5 Tips to Maximize the Work From Home Culture in the Time of Corona
Featuring Familiar and Fresh Perspectives to Survive the Pandemic
While productivity looks different in times of pandemic, it appears that this is our new norm, for now.
You may have seen articles related to activities that you should do to be productive in these hard times. Well the points that you will get from this could appear familiar to you but there might be other areas that you might’ve missed.
Allow me to share some of the practices I’ve curated to keep us all in a moving forward mindset, and productive, whilst of course, keeping our mind open with the reality.
Tip #1: Get Dressed
Yes we have to do this, this tip is really important. While we know pajamas are more comfortable at home, getting dressed during work hours are considered a mood booster.
While I have this tip, I’m not personally encouraging you to wear formal but to wear a smart casual attire instead that will keep you prepared just in case your colleague asks you to turn on your webcam while explaining your points over a conference call.
It personally works for me. I highly encourage you to do the same as well. You may not want to be the running joke in your virtual office while ending up in a viral video.
Tip #2: Take Health Breaks and Stretches in Between
While we are keeping ourselves busy with our tasks, we may not notice we are sitting for hours already. Always remind yourself to take health breaks aka toilet breaks, increased frequency in water intake and stretches from time to time.
I personally updated the poster and eliminated the activities which contradicts the #StayIndoors movement we are all observing globally.
Tip #3: Eat Healthy and Workout
It sounds cliché but we need to help ourselves. As much as we can, please refrain from eating junk or unhealthy food. On top of the multi-vitamins we should all religiously take on a daily basis, please do some necessary considerations in your meal preparation during the self-quarantine period.
And we all know a healthy diet and good exercise works perfectly together in boosting our immune system. Now let’s try incorporating a little bit of tech in the process. My suggestion — download a fitness app!
Miss the gym? You have yourself as an alternative — use your body weight and get it going! Fitness apps will allow you to log your home workouts, automate the process for you — all you have to do is execute.
If you want a personal suggestion that works, I highly suggest Fitbod, a premium fitness app that I’ve been using for months already.
Treat Fitbod as your routine scheduler. It will automate your routines based on your logged activities. It will even tell you percentage of your fresh muscles aka the parts you need to work on for the #QuarantineGains.
As part of supporting self-quarantine movement, they are offering free offer to log your workouts at home until May 1st. The app is available from the iOS and Android Store.
Tip #4: Try and Adopt Secure Cloud Solutions for Collaboration
As a professional working from home, your security with the software and apps that you are using should always be on your top priority list as well (aside from your health, of course).
While Zoom hits all time high in terms of adoption, with daily traffic to the Zoom.us download page has increased by 535% during the start of self-quarantine period, end users are starting to pull out their accounts from the platform after the back to back findings on the app’s vulnerabilities.
While this appears as Zoom’s biggest challenge to date, it should be no surprise to all that the cybercriminals are out there usually exploiting popular trends, whether there’s a pandemic or none.
While using online apps, always take extra caution in your activities online. Some tips such as changing your password every month, covering your front webcam with a cover can always help.
Now if you’re searching for alternatives, some analysts think Microsoft with Microsoft Teams is in a strong position to serve as an alternative to Zoom, should there be a decision for other companies and organizations take steps similar to the New York City Department of Education’s.
Want to try Microsoft Teams FREE for 6-Months for your business? Feel free to send an email to me at gabriel.villanueva@crayon.com for guidance to setup Teams for your organization.
Alternatively, Skype also introduced a new feature that won’t allow you to download or register with the Meet Now feature similar to Zoom’s.
Tip #5: Gamify your Adoption to Learning New Microsoft Collaboration Tools with Empower IQ
As humans, we are always reluctant to change. In terms of growth, it equates to going out of our comfort zone.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, organizations worldwide have immediately laid out their Business Continuity Plans (BCPs) and there is one common denominator — switching to Cloud Solutions as the best viable solution.
However, one of the biggest challenge in moving to cloud would be acquiring the skills to maximize its potential for the benefit of the end users adopting to the new tools.
“The more you involve people in the process, the more likely people will accept that process.” — Christian Buckley, CollabTalk CEO
How about a creative way of gamifying your learning experience? That’s the goal of this Global Microsoft partner in improving your adoption with Microsoft Productivity Tools through their IP that they call — Empower IQ.
The Good News is… Empower IQ is Available for 6 Months as Free trial (no strings, no credit card needed)
These are the challenges your employees may be faced with:
- How do I set-up a conference call, take meeting notes and share files in Teams?
- How do I use OneNote to stay organized and collaborate across workgroups?
- How do I create a SharePoint communication site to publish and share information?
- These and many other skills can easily be adopted by your workforce through Empower-IQ to do more with the allocated technology, increase productivity and improve everyday working live.
The Statistics, based on the early adopters. With Empower-IQ:
- 88% of users increase their comfort level with Microsoft Teams.
- 68% of users learned a feature they will use in the next month.
- 42% of users increase confidence with using Excel.
With Crayon’s Empower-IQ, you and your colleagues will always have quick-help tutorial video’s at hand to successfully work with the Microsoft productivity, communication and collaboration tools.
There are even leaderboards with an intent to gamify the experience for everyone within the organization using the platform.
Facing the New Norm, for Now.
While there are a lot of ways to keep us productive, away from the stress of today’s news, I understand that the situation may not apply for everyone and we still need to be mindful of the reality.
We are going through a collective traumatic experience as we face the pandemic.
Productivity may appear different this season and that’s okay.
My prayer goes out to the frontliners and COVID-19 patients around the world at these difficult times.
Please continue to do your part by means of staying at home in order for us to flatten the curve.
We will all get through this. In the coming days or weeks, we will finally find the cure and eventually end the pandemic.
And who knows — it might be sooner than we all think.
Wash your hands, stay indoors and lastly, Stay safe!
Got more time? Read Another Relevant Article by Alexis Perrotta: 9 Ways to Help Others During the Coronavirus Pandemic
