Working Remotely - Fundamentals for Professionals Training Course in Dubai, UAE

The basics of remote work from home for professionals

Work from home has become a widely spread phenomenon over recent years. Surely, not every specialist can work from home, but still, most programmers, marketers, designers, copywriters, artists, analysts, and other professionals can easily change their offices to houses (and they do it). The total share of those working remotely around the world is growing and will continue to grow. Why? Because it is beneficial both for an employer (saving on office keeping, and all the costs associated with it) and for an employee (saving time on the transport, freedom in choosing an operating mode, etc.).

According to the State of Remote Work report by Buffer, 99% of working people (those who have not yet worked remotely) would like to practice telecommuting for at least some time. People see this as an advantage.

But one should not think that this is an easy and quick shift. You can’t just stop going to your office the next day, stay at home and get a similar result. Things are much more complicated. Turning to work from home, you face a whole bunch of different problems that have to be solved to achieve acceptable productivity, and for this, you need to get specific skills and competencies.

Working from home vs. working from an office

However, we should not think that working from home is a panacea, a universal solution to all the problems. It has both advantages and some drawbacks compared with office work. Here are the main ones:

Indeed, to get the maximum effect from the advantages, you need to smooth out the disadvantages, and for this, you will need specialized knowledge and skills.

How to maximize productivity working at home

Thus to do work at home more productively and bring benefits and joy to everyone, it is necessary to keep to some basic rules. These are essential components of remote work that must be taken into account:

• Communication. When working from home, communication is a particular challenge due to the incoherence of work of all team members, besides they may be in different time zones. Therefore, it is essential to agree on the procedure and rules for messages exchange, correspondence, file transfer, etc. To do this, all team members must master the same tools (instant messengers, screenshot capture software, PC remote control software, etc.) and follow the same rules, for example, be online in WhatsApp from 08:00 to 22:00 to resolve current issues quickly. Group meetings and video calls are of particular importance for remote teams. This is a common thing in a typical office, but when working remotely, group communication requires the appropriate tools and some skills, especially for a manager.
• Getting rid of procrastination.Working at home, an employee continually deals with various distractions. On the one hand, working from home, you can conveniently sit at your desk in your favorite chair with maximum comfort for yourself, but there will always be a bunch of distractions, such as noisy neighbors, children, pets, online notifications, etc. All of them can lead to procrastination, and if you do not deal with them, your productivity will sooner or later decrease to such a level when you break the deadlines and may even lose your job. Fortunately, there are several proven tactics to deal with distracting factors that every remote worker has to master.
• High productivity of remote work. For many people, switching office atmosphere to telecommuting is accompanied by a drop in productivity due to a change in a familiar environment. But one can deal with this. To do it, you have to eliminate all distractions as much as possible, draw up the correct daily task plan, set reminders, block access to distractors like social networks and apply some psychological practices to increase your working capacity. All this can be mastered in a specialized course.
• Motivation and self-motivation. Staff motivation and self-motivation of individuals is a crucially important aspect of work organization anywhere. But in case of work at home, it has some features due to a lack of direct contact between people and isolation. In order for all employees to feel themselves the part of a team ensuring the best possible productivity, a manager must be able to motivate staff. Specialized training with practical exercises will help managers with motivation and employees with self-motivation.
• Set of tools. We have already noted that coherence in the use of technical means is necessary. But this applies not only to communication. To set up productive remote work, you will need tools for sharing files, folders and programs, project management system, for example, Trello, in which each team member sees own tasks, notes own progress, can ask a question, notifies manager about the completion of work, and can interact with colleagues. Besides, data security plays a crucial role in many companies, and specific software is needed to ensure it.
• Setting up the space for work at home. A workspace of a house is not just a table and chair. Setting up a convenient workspace is real art. The key to success is the right combination of various factors: a comfortable body position, good light, music (maybe), a pleasant interior, the ability to move with your laptop for a while, on a frameless chair, for example, etc. All these are trifles, but our whole day consists of them. The ability to organize your work environment accurately will allow you to achieve all your goals ultimately.
• A balance between professional and personal issues. On the one hand, when working at home, a free schedule opens up new possibilities for solving all domestic matters and family matters. You can solve your issues at any time convenient for you, and work later, or earlier, which is impossible when working in an office. But on the other hand, if you are constantly distracted by solving everyday issues, this can significantly harm your productivity at work. You must be able to find a balance between professional and personal matters. And the key to this is proper planning. Homework planning is a unique process that has to be mastered.

These are the essential skills that any specialist who wants to switch to remote work will have to master one way or another. In addition to the basic rules, some useful practices for workers will come in handy.

Some of the best practices for remote workers

Here are some of the best practices and ideas for those who do their work remotely:

• Schedule tasks for a day. All the things that must be done have to be recorded. Be sure to note all urgent matters; delay with which is unacceptable. Highlight critical tasks that require attention and follow-up. It will allow you to evaluate your time for work and optimize it. In order not to forget anything, set a reminder for yourself (on your phone, on your PC, or just notes on paper).
• Exclude anything that distracts you while you work. Communication with friends and colleagues is essential, and those who work in offices use it. But in your office, you are unlikely to discuss some nonsense for hours, while it is possible at home. This situation, of course, should be avoided. Set special rules for your family so that they clearly understand that you cannot be distracted from 12:00 to 14:00, because you have an important meeting, for instance. Limit your access to entertainment resources that will distract you at home.
• Start your day with simple and easy activities. This advice applies to office work, but it is also very useful in work at home. Before switching to a complicated task, first, you need to get a little involved. Look through the mail, answer urgent letters, plan, do a couple of simple tasks, which do not take a lot of time, etc. This will give a positive start and the feeling that some work has already been done.
• If work goes poorly, try physical exercises, or go for a walk. It is crucial to leave your house at least for a while. Going to the store for bread or just walking, breathing fresh air is very important for effective work. A new thought or an interesting idea usually comes when a person is distracted and relaxed. Besides, oxygen saturation stimulates your brain.

As you can see, remote work at home requires certain skills and knowledge from an employee and a manager. You just won’t succeed in switching to remote work without those, and the lack of coordination will ultimately lead to failure. This is especially true for large commands, where different people from different countries are involved. Preparing for remote work is an essential step that determines overall success; in no case, you should underestimate its importance. And it is also important to note that the process of preparing for a team’s remote work should also be unified – the same rules and norms, the same tools, and approaches. Only in this case, you can count on the fact that working at home will give the desired result for your company.