you would on a lazy weekend morning and brushing your hair won’t hurt. Another idea is to listen to 15-minutes of a news podcast while you’re drinking your morning coffee.

Make sure to take a break each day and do something that refreshes you. Several ideas: eat lunch away from your workspace, take a 15-minute walk, pick a small cleaning project, water your plants, or complete a nagging chore around the house. This will help you feel like each day is different – and who doesn’t enjoy a clean oven?

When it’s time to clock out, clean up your workspace in preparation for the next day and “leave the office.” It can be tempting to continue working on projects because they’re there, but setting boundaries is important. Speaking of boundaries…

3. Set boundaries with roommates or family

If your kiddos or roommates are also home from school/work during this time, the best way to avoid conflict is to come to a mutual agreement about what your schedule is and expectations for noise-level and mess. 

4. Hold yourself – and your team – accountable

Start by defining and communicating your schedule as a team. Collectively decide when work starts and ends as well as the protocol for stepping away from your computer. At the beginning of each day, write a list of the tasks or projects you plan to work on during the day, including the approximate amount of time you plan to spend on each task.

At The Harbinger Group, each person on our team shares their daily to-do list on a designated Slack channel before 9:00 AM. And at the end of the day, we share what we accomplished. This gives a clearer idea of what each person is working on and their capacity for collaboration (P.S. It’s also great for entering your time).

It is important to not only hold each other accountable, but also to recognize each person’s accomplishments. When you’re not physically surrounded by a team, sometimes project completion and successes aren’t as concrete or obvious to all. Take a moment to reflect and celebrate with your virtual team!

5. Make use of technology (and have back-up plans!)

Thankfully, there are a plethora of tools built specifically for remote work. Find solutions that help you communicate, coordinate and collaborate.

If you don’t have a remote meeting platform yet, you will need one. We use multiple tools for team and client meetings including Uberconference and Google Meet. We find that screen sharing and video conferencing allow much better communication all-around and highly recommend adding the capability to your workflow right away. 

Our team also uses Slack for real-time communication and to minimize isolation. We created separate channels for each client project, internal initiative and general team housekeeping. This way we can easily keep up-to-date on projects without creating a giant text string that can’t be bookmarked for reference. And we chat about silly stuff here too, to keep work fun.

For project coordination, we use Asana, a project management tool that helps us organize large projects and break them down into specific tasks. Every project and task starts within Asana. The templates on Asana are especially useful, so be sure to check them out and make use of the jump-start they provide. Asana integrates with nearly everything, as does Slack. Definitely use these integrations!!

And, we have found Google Suite to be the best hub for organizing and collaborating. We use Google Drive for a cloud-based intranet. With Google Docs, we brainstorm, edit and develop materials simultaneously, as well as secure client input and approvals. 

6. Take time to connect

Connecting with your teammates, knowing their personalities, along with strengths and weaknesses, helps to make the work process flow smoother and increases team productivity.

With colleagues, make it a habit to have an informal, personal conversation before launching into work-related discussions. It could be as simple as a five-minute “what’s new with you?” before a conference call. 

Working from home can be lonely at times, but a well-timed video chat with friends, family or team members can help you feel more normal. If anything, it can be a great incentive to get a little more dressed up after four days at home.

One younger team member relies heavily on communicating through gifs. While we may not always get the joke, it helps us connect on a more emotional level.

7. Actually leave your house and/or desk (while practicing social distancing)!

Admittedly, this one is more challenging today than it was a month ago, but the point stands. When where you live is also where you work, it’s important to seize opportunities to get out of the house and connect with others, even if it’s only for a 15-minute walk. The mental break from being “on-duty” pays dividends. 

Lastly – and most importantly –  find what works best for you!