Not many people realised that they would be working from home this year, No thanks to the Bl**dy virus that has turned the world upside down. The covid virus has got hundred and thousands of people sick and has changed our lives in so many ways.
People now have turned to working from home in large numbers due to this calamity. People are self-isolating out of fear and safety. A lot many have learnt to manage their lives remotely through video conferencing and virtual meetings. It is essential for you to have a plan if you are going to work from home. In this post, we are going to look at what you need to start working from home ( more like a checklist)
A few things to sort out before you begin to work from home.
- Make sure you have a proper table and chair that follow appropriate safe, ergonomic standards
- Get a sit stand up desk if needed
- Take regular breaks
- Screen size of your laptop/desktop
- Lighting in the room
- Good NBN OR Internet connectivity
Table & Chair set up
A proper table and chair set up is very essential if you are going to be working from home. The long hours (5 to 8 hours a day or more) sitting down can be tiresome, and you need to get your posture right, or you can damage your back or neck. Luckily when you are in office, this is all taken care off by the workplace, so it is wise to take extra care with this while working from home. This video here might give you a few tips.
A sit stand up desk
Sitting down in front of a laptop for long hours can result in cramped shoulders or back. Why not invest in a sit stand up desk. This should allow you to do work while sitting and also do work while standing half the time. This method does wonders for many.
Take Regular breaks
Take breaks as if you would do so at your office. If you took a morning break and an afternoon break with a walk around your block while at the office – do the same when you work from home.
Exercise keeps you healthy and more productive. Don’t forget when in office you do take some time to have a chat with fellow colleagues as well, so make sure you break up your continuous work time.
Getting Ready to Work from home
Gadgets, Settings and Adjustments you will need to make.
Work Monitors/ Docking stations
WORK MONITORS: Turn your laptop into a Desktop. Your workplace monitors may be huge or dual monitors, so it enables you to see screens easily for long hours. Make sure you get a laptop which is easy to do work for long hours without strain on your eyes. Eye health is important too.
Get your laptop attached to your home desktop monitor or get your office laptop docking station to your home. Maybe get a laptop glare protector if you need one.
Proper lighting in room
LIGHTS: If there isn’t suitable or sufficient light in the room, it can lead to a strain on your eyes affecting your work, so it is essential to have enough light while working and lights that are not reflecting too much on your work area. Adjust as needed.
Hydrate
HYDRATION: If you don’t have a water bottle on your desk at work, you should get one. Office aircon are known to get the air dry around you, and you need to hydrate, so don’t forget to do the same when you are working from home. Get your regular dose of hydration.
Using your own mobile for work
COMMUNICATION: Enquire with your office how you would make calls to clients. If they provide an office mobile or if you can use your own mobile or home phone and claim deductions or claim expenses back from office.
If you use your own mobile, for Samsung mobile you can block caller id or hide your number for a single call by entering #31# before the number you wish to dial. If you are a iPhone user The quickest way to block your iPhone’s caller ID is to use the *67 trick, which is referred to as “star six seven”
Headset with mic
You might need a good headset or headphones with mic to take part in video conferencing and training from home or then listen to training packages, without disturbing people at home or keeping conversations confidential.
Most laptops have a built-in camera nowadays, but if your doesn’t then just get one from your office or a portable webcam from the tech shop or online.
Record Keeping of Expenses
Keep records of your expenses incurred due to working from home so that you can claim it from your office or then claim deductions if allowed. It is easy not to get all the expenses claimed back, which is due if you don’t keep detailed records and receipts.
Plan your lunch or brekky in advance
It is wise to plan your brekky and lunch in advance even though you are working from home to stop unnecessary interruptions at work, just like you would do so regularly. However, make sure you take your breaks.
Kids at home
Set the rules. If you have kids at home while working, it can be difficult. Have a sit-down conversation with your kids? Make them understand that you need minimal interruptions. Plan a daily routine for them as well, Learning time (online learning time), TV time and outdoor play time. Pre-plan activities for them to do.
Good Internet connection
A good stress-free work time can be achieved with good internet connections and good connectivity. Make sure you test your laptop if set up to work from home first from your office before you bring it to home.
To avoid disconnections and lag while working – your office will need good virtual network set up, and also you will need a good internet connection. A good idea would be for your kids to not watch Netflix, YouTube videos or stream audio via internet during when you work – if this is possible.
Work Start /End Timing
All companies or workplaces have different rules, though you can expect quite a few to be the same when it comes to work start and end times. You need to plan your start and finish times.
If you are working from home, you save the travel time. So, with that bonus, you could possibly start a bit early and finish early. Some offices don’t allow you to accrue flex time, and some do, so if its allowed maybe you can work an extra half hour every day and accumulate some flex with an early start. If its not allowed, then you can still start early and finish early and get more time to your day.
Psychology of working from home
Many people will jump at the idea of working from home, not knowing what it entails or how they will cope. Some will succeed it doing it well, and some will fail miserably and not get much done affecting their productivity.
It is essential to know hat kind of work person you are to succeed, if you can get along just fine without an office formal atmosphere and work in your pyjamas that’s okay. But if you will find it hard to work in a casual home setting, maybe you will still need to dress (formals) and act the part to work from home. It’s all about getting your mind into the right frame of work.
Conclusion:
Just finished counting the points, so in total there was “14 tips to get you started working from home successfully”
There are other things you might need – if you suddenly have had to start working from home like printers, printing paper, envelopes, office mobile, paper shredder, filing box or files, stationery and your help desk and support contact numbers ready.
Enquire with your office if they allow you to take equipment home for working from home- You might be surprised. Good luck and please do comment below if you have any additional tips you can add to my article.
