Working From Home

Here at HookSounds we always strive to keep up to date on what’s going on in our community and the world at large. Today we have decided to talk about something that is, perhaps, more relevant now than ever before.

We feel like we can talk about this matter with some authority, since most of our team members work remotely. Based on this, we believe that we are in a position to help anyone out there who’s facing challenges when working from home.
It is definitely not easy; whether you’re a boss who’s trying to manage a team, or an employee trying to keep up with your co-workers. There is a ‘wall’ in front of us when dealing with all this, and that ‘wall’ is technology. Many of us are well acquainted with computers and the various productivity and communication tools, however, this is not the case for everyone.

If you’re struggling with your online work schedule because you don’t understand how to use certain web applications, don’t worry, there are a couple of things you can do to try to improve your tech skills. The first thing we would recommend is to consult with your co-workers. Give them a call if you’re not sure of something, and request for a video call if necessary. This kind of help always comes in handy, especially from someone with whom you have a good rapport with. If you’re not in a position to do this, we advise you to search for the relevant answers using Google. During this period when we are being advised to remain at home, Google can become your ‘best friend’ when you can’t seem to find the answers to certain work-related problems. You are likely to find valuable information for all your ‘how to’ questions. For instance, ‘How to add formulas to an Excel spreadsheet’. Luckily, most issues that you come across have already been experienced by other people, so you are very likely to find the solution online!

Are you tech-savvy and know how to navigate various online platforms, but can’t manage to focus? This is a common problem for home workers since there are more distractions at home compared to the office. For this reason, we advise you not to work from your bedroom and instead try to find a different spot within your home, away from distractions.

Another important aspect to consider is to keep your hands off the phone as much as possible. In case you need it for work or other significant tasks, then you can keep it close to you, but if you don’t need it, leave it in another room while you’re working. Something that goes hand-in-hand with this, is to avoid using Whatsapp as the main channel for office communication. This is because you are very likely to be distracted by messages from friends as well as other social media that you have access to on your phone. You may also have these distractions at the office, but when you are in a working environment, you may feel less inclined to spend extended periods on your phone.

Something your whole team can do to keep being efficient too is to maintain daily meetings where you all share what you will be doing during your working hours. That way, you can optimize your time and be accountable to your co-workers. It is really important to let your team know when you start to work and when you finish, that way everyone knows when you’re available in case someone needs to reach out to you. An excellent platform for this, is an app/website called Slack! This online tool has multiple channels (as many as your boss wants) and each one is dedicated to a different function such as support, marketing, banking, customer service, etc. This is a great way to organize everyone’s work schedule and make sure all tasks are allocated effectively.

These are a few tips that have given us good results as we strive to be as efficient as possible even when working from home. We know how challenging this can be, especially when you have to do it over a long period, but we believe that these tips will be helpful, more so for those who have just started working from home. We hope to share some more tips weekly about what we have learned during our remote working experience.

We are facing this situation together and as long as we have resources and knowledge to help, we will keep on doing it, even from home!