6 Tips for Telecommuting During Pandemic

When someone says "I'm going to work," we typically think of this as a location, a job site, a store, or in many cases, an office. For some, "going" to work is sitting down at a computer in the next room. For those fortunate enough to still be working at this time, many are now telecommuting and "going to work" looks different today than it did just a few weeks ago.

In the face of the rapidly spreading COVID-19 virus, my company, like a lot of organizations, has implemented either mandatory or recommended telecommuting policies. This measure, combined with social distancing is intended to slow the spread of the virus to allow the medical infrastructure to keep up, and limit impact to business productivity by having large numbers of employees sick simultaneously. However, it also introduces new productivity challenges for employees new to working from home.

The productivity challenges of working from home stem from a number of factors including, but not limited to, distractions which are further complicated by spouses or significant others also working from home, or children doing home-school or having school temporarily suspended.

I have spent nearly 5 years of my professional career telecommuting. The biggest challenge I faced was feeling alone and disconnected when working from home, or finding it difficult to maintain motivation. For the first few weeks I was telecommuting I felt isolated in the silence of being home. I thought it was noise I was missing so I found a track of office noises to play in the background. Over time, I learned it was social connection I was missing and the energy I gained from being around others.

Given the large number of people making this transition, I wanted to share six high impact tactics I leverage to stay positive, focused, motivated, and productive while telecommuting.

1. Maintain a regular work schedule. This includes forcing yourself to sign off. This will help you not work too long, it is too easy to just respond to one more email when your family is just a room away. This can cause you to neglect personal relationships. On the other end of the spectrum, a consistent schedule can help you not to cheat yourself out of a full work day.
2. Get up, shower, put on professional attire. Putting on your "work uniform" puts you in a work mindset and helps prepare you for game-day. Look good, feel good even applies when nobody else is looking but you.
3. Video conference whenever possible. I love instant messaging for quick questions and email for formal, documented communication. However, if you have a choice to pick up the phone or connect via video, choose video. So much of communication is non-verbal. More importantly, we are social creatures and need to feel connected to others. This is more important than most realize. Additionally, most video conferencing software allows you to quickly share a screen and collaborate on projects.
4. Set expectations with those in your household. When you are working, you are not available, you are at work. Of course there are emergencies as always but set some clear boundaries.
5. Get out and go somewhere. Normally, I would say go to lunch or grab a coffee, if you do not have a kids ballgame or some other activity, find a reason to leave the den and get outside. I believe this is important to maintaining mental health. In the face of the current epidemic, go for a walk, a bike ride, or a hike.
6. Have a weekly check-in and check-out with your team. Maintain at minimum a weekly check-in meeting with each employee you manage (or ask your boss to institute them with you). You are not in an office and there will be no water cooler talk. Connect (a little small talk is okay) as you will not have opportunities over lunch or on the way to the coffee shop. More importantly, check-ins give both parties the opportunity to share small challenges they will often not bring to surface until they become big. Set goals with them for the week. At the end of the week connect with your team in a weekly check-out meeting.

We live in a time where technology allows many of us to do our jobs from anywhere we have a high speed internet connection, however, transitioning to a full-time remote role can take some adjustment. I hope others can benefit from my experience to mitigate some of the challenges unique to telecommuting while and enjoying the benefit of no commute, limited in office distraction, and most importantly today, no community spread of COVID-19.