So, You’re Working From Home…

For a lot of people, this is new territory. You may be trying to stay productive without your normal resources and routines, and you may have kids, pets, and a spouse vying for your attention.

At Datavail our remote employees have been doing this a while – we’ve assembled our top 3 tips to help ease the transition in case you are struggling to build a new normal.

And, we’d love to hear your tips and what’s working for you. We’ve got a pair of Sony Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones (a work from home must!), and other weekly giveaways that we can ship to your home for the top tips we receive!

The Winning Tips For the Week of March 30th Are:

1. Adhere to a schedule. If you normally work from 8 to 5, keep that up. Take lunch breaks as you normally would. Routines are important.

2. Create a home office. Make a space that contains your laptop, phone, files, etc. Use videoconferencing tools, and use the “blur background” option.

3. Eat and drink healthy options.

4. Communicate – frequently, often, and regularly with your team. Updates are important. Share non-work topics as well to maintain friendships.

5. Breathe. Pause. Meditate. Pray. This will not last. Keep things in perspective.

Submitted by: George De Graaf, Director, Athene USA

Click here to view all the tips we’ve received.

Keep sending in your tips – a new winner is selected every Friday.

Our Top 3 Work From Home Tips

Stay in touch with your colleagues.
If you work on a team, make sure to check in regularly just like you would in the office. Email is a great way to share the status of your projects with your team so they know you’re on track and Office 365 and SharePoint are a great way to collaborate on documents. It’s also a good idea to communicate through a video chat program like Microsoft Teams – having a daily or weekly face-to-face helps you feel connected.

Pro tip: Since you only see your head and shoulders in a video call, you can keep your pajama bottoms on!

Create a space just for work.
It is quite tempting to work from the couch or in front of the television, but try to carve out a dedicated work space at home. If you don’t have an office, a kitchen or dining room table will help you focus a lot more than your couch.

Pro tip: A good set of noise cancelling headphones will help cut down on background noise if you have kids or pets at home.

Be Flexible.
At Datavail one of our core company values is flexibility for availability… that means we put the needs of our clients first, but also understand our employees’ work-life balance. In times like these it’s especially important to realize that a 9 to 5 schedule might not make sense. If your schedule allows, mix your hours up so you can balance your work and family responsibilities.

Pro tip: Make sure you take breaks and get outside if you can – members of our Marketing team for example try to fit in a 20 minute walk over lunch, when time permits. Then they snap a picture during their walk and send it to the team when they return – just one way to infuse some culture and help your team stay connected when working remote.