With the COVID-19 outbreak forcing many countries to implement quarantine measures, many professionals have been instructed to “work from home.” This can mean many things for many industries – from bringing their office equipment home to using their gear, should they have them or doing individual assignments. You must get the proper workstation if your company allows you to work from home. If your job doesn’t have a work-from-home format, you might be forced to get a part-time position for the quarantine duration.
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Location is Key to Working Remote
If you don’t have a home office, things can get tricky when setting up your workstation. Where do you put your stuff? What exactly do you need? If you seem a bit lost, here are some tips to help you out:
Get your workstation as far from your bedroom as possible. Regardless of where you want your workstation to be, make sure it’s somewhere far from your bed. While working on your bed is much comfier, we want to avoid the risk of you wanting to nap or sleep entirely (because it’s the bed). And we want to preserve the idea that the bed is your place of relaxation.
If we make your place for R&R your place for work, you might get tired of your work immediately. Regardless of your job – be it as movers and packers, IT professionals, or even sales and support – a workstation that would require you to walk away from your bedroom gives your mind the time it needs to “realign” yourself to be prepared for work.
Set-Up In A Dedicated Space
Have your workstation on its own table as much as possible. A workstation comes in many forms – it can be your dining table, a living room couch, or even a small bench in your garage. When setting up a workstation, we want to suggest using a dedicated workspace as much as possible. Using any other surface that might be used a lot by different people throughout the day (like a dining table or a couch) can be annoying and disrupt your flow. If you have an extra table or an old table that no one uses, try to call dibs and set up your workstation there. This gives you a “space” that is exclusively yours.
Prepare all your gadgets and devices with the proper updates and suitable applications. Whether you’re working from home through your company or with a part-time job you’ve gotten online, you need to make sure your printer/scanner and devices are equipped with the proper updates and software to let you do work. Before you set up your workstation, try asking your bosses or supervisors the apps and programs you’d need to use so that you can set them up on both your desktop or laptop or even your smartphone.
Communication apps, such as private Virtual Private Network (VPN) software, should be permanently installed and updated to be easy to use and contain the latest security updates. As for other apps, like spreadsheets and slideshows, try to ensure they’re available on your laptop. Other tools, like faxing documents from a mobile app, are critical in gigs involving finance or loan fulfillment.
Pick a Quiet Place to Set up
Have a quiet place ready for calls and meetings. We can’t always get peace at home, especially if we have the whole family there. It’s fun to talk with the family, as this helps us feel safer and calmer throughout the pandemic.
However, if you’re working from home, having a noisy home won’t always do for team meetings and conferences with clients – especially if you’re in the kind of work that needs to talk a lot of times, such as if you’re cross country movers. If possible, try to get a space at home that you can use for calls and conferences – such as the bathroom. Coordinate with your household to leave for a few minutes so you can get your conference calls done.
Keep your cables and electronics neatly placed and arranged. We want to make your workstation as neat and organized as possible to avoid confusion and clutter. When your workplace is cluttered, you might be disorganized as well. Regardless of how many devices, make sure they’re organized on your workstation neatly and in a logical manner. Everything should be within arm’s reach if you need to call someone or check data on another device. Ensure their cables are neatly placed so no one trips and you don’t get confused finding which cable is the charger for which device.
Your First Workstation: Make it Practical, Simple
If there’s anything the coronavirus outbreak has taught us, it’s that we should be flexible and be prepared to make adjustments to our work. Just because some of us are on lockdown and have been instructed to work from home doesn’t mean we should make poorly prepared workstations and setups. Hopefully, the above tips have taught you how to make the best use of the extra materials you have at home to create an efficient and effective workstation that can make you more productive with your work from home. Good luck, and keep safe!
Top 10 Work From Home / Telecommuting Opportunities
Telecommuting jobs allow people to work from home and fulfill their daily tasks. These positions can be full or part-time, and telecommuting can be done weekly or on a project-by-project basis. Telecommuting occupations rely heavily on functioning technology, such as computers and mobile devices, which are required for frequent contact and cooperation. Remote workers’ salaries range from $19,500 to $157,000, with the national average of $79,000 annually.
Here are ten of the most popular remote work areas that are being actively filled.
