
How to Work from Home and Get Stuff Done – An In-Depth Guide - hollaur
https://thenextweb.com/contributors/work-home-get-stuff-done/#.tnw_XIPw8zRz
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joe563323
If any CEO's reading this who want to migrate their companies to Working From
Home, then never include managers in the decision process. In my experience
managers view Work From Home as a enemy to their employment and will never let
it happen.

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k__
For me it was rather simple: Do sprints

Most companies already adopted basic sprint structure with Kanban or Scrum. So
if you work from home, you don't have to change much.

The sprints basically tell me what needs to be done in the short term/2 weeks
and I need to work through it.

The article seems to be more about how to get a nicer working environment.
Since I work from 3 different flats, I don't have much control over most
things mentioned there.

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Jaruzel
I work from home, and have done now for the most part for about 3 years now.

I shifted to WFH after a re-occurrence of my depression and anxiety symptoms,
but now, even with those symptoms totally under pill-management, I still
wouldn't shift back to full time in the office voluntarily.

Things I do to keep my productivity up and to present a professional face:

 _1\. Dedicated Office Space_

This was a hard one, as my work is also my hobby. My personal computer space
was a desk in my Study, but to focus on work, I set up a second workspace in a
spare room on another floor of my house. Over time I found that having my kit
in two different rooms was problematic (no-one actually works 100% of the time
during their working hours... do they?) and gradually stuff starting moving
into the spare room from the study. I gave up on the spare room and relocated
everything back into the Study, and fitted a KVM that allowed be to switch
between work laptop and home desktop. This combined set up actually made more
productive! Never just use your laptop on it's own. Invest in a monitor and
proper keyboard and mouse. Hunching all day over a laptop will wreck your back
before you are 40. Trust me on this.

 _2\. Communications_

I work for large organisations, typically financial. These places have a heavy
emphasis on Email & IM. Email isn't a problem, the kit is supplied by the
Employer, and it's typically Outlook. I always set the 'new mail' alert sound
to something loud and unique. That way I never miss an email. Prompt replies
always go a long way, and even longer, if you are a non-visible worker. For
IM, again the software takes care of itself, for me it's Lync/SfB, but the
Employer will dictate that. Always invest in a REALLY good headset - it must
have inline controls, for those quick unmute/mute situations. Camera - don't
rely on your laptop Camera, get a good USB HD 1080p one, with a good lens.
Arrange your home office so that when you are in the video frame, the
background behind you is a plain wall with nothing non-work visible. For +1
technical points, install a whiteboard behind you, and ensure it's always got
relevant diagrams on it. :)

If your organisation has an internal blogging platform, or room based IM
(Slack etc.) be very active on it. Don't be afraid to let your presence status
shift to 'away' occasionally - no-one will believe you if it's flagged as
'green' ALL day.

 _3\. Social_

Try to get into the real office, at least twice a month, this ensure that your
face is seen and known. in that vein, always have the same professional head-
shot on your work profile, and in your IM clients and Email (if supported).
Your face is your brand. You need to maintain an active presence in the
organisation, even if you are not there physically. When I recently changed
contracts, I uploaded my usual pro-headshots the moment I got access to the
systems. A couple of months later after working from home and chatting to co-
workers in the office over Email and IM, I went into the main office. People
knew who i was, even though mostly it was the first time I'd seen them face to
face. Having my head-shot everywhere really helped people to recognise me.

 _4\. Personal_

YOU matter. Working from home can lead to a very sedentary lifestyle. It's
important to get up and move about regularly - without the interruptions of a
busy office, it's easy to slip into the zone and not move out of your chair
for several hours, which is bad for your health. Try to implement a time
management system such as Pomodoro so that you take regular breaks. If you get
it right, your productivity will increase as well. As you are no longer
commuting try to re-use that time in the day for exercise; Run round the block
every morning, you heart will thank you in 20 years time. Don't be tempted to
start work early, and/or work late. Just because you can, it doesn't mean you
should. You are not being paid more for being at home, so don't feel you have
to work harder.

This is just a brain dump, but it ended up longer than expected, and re-
reading it I think I'll smarten it up and put it up on Medium. :)