- WiFi Range Extender
- Sit stand up desk
- Headphones with mic
- KENSINGTON Monitor Stand
- Desktop Monitor
- Docking station for laptops
- Webcam for Desktop or Laptop
WAVLINK WiFi Range Extender AC1200 Wireless Router/AP Access Point/WiFi Extenders Signal Booster/Range Extender with Dual Band 5Ghz 2.4Ghz 1200Mbps Works Any Route
This is something you might need to get proper wifi coverage to get your work done at home. You will only need this if your modem/router is not good enough in distributing the wifi signal around your house.
Eliminates Dead Spots and Extends the Existing Wireless-AC Coverage
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- Using the Wavlink 575A3 Range Extender, you can easily extend the range of your existing wireless router to create a strong Wi-Fi signal for all the devices in and around your home, including smartphones, tablets, ultra-books, and more.
- Greater coverage allows you to enjoy fast Wi-Fi speeds on your laptop or tablet .
- It can Creates Wi-Fi speeds that are up to three times faster than wireless-N. With this extra speed, you can stream HD-quality videos and play online games seamlessly without interruptions or lag.
Featured Pro plus 36 Varidesk model
The sit stand up desk is becoming a popular alternative today to improve more healthy computer use and prevent your body from bad posture health risks. It helps reduces incidents at the workplace.
Features:
· Best selling model
· Risk-free for 30 days
· Two-tier design: upper display surface, lower keyboard/mouse deck
· 5 year warranty
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Prices and more over here
You can get a cheapo PC headset at officeworks for between $10 to $20 that will do the job for video and audio conferencing or then you can purchase a fancy noise cancelling headphones with mic that will do the job and allow you to listen to music at high quality.
This is the COWIN E7 Active Noise Cancelling Headphones Bluetooth Headphones with Mic Deep Bass Wireless Headphones Over Ear with inbuilt mic. It has active noise cancelling technology
Link here: https://www.amazon.com.au/Cancelling-Headphones-Bluetooth-Comfortable-Cellphone/dp/B07RW8DT4S/
If you got a monitor or need to jack up the height of your laptop then you need this.
KENSINGTON(R) 52785 Monitor Stand, SMARTFIT Standard
Stand positions monitor in line with your eyes to help reduce eye strain.
| Price: | & FREE Delivery. |
Check updated prices here
If this is not your thing, you might want to check laptop stand on Amazon.com.au.
If you are game enough to get a fancy new curved monitor then this is the one you need to pick up from Harvey Norman. It’s the Acer ET322QR 31.5″ Curved Flat Panel Monitor.
This Curved Flat Panel Monitor delivers clear and vibrant images at ideal viewing angles, while also adding a stylish touch to your entertainment setup.
Key Features
- The Acer ET322QR 31.5″ Curved Flat Panel Monitor has a 1920 x 1080 resolution (60Hz refresh rate and 4ms response time) for sharp and detailed visuals.
- Made with an 1800R curvature, the ET322QR monitor’s screen has a wrapping effect at optimal viewing distances to provide an immersive viewing experience.
- Integrating Acer Flicker-less, BlueLight Shield, and Low dimming technologies, the monitor’s visual output is easy on the viewer’s eyes.
- This Acer curved monitor has one VGA port and two HDMI ports to suit a variety of input sources.
- For added convenience, this curved flat panel monitor supports a 100 x 100mm VESA wall mount.
Price Range: From $300 to $450
https://www.harveynorman.com.au/acer-et322qr-31-5-curved-flat-panel-monitor.html
If you want something more cheap and traditional looking, this is what you need below from Jb hi fi
HP 3WL44AA 21.5″ FHD IPS Monitor
Key Features
21.5″ IPS LED Display
FHD (1920 x 1080 @ 60 Hz)
1 HDMI 1.4 (with HDCP support); 1 VGA
Contrast ratio: 1000:1 static
14ms grey to grey response time
Anti-glare
On screen controls
Tilt: -5 to +20°
178° horizontal and vertical viewing angles
If you are going to work from a laptop then a docking station might come handy. A docking station allows you to connect to devices that you could not use in the past. Devices like flat-panel monitors and digital cameras are not always compatible with laptops. It provides a single connection point that allows a laptop to use a connected monitor, printer, keyboard, and mouse.
This allows a laptop to function like a desktop computer.
Pic above is from https://au.uptab.com/uptab-usb-c-docking-station/
UPTab
USB-C Docking Station
$192.62 $129.41
Some more docking station gadgets
- StarTech Thunderbolt 3 Dual-4K Docking Station. …
- Targus USB 3.0 Dual Video Docking Station with Power. …
- AmazonBasics USB 3.0 Universal Laptop Docking Station. …
- Kensington USB 3.0 Docking Station. …
- Toshiba Dynadock V3. …
- Microsoft Surface Dock. …
- J5Create JUD500 USB 3.0 Ultra Station. …
- Dell USB 3.0 UHD Triple Video Docking Station.
or just get one from officeworks
https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/p/kensington-universal-usb-c-powered-laptop-dock-sd4600p-kensd4600p
Lifecam Cinema
https://www.microsoft.com/accessories/en-us/products/webcams/lifecam-cinema/h5d-00013
Part #: H5D-00013
MSRP
$69.95
Enjoy high-quality 720p HD widescreen video together with crystal clear audio, with the LifeCam Cinema
Ref links
Provide guidance on what is a safe home office environment, including what a good work station set up looks like and how to keep physically – https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/covid-19-information-workplaces/working-home
Fairwork Australia – https://www.fairwork.gov.au/employee-entitlements/flexibility-in-the-workplace/flexible-working-arrangements
Find out which employees can request flexible working arrangements, how to work..
