The Covid-19 pandemic has led us to make everywhere our office. Wherever there is a laptop, so is our work. Today, even after the pandemic, the comforts of remote work seems to be here to stay.
In March 2020, Covid-19 arrived and companies tried to adapt. In the specific case of offices, the general solution was remote work. Most of us worked from home for months, with the family coming into the room while we were working, the cat sneaking into the webcam, children crying in the background… it seemed difficult and uncomfortable, but it was quite the opposite. In general, most people liked it: saving in commuting time, comfort, improved nutrition or family conciliation are some of the reasons.
After the removal of measures and the return to the office, the change for many seemed to be for the worse and more and more employees are considering the option of remote work as an advantage when it comes to accepting a job. In today’s blog we are going to talk about the advantages of remote and on-site working, some tips to make it work efficiently and our advice for teamwork. Let’s go for it!
Advantages of remote vs. on-site work
First of all, the most important thing about remote work is the ease of conciliating work and personal life. It is a very effective way of being able to have your whole life under control and that the problems of one part do not heavily affect the other. In the same way, many people find that the quieter home environment makes for less stress when faced with a heavy workload.
In the same line of conciliation, the second great advantage is the time flexibility. Remote work allows you to adapt your schedules much better and allows you to do things that you could not do before or that limited you a lot. In the same way, the reduction of commuting time means that you can enjoy your free time in the way you want.
In third place, starting with the reduction of commuting, a great advantage of remote work is the reduction of expenses involved, not only in terms of transport but also in terms of clothing and food.
All these advantages generally result in a fourth, higher productivity. By not depending on traffic jams, external schedules or even waiting a long by the microwave queue; with remote work we can make much better use of our hours and dedicate them to work 100%, in addition to having more hours of sleep and face the day with more energy.
Despite all this, we must admit that remote work also has its downsides. First, with remote work it is sometimes complicated to discern work and life spaces, and not having a very marked and closed schedule can make us not disconnect as we do when we leave the office.
Remote work also encourages sedentary behaviors that can affect the health of workers, so it is important to stay active during and after work by including sports in your daily routine.
Finally, intensive remote work can lead to the breakdown of relationships between workers, fostering less bonding. This can be avoided with the tips we will discuss later.
Tips for good remote work
- 1. Find your place to work: it is very important that you have a special area at home to work in which will become your office. Make sure you feel comfortable and have good posture, and good internet connection.
- 2. Keep a routine: when we go to the office, we have the routine to be on time with everything. This routine should be the same with remote work. Organize your breakfast and lunch schedules so that they are stable and try to anticipate all the unexpected events that may occur. In this way it will be much easier to maintain your concentration and disconnect from work.
- 3. Organize your tasks well: from home it is much more important to organize the priority of your tasks so that you are not caught off guard and to be able to establish the plans for each day to be on time for everything. A little tip: work on the most difficult tasks first.
- 4. Take breaks: sometimes whilst we work remotely, we forget to pause and continue to work nonstop until our clocking out time comes. It is vital to stop every few hours for a couple of minutes, get up from the chair and stretch your legs a little to recharge your batteries.
Our recommendations for remote work
In our marketing agency it is vital to work as a team, so in addition to being efficient we have to be creative, dynamic and able to adapt to every situation. In order to be able to continue working from home, one of our tips is to hold team meetings first thing in the morning, so we can organize ourselves perfectly, catch up and maintain the relationships between the team. It is important not only to listen to each other or chat, but also to see each other’s faces and share the mood or a joke with colleagues to connect with each other.
It is also very important when it comes to creative work to share references between us in order to understand each other’s concepts and ideas, as well as to help inspire and share interests. Finally, although you may think it is impossible, it is possible to have an afterwork Zoom or Teams meeting whilst having a coffee at the end of the day or chat for a while.
We hope you have found this small guide to teleworking useful and that you can use it to make remote working much more comfortable and efficient for you and/or your employees. If you want to keep up with all our news and posts do not forget to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin or Twitter and we will let you know when we have something new to tell you. See you next time!