Working from home sounds like the best of environments. However, it creates its own challenges that most people are unprepared for and a level of discipline that can cause fatigue or ineffective use of time.
Prep family with expectations:
- Your family and you need to act like you’re still “away” at the office. It’s easy to bug you for little things and it’s a natural reaction to respond to things as if you’re at home. If your significant other is tending to children, agree that all things are handled by them while you’re working.
- Be mindful of peripheral noise (e.g. TV, stereo, animals)
- Place a note on door to alert of video/phone conf. (DO NOT DISTURB)
Keep a Schedule
- Start at same time / Clock off and don’t “live to work”. It’s easy to either be late in getting work started and very easy to jump into the virtual office for that “one more email” that consumes extra hours. Structure your day so there’s not too much bleed-over into your personal life.
- Watch your focus. Without daily office distractions, it’s easy to spend an exorbitant amount of time on one task. Setup a timer to ensure you’re working on tasks within a realistic time frame.
- Take occasional walks. Setup a timer so you take a 10 minute walk around the block every couple of hours.
Keep a Dress Code
- You never know when you’ll jump onto a video chat.
- Dressing for work keeps you in a work mindset.
Setup Your Environment
If you don’t have a dedicated office at home, try to find a place that allows some level of privacy and quiet. It doesn’t need to be elaborate but be mindful of your surroundings when you do a video call. Cute pets or kids jumping on your lap during a video call can be adorable, but also serves as a distraction to the meeting. Try to maintain a background view of professionalism. Even a blank wall behind you is better than an open closet of clothes.
Kodiak’s Work Moves Forward
Amidst the recent Covid-19 (coronavirus) outbreak which the world faces, we want everyone to know that our team still presses forward. We have made necessary changes in lieu of federal, state and local government guidelines such as our teams working from home which will not slow our pace.
Our Nevada and California office doors will be locked until further notice starting 03/18/20, though Kodiak is still open for business. Communication can be made by phone, email, our website, and any of Kodiak’s social media pages. We will do everything we can to assist you and hope all are staying safe.
