4 Tips on How Tempo Can Help with Working from Home

Remote teams illustration

Working from home having a remote meeting

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected millions of businesses across the world. For workers who have been asked to work from home, the change of pace can be difficult. The following blog will provide you with 4 tips on working from home in the current environment.

Keep your daily routine

We rely on our day-to-day routines in order to be successful and productive at work. Disruption and sudden change can impact our ability to focus and leave us feeling lost, angry and overwhelmed. If you’ve been asked to work from home, it’s important that you keep your daily routine. Tempo reports can help you look back at your old schedule in order to plan your new work-from-home routine and ensure you’re keeping consistent with your tasks and schedule. 

Your habits at home are also important. For example, if you usually wake up 2 hours before work to jog, run, or make breakfast, don’t stop just because you can login to work from your bedroom or your kitchen. If you feel that you’re more focused when you dress up in formal business attire, keep doing so! Remaining consistent will help your brain adjust to this new reality and it will prevent you from becoming complacent in your new workplace.

Prevent overworking

Working from home does not mean that employees should be expected to work when they are no longer on the clock. This is a common issue that we see from employees working remotely - they begin to feel guilty that they didn’t finish as much work as they normally would have at the office. The planning tool in Tempo Timesheets can help you to set limits on your workload at the beginning of each day and keep to a reasonable, set plan for your work.   

Without a commute, it may be difficult to decipher when the work day begins and when the work day ends. Set in stone your daily timeline - ensure that you begin work at a certain time everyday and that you finish work at the same time everyday. 

Take regular breaks

Working from home can be challenging because it’s hard to know when it’s time for a break. Office settings are more conducive for break periods - employees can head into the lunch room and engage in conversations with their coworkers or they can head to the nearest coffee shop to pick up a hot beverage and a donut. While working at home, it is essential that you take breaks throughout the day to ensure you’re not burning yourself out. It can be helpful to schedule sporadic breaks, so try setting virtual meetings with colleagues who are also working from home. Meeting with colleagues informally offers an opportunity to chat, laugh and come back to work refreshed. Tempo’s calendar integration can be helpful to keep track of what breaks you’ve got scheduled in between the rest of your work meetings.

Here are some other examples of at-home breaks:

  •     Prepare yourself a hearty lunch 
  •     Take a 10-minute shower
  •     Go for a walk around the block
  •     Play a song on your guitar, piano, etc.
  •     Write creatively
  •     Call your Mom or Dad  

Liven up your workspace

With explicit pleas from governments worldwide to remain at home, it’s natural to feel claustrophobic. We’d much rather be in our regular work environments and enjoying human interaction, but you can use this time as an opportunity to make needed improvements to your new workspace. While Tempo’s software can’t do much to help here, with a little effort and creativity, you can spruce up your space at home. Look at your workstation- what is it missing and what can be improved? Maybe you need to add a little life to your desk - in that case, surround yourself with a couple of potted flowers. If your workstation is a little dim, move your laptop to an area in your home that takes in a lot of sunlight.

 

Today, we are unsure of how long quarantine and self-isolation efforts will remain in place, but for as long as you’re working remotely, it’s important to make the most of things. Working from home can present challenges, but you don't have to do it alone. Leveraging tools like time tracking software can help you to plan your workload, keep a routine, take breaks, and avoid overworking. 

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