Online English Teacher
Teaching English as a second language to overseas students who are not native English speakers. Virtual teachers can meet with students individually or in groups. Part of the job may be grading student work and developing a curriculum. Salary Range: $35,000-$45,000
Customer Support Specialist
Customer care representatives frequently contact customers and clients via phone, email, chat, and social media. They may offer items or services, answer questions, fix incidents, or escalate difficult problems. Salary Range $35,000-$45,000
Virtual Assistant
This is one of the hottest remote work jobs going. Virtual assistants can schedule meetings, manage calendars, take meeting notes, organize digital files, and answer emails, among other things. Salary Range: $35,000-$45,000
Copywriter
Copywriters create compelling content to entice potential customers to buy or utilize a product or service. Many positions demand editing abilities, and copywriters must be able to produce clear and concise text. Salary Range $45,000-$55,000
Social Media Manager
Managers of social media accounts and profiles are in charge of them. A social media manager’s responsibilities include writing posts, communicating with followers, and measuring important engagement metrics and overall statistics. Salary Range: $45,000-$55,000
Web Designer
A web designer’s key responsibilities include developing, producing, and coding online sites and apps. Web designers often need to be fluent in one or more computer languages and have some visual design experience. Salary Range: $45,000-$55,000
Business Development Manager
Company development managers, build business ideas, attract new consumers and business, manage client accounts, boost brand loyalty, and boost customer happiness. This position necessitates strong interpersonal skills. Salary range $50,000-$75,000
Marketing Manager
To promote items and services, marketing managers often design advertising and marketing campaigns. This position frequently necessitates writing, social media management, demand development, and SEO abilities. Salary Range: $60,000-$70,000
User Experience (UX/) Developer
To code the front end, these front-end developers transform design files into HTML, JavaScript, or CSS. Ensure that the user experience is optimal and uniform. It’s one of the best remote jobs to work from any place because of the role’s online nature. Salary Range: $65,000-$75,000
Data Scientist
This is a relatively new area, and competition for knowledgeable candidates is fierce. Gathering and analyzing vast amounts of data for corporations, researchers, the government, and other groups are one of their primary responsibilities. Data scientists are ideal candidates for remote work since data can often be accessed via the cloud.Salary Range: $85,000-$95,000
Related Telecommuting From Cottage Reading
Governor’s Coronavirus Order Banned Travel Between Michigan Residences – Back in 2020 on Saturday, April 11, Michigan residents were not be allowed to travel between their downstate home and northern cottage, cabin or trailer. This executive order comes with extended guidelines and extends the Stay Home, Stay Safe issued on March 24th, which was due to expire on April 13th.
How Did Michigan Governors Handle Pandemics in the Past? – 102-year years ago, Michigan governor Albert Sleeper, a Republican from the Thumb Region, was faced with a similar health catastrophe. The Spanish Flu was a global pandemic that started the spring of 1918. The virus was raging in Michigan. Every county had reported cases. On one day alone, October 18th, 1918 the state reported over 1800 new cases and 79 deaths.
Over 100 Years of Michigan Suffering Epidemics – Over the past 100 years, the United States and Michigan have been hit with four influenza pandemics. Of all of these, the 1918 outbreak was the most serious in terms of mortality and the two-year duration of the Michigan pandemic.
Will Remote Workers Flock to Their Cottages to Sit Out the Michigan Coronavirus? – In a study conducted in 1995 by Michigan State University researchers, second homes are common north of US-10. This highway’s east-west road is typically used as the denotation point of being “up north.” North of this line, summer homes comprise 16%-33% of the houses in Huron and Sanilac counties in the Thumb, and as high as 34%- 53% in Iosco and Alcona in Michigan’s northeast.
Hey Mike! What a great post. I really like the suggestion about placing your workstation as far away from the bedroom as possible; I have a couple of co-workers whose workstations are right next to their beds. Imagine the stress! I could never get to sleep.
I’ve been working from home now since the end of March. Thanks to company leadership which has demonstrated remarkable foresight, with disaster plans in place well before we even knew the word Coronavirus, the transition was seamless. I did just purchase a computer stand that turns the dining room table in my ‘office’ into a standing desk when I’m tired of sitting, and I learned the hard way to store equipment out of the reach of pets while not in use and to use surge protectors.
I’m pretty excited to try out my new desk arrangement tomorrow!
Stay safe and well.