How To Work From Home Effectively

How To Work From Home Effectively?

by Human BehaviourVinita Gupta

Date: 2nd May, 2021

Written By: Sneha Gupta – Community Leader and Senior Consultant, Auxano Consulting LLP

Working from home was only limited to my imagination in the ’90s, I always remember the cyber action-thriller starring Sandra Bullock, The Net. It amazed me to see a person doing her entire office work at home, all day. She spoke to her bosses and colleagues on phone, she ordered a pizza, and it looked as if it was so much fun.

But the truth is stranger than fiction.

As of today, in this Covid-19 lockdown, companies like Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Hitachi, Apple, Amazon, Chevron, Salesforce, Spotify (UK/US/Japan/South Korea) are all working from home.

The fantasy then has become a reality today and we too have been added to this unusual battle force. So before you gear up for your “home-work”, let’s check on which aspects we can take care of, to avoid job fatigue and anxiety.

Habits

Don’t change your work-life habit including your early morning routine. You can wake up and do light workouts at home, get ready in your office attire, have your breakfast and start working at the allocated or preferred time.

Wearing work clothes when you work from home is important not just because it helps put you in work mode, but because you can take them off at the end of the day, so you get out of work mode and into home mode. – Guy Winch Ph.D. (licensed psychologist, keynote speaker, and author)

Since remote work can birth unnecessary miscommunication, always begin your day by talking to your superiors, for 10 minutes on a call, to promote better clarity on daily work targets.

You can also mimic your work routine by taking mini coffee breaks or strolling around your apartment after every 30 minutes for better back health.

Create a space for work at home

Make sure you have:

✔     A designated workspace from personal spaces like (bedroom, kitchen) close to the Wi-Fi router.

✔     A decent background for conducting video calls.

✔     A good and continuous internet connection.

✔     Minimum distractions.

✔     Right tools like laptops, network accesses, passwords, instructions on remote login.

✔     Noise-canceling headphones.

✔     Predownloaded Video conferencing suites, group chat accounts, and configured email.

✔     A comfortable straight-backed chair and a back cushion for arch support.

It can be challenging if you are a parent of small children. Since children need constant monitoring, you will need to entrust them to someone’s care. If your spouse is working, a better solution is to work in predefined shifts.

For better communication always mute your microphone on conference calls, especially when you are silent.

Mental Health

There is a good amount of mental and emotional challenges when we are subjected to work from home. Loneliness has been the most reported symptom of this work culture (1 in 19 % of respondents feel less motivated and less productive)

To maintain good mental posture it is best to connect with colleagues on video conferencing, working out regularly, and attending online resilience courses offered by leading training solutions.

There is also a flip side to this, it has also been reported that 65% of people have reported being more productive since working remotely cuts daily travel, reduces unnecessary office interactions, politics, and interruptions from others, etc.

If you are heading your team as a manager you can always enhance your leadership experience by pepping your team up, by simply having a non-work-related conference call. You have a moment of sharing light-hearted talks or a time for fun.

Conclusion

Our ultimate aim is to keep a right mind while we invest the most productive hours of our working life in the given scenario. We don’t know, how long will it be for us to return to our previous life or maybe this could be our “new normal”. But this shouldn’t stop us from having a positive thought life. This kind of mind and situational conditioning will only lead to better physical and mental health.

Surely we will grow out of this and we will build better and long-lasting relationships because we now understand the value of our social circle.

But till then let’s stay home and stay safe.

Women With Courage & Women Who Encourage

Women With Courage & Women Who Encourage

by Human Behaviour

Date: 24th March 2021                       

Written By: Linnet Dave – Partner & Principal Consultant, Auxano Consulting LLP

The Female Opportunity Index 2020/21: Research shows levels of advancement in equality and career opportunity for women in 100 countries around the world, focusing on political and corporate leadership, gender wage gaps, legal support, maternity leave and more.

A lot has been said about women and a lot has been written. Over the years, women have grown in power and many icons have inspired others to rise and become their own.

For example – On January 20th 2021, Senator Kamala Harris was sworn in as the first female and first Black and South Asian Vice President.

Christina Koch has set the world record for the longest stay in space by a woman. The U.S. astronaut landed in Kazakhstan on February 6 after 328 days on the International Space Station (ISS)

The 12-year-old girl, Jiya Rai, created a record as the youngest girl diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder to swim the distance of 36 km in an open sea.

Marathon mascot Man Kaur, she is aged 105, who is a world champion athlete and a star runner of Pinkathon.

Inspite of all this, women across the globe continue to struggle with their own guilt to achieve, to be successful and constantly find the need to justify their actions. Why?

Each year we celebrate women’s day and celebrate the power of being us and yet in the moments of life we forget to be us, accept us, have the courage to be honest and say ‘yes! that’s me!’

Today we women, irrespective of what our age and what our background is, remember, we need to have the courage to speak the truth and accept our truth. We may have the compassion, as expected out of most womankind, or we may not. We may have the natural inclination to be a mother, or we may not want to have any children of our own. We may want to be caregivers and homemakers, or we want to be conquering the world and not be homebound. The important part is to know and say our truth to ourselves first. Today, I am a daughter, a partner and a mother but I have always told myself I want to be more, I am a career woman, an influencer and a traveller.

We need to find our space:

●      Are you taking time for you? To build you? To know your real truth? Truly accept you, so that no matter what the world may see, you are aware of your real labels, labels that you own-both the good and bad.

●      Are you supporting other women to soar, find their space, and find their guilt free moment where they can truly express themselves without being judged.

●      Can you go beyond your biased questions such as “Can you cook?” “How can you focus on your career and your children at the same time.”

Encourage yourself and others to achieve, be them, no matter what that is-a Single Woman, a Career Focussed Woman, a Woman in Arts, a Woman Who Loves to Talk or Dress up or rather not dress up, a woman who is devoid of emotion or a woman who simply fits the ideal world-defined woman profile. It doesn’t matter.

Ask yourself a simple question: “Are you happy being you?” .If yes, then how can you be more of you, and if not, what can you do to be that happy woman you desire to be?

Help yourself and other women around you to have the courage to be their true self.