Even before COVID-19 crisis, “working remotely became a standard component of many people’s work week all over the world”.
A recent Gallup poll stated that ,”43% of employed Americans log at least some out-of-office, on-the-clock time. A full 31% of those who work remotely at least some of the time spend four or five days a week out of the office.”
My host organization, BoodleAI, is a people-focused predictive analytics engine that marries first party customer / prospect data to high fidelity third party data covering 550 fields of demographic, behavioral, and affinity attributes for 220 million American adults. It uses this combined data to build predictive models (“Guidons”) for targeting, scoring, and segmenting customer populations for desired behavioral responses.
Boodle has been a remote team since day 1. For a company like my host, the change from an in-office to a remote job wasn’t as unanticipated as other companies might be facing now. Naturally, they had more time to prepare, learn about its challenges and instore a solid remote work culture.
Working remotely can be more difficult to handle than it may seem and with the current world situation, working remotely is no longer the future of work. It’s a present situation many of us are facing right now wherever they are.
There’s no single best way to work remotely. I will talk about my own experience at Boodle on my own manner of work and on my company’s policies.
- Get ready as if you’re going to the office.
With a remote workplace, you obviously can sleep in, get straight out of bed and begin work. Saves you two hours at least. You can spend all day, well… in your pajamas and in your bed too. Well, none of this is helpful. It diminishes both productivity and energy.
Try to Wake up an hour before the start of your workday, get yourself a coffee, watch the news, or whatever you need to get yourself started. Activities such as listening to music, or going for a walk in the park are recommended to stimulate your brain’s activity and give you the right push to start your work day.
- Set up an office at home. A desk and a Chair would do. You’ll be more productive working from a desk than a couch or your bed.
- Do what you want during lunch break. Cook something, take a shower, read a book, call your family and friends, go for a walk or even nap. Most importantly, DO take a lunch break. DO NOT get caught up with work.
- Take breaks. It’s important to step away from your keyboard as many times as you need. We do take little breaks when we’re at the office. One should do the same when working from home.
- Communicate with your coworkers. You might be more productive when you’re on your own and need extreme silence to work but it is important to communicate your work to others. Also, reach out to your coworkers if you feel like you need human interaction. Scheduling 1-1 or weekly quick together might help.
