The Coronavirus outbreak has affected the lives of people worldwide. Many businesses both large and small have closed their doors, urging their employees to work remotely to avoid the risk of potential infection.

Having the flexibility of being able to work from home has been a dream many employees pursued for a long time. Yes, there are indeed real benefits to working remotely, but there are also challenges to it also.

Here are some tips to make your remote work experience as productive and successful as it can be during the period of this pandemic.

Use to-do lists

Every morning, it’s useful to have a to-do list of things you hope to get done that day. The key, though, is to understand that on some days, you might not be able to complete them. It’s important not to beat yourself up over that, especially when you’re first starting out.

Have a dedicated workspace in your home if you can

If you are fortunate enough to have a guest room or spare space that can be converted, it’s easier to transform it into an effective workspace. Even if you live in less spacious quarters, though, having a specific space you work is useful. Even if it’s just a corner of your living room or bedroom.

Learn from your experience

As you find out how long it takes you to get certain things done when you’re working from home, build those new expectations into your schedule. That will help you get more productive over time.

Learn to deal with distractions well

Anyone working from home inevitably gets distracted, and it’s obviously even worse if you have family members or friends around because of the coronavirus. However, try to keep yourself focused in the same ways you did at work. As a tech talent, you can distract yourself in a positive way by maybe watching a career or tech-related video.

Take breaks

When you live where you work, it’s even more important to get out of your workspace at times during the day. The COVID-19 outbreak makes this more challenging, but even a few breaks each day to take a walk can make a huge difference to your attitude and lifestyle.

Deal with being disconnected

As good as Slack, Zoom, and other collaboration tools are, nothing can replace communicating face-to-face. Remote workers may inevitably feel like they’re out of the loop. The good thing at this point is that everybody’s in the same boat. So try and utilize the available tools for connecting with co-workers.

Make working comfortable

Do what you can to make your workspace at home as comfortable and functional as possible. Working an eight-hour day in a bad chair for example, can do an immense amount of damage to your body. Even poor internet connections too.

Dress for the Office

One top perk of working from home is no dress code. That’s a fact. You don’t have to wear a suit and tie every day when you work from home. If you want, you can wear your favourite footie pyjamas every single day. But dressing in PJ’s every day may not set you up for healthy work-from-home practice. There is a study on how dressing can impact how we feel about ourselves and how others view us. More importantly, studies have found that how we dress can impact our productivity.

Keep your spirits up

Make no mistake, these are stressful times. Negative headlines, worries about sick or elderly loved ones and fighting the urge to go panic buying for toilet paper can all put answering work emails on the back burner. But the more effort you put into communicating with colleagues, the better chance you have of avoiding feelings of isolation, which can lead to depression.

Good luck!