Work From Home 2.0

It appears that more and more workers are required to work from home depending on the Covid situation in Hong Kong. For many of us, we are used to this remote work and for the rest, we prefer to head to the office and draw the boundaries between work and home. 

Regardless of which side you stand on, working from home is can be a challenge and we got you covered with solutions to those challenges and even highlight benefits that comes from this situation. 

Work From Home survival guide 

Working from home allows for more free time.

As someone who lives in in new territories (and quite literally near the border) it takes up to 2 hours to travel to work, with an average of 4 hours a day spent commuting. I’m not going to lie; I would much rather spend that time more productively such as going to the gym or joining a Thai boxing class (something I promised myself 2 years ago) the problem was I just didn’t have enough time in the day. However, since working from home, I’ve been blessed with this extra time to spend with my family, do home chores and pick up cycling. 

The challenges of working from home can from various sources and make it difficult to concentrate on work. These can include distractions from family, lack of equipment, drop in social life, disconnecting yourself from work after work or even the state of your room. Below are solutions that can help you manage these challenges and lead a more motivated and productive life. 

Distraction from family

While many of us are thrilled to be home with our family and getting to spend more time building a stronger bond, this should be limited to after work hours least it become a major distraction. 

It would be best to organize a time schedule for young children during their free time or speaking to your partner on limited contact. Make sure you inform and plan things ahead of important meetings in case your want a situation similar to a BBC reporter, from South Korea, who’s daughter and baby came unannounced during a live interview. Luckily in their case everything ended well, though the same may not be said for you. 

Lack of equipment

If you lack a workable computer or WIFI, you should definitely speak to your leader first to discuss options to see if it's possible to borrow a company computer and if there are any arrangements for getting you WIFI.

Alternatively, data sim cards are easy to get and offer generous data plans, check with your phone carrier to see if they can set you up with a good offer, or pick one up from supermarkets. 

Lastly, identify local WIFI hot spots near your home for emergency use, only as a last resort and adhering to covid rules. 

Drop in social life

While the workplace isn’t the go-to place for social life, working from home also means limiting outside ventures. It’s essentially to have some form of social contact to keep your mental status healthy so you should schedule team calls, check in on each other and use your annual leave to take some time off and connect with others. 

Disconnecting from work 

Long-term working from home can blur the lines of work and home life. It’s difficult to draw the line and call it quits. On the surface you simple close the windows on your computer and even turn off your laptop, but mentally you’re still in work mode and it may be difficult to loosen up and relax, especially if a work email comes in. 

To deal with this, try and change the location or setup of where you work. Ensure that work is only in that area. This way your mind will adapt to the environment and you should feel it become much easier to relax once you leave. 

State of your room

They say that the state of your room represents your state of mind, the messier it is the more clouded your mood. If you find yourself struggling to concentrate even though you’ve done all the above points it could be your room isn’t in the right state. 

Clear away any clutter and try to keep things minimal so that there is at least less visual distractions, don’t stop at your desk, de clutter your whole room,throw away unnecessary things and store away the rest. 

Benefits of working from home 

The first thing everything thinks about when working from home is being able to stay in bed until the last possible minute, there are those who even perfect the art of getting up and ready to work down to the bare seconds just so they can stay in bed that much longer. However, this time can be much more productive. 

Learn something new 

Be it career related or hobby related take this opportunity to learn a new skill. There are so many resources, both free and with a fee, online that can enable you to achieve this. 

If you want to stay away from the computer after work and just be free from electronics, you can always search for offline related hobbies, myself, I picked up baking, I don’t like eating baked goods but love baking them as the process is so simple and smooth (even if I somehow fail here and there). Afterwards you can take the IG perfect shot and improve your camera skills. 

The bottom line is that this extra time can be used for the things you always wanted to do but never had the time. Note extra sleeping time is not acceptable in my books. 

Connect with family 

Whether its your partner, parents, children or beloved pets, you have additional time to connect and spend the treasured time. Before you do this, take some time for yourself first. Once you have recovered connect, chat, play with your family, take this time to build up your relationships. 

Exercise while working from home

This is a personal demon for many of us, myself included. We always make promises to go to the gym after new year and shed away the ever-growing fat around our belly, yet always find excuse not to do it and lack of time being the biggest excuse (not verified). 

Now it’s both mentally and physically imperative you do some exercise; you no longer drudge yourself out of bed during dawn just to brave the waves of morning crowds at the bus and MTR stations. In fact, many of us simple take two steps away from the bed and sit down at the ‘work’ desk, although extremely convenient, it robs us of our much-needed daily exercise. 

The truth is, and you know this, you don’t need to go to the gym to exercise and you don’t need equipment. Simple start with stretching, do push ups, sits up and squats to get you going. Bonus tip, try the following sets and reps; 

20 x 3 sit ups

10 x 3 push ups

20 x 3 squats 

Rest 1 minute in between each set, or more if needed. More advanced users can do burpees and planks too.

You can vary the reps and sets as required based on your fitness levels but the point is to the get your moving, to push you muscles and you can definitely increase the sets and reps as you continue this daily routine. 

Furthermore, add running or walking to this, at least 30 minutes and let’s be honest, this isn’t going to get you the beach body or shred away excess pounds, this is the bare minimum you should do to keep your heart, mind and body healthy. We build up toxins through the day and the buildup affects your mood in the form of stress.By doing some form of exercise, you get rid of the buildup and feel refreshed. 

Shopping 

In this day and age, it would be hard not to find the things you want to purchase online and have it delivered right to your door step. The concept of this really reminds me of an old PC game called the Sims where you can control a person (your avatar) and get him job, earn money and use said money to build up your house. Unfortunately,I don’t make anywhere nearly as much as my sim did but still, we can purchase items to generally improve our well being at home. 

Buying snacks will definitely improve the mood at home though in my opinion, the more lasting things would be furniture or electrical items that make a bigger impact on your living. Upgrade your chair into a comfier premium chair or add box seats to make more room while clearing away things. Simple changes make a significant difference. 

If you enjoyed reading this blog or used some of the above-mentioned solutions, please consider taking an opportunity to view the products we have on offer. Some of our products can help with you declutter your room while working from home and just enhance the home environment.