Five tips on working from home

The grass is always greener on the other side. To an average office goer, who deals with road rage, boss rage, why-are-you-home-so-late rage, and all other sorts of occupational speed breakers, the idea of working from home is enough to make them go all dreamy-eyed. You imagine crawling out of bed, lazing around, and settling in front of the computer/laptop, taking time off for the telly whenever you fancy, catching up with friends, working perhaps for a few hours a day, and getting paid for it. Here’s a reality check on that. Recent research on working from home has found that using work technology at home hinders your ability to easily detach from work. Sujata Saha, 33, complains, “I can never switch off from work and the strange thing is my boss expects me to be available all the time. He discounts that I may need to go out, I need some time off from staying glued to my system, on top of that I routinely do more work than my colleagues, and while I started out thinking I would have a life, I don’t have one to boast of. I was pregnant when I started working from home. He agreed because he values my contribution, but having said that he takes my working from ‘home’ for granted.” However like everything else in life working from home has its ups and downs. But you have to know how to make it work. Here are our top five tips on how to get the most out of working from home. Make your space at home work-only : Recent research led by Emmanuel Stamatakis from University College London has found that you double your risk of heart attack by sitting infront of the TV or computer for too long a period of time. A few years back the BBC had reported the death of a man due to deep vein thrombosis following long periods of physical inactivity in front of the computer. Taking regular intervals for some time away from the screen is important whether you are working from home or your office. The added disadvantage while working from home: you may just plonk yourself on the bed and work, not realising the problems which will follow suit if you don’t factor in ergonomics and streamlined space. It’s imperative that you create a work-friendly environment right from the start. Always ensure you get a good table and a chair and swear off lying on the bed while working. Keep sight of basics like keeping your feet flat on the floor, keeping your wrists straight when using the keyboard or the mouse, and not straining your neck too often. Once the ergonomics of working is put in place, it’s all about splitting your time effectively throughout the day. Ensure you have all the tools in place and can fix IT problems : Rule of book when you are punching away at home on your laptop/desktop: make sure you have an external hard drive and are effectively able to set up automatic backups. In order to further damage-proof your data, get on www.mozy.com, an online backup service for consumers and businesses for just $5.99 a month. If you are working full time with a company, tell them to give you a data card in case you are without power for a long duration of time. In case that’s not possible, ensure your boss understands that finding a cyber café/resource will take time and is beyond your control. Same goes for IT issues. When an IT problem can disrupt work at an office (solving it can often take a few minutes to hours depending on what the technical issue is), it can disrupt effective functioning when you are working from home. Make it clear that it will upset schedules, and will take time to get resolved. Manage your time right: We all remember and are familiar with the old adage, ‘With great freedom comes great responsibility’. For someone who’s a stickler for time, it might be a walk in the park, but when you’re no longer punching a time clock, you have to be able to prioritise. You can start by using interactive desktops that will help you manage time and prioritise easily. Also, set timelines for yourself, your workplace, and for your family. Ensure your employer knows when you will get off work. Try and stay off social networking sites like Facebook. According to Nielsen, an average visitor on Facebook actively spends four hours and thirty three minutes on the site each day. If you are working, keep your ppt window, excel sheet, work mail, word doc window open and presume you can’t access Facebook. If you can’t do without help in that department reduce face time with smart sites like www.keepmeout.com where you can feed in the number of hours you want to be away from a site. [caption id=“attachment_88243” align=“alignleft” width=“400” caption=“It’s imperative that you create a work-friendly environment right from the start. Getty Images”]  [/caption] Stay connected and choose your interruptions: If you are a working mum, it’s a given that you will split your meal times with your child, and sneak in some more time whenever you are taking a break. Good news, that’s just the way to make your work better. Being more disciplined and productive does not mean you have to be shut-in. According to Dr Edward M.Hallowell, M.D, and author of Crazy Busy: Overstretched, Overbooked, and About To Snap, one cannot achieve peak performance if you feel isolated, and e-mail has no emotion connected to it. It’s necessary that every four hours or so, you put yourself face-to-face with a person. If that’s not possible call up friends you’ve been meaning to, or log onto sites like www.ziggs.com or www.biznik.com, networking sites for independent workers. Start early and set out realistic expectations: The last pointer and possibly the most important in working from home—start early, and take on work you think you will be able to handle within a designated timeline. If the designated task takes a lot more time, be clear and upfront about it. Just because you maybe working in an isolated environment does not mean you should have no time to do anything but work. As more and more companies like Accenture and IBM in India realise the low cost and effectiveness of work from home employment, it becomes more and more important to find the right balance between working and staying at home.