We are living in interesting and, often, trying times. With a pandemic knocking down the doors of every country across the globe, more and more people have either been forced out of work or into working from home. For many this is as simple as opening a laptop and getting down to business.
For others, however, this change is more than just one of location—it’s a total mindset and a confluence of very different lives and lifestyles. It also means making some drastic changes in how you work and exist outside of work.
But more important is the idea that you need to get up to speed with this quickly. Most businesses aren’t in a position to allow a week or two for you to get acclimated to your new locale. Even agile software development providers such as BairesDev need you up to speed quickly.
So how do you manage such a task?
It’s not as hard as you might think.
It’s all about mindset
If you’ve worked in business long enough, chances are you’ve had to travel for your job. You’ve taken your laptop, boarded a plane, arrived at a hotel, and settled in for a run of sleepless nights, bad food, and long work hours. But you managed, and you did so with little to no lead-in time. You unpacked your bag, opened your laptop, and dove into the job.
Although working from home doesn’t offer the same level of peace as a lonely hotel room, it doesn’t have to include a more complicated shift in how you work. So if you have to, think of this as nothing more than an extended business trip where you open that laptop every morning and dive into the work.
For some, that’s actually not only possible but preferable. Instead of trying to retool a room in the home to emulate a work environment, it has to be as simple as dropping in and doing what’s necessary. In fact, certain types of people (such as those who pay too much attention to detail) can get bogged down in the minutiae of creating a functioning office space.
So forget about recreating your cubicle or office in the home and just spread out on the dining room table and do your thing.
It’s all in the tools
Discussing the mental aspect of this transition is all fine and good, but at some point, it’s going to come down to the tools. Hardware, software, files, data—without these things even those most flexible of employees will have a hard time getting work done.
The best (and most obvious) way to make this transition incredibly fast is to have everything with you from work. This could mean nothing more than bringing a laptop home. But even that will have its own unique hiccups. Your laptop is used to having access to files within the company LAN. To solve that problem, you’ll need your IT department to hook you up with a Virtual Private Network (VPN).
But if your company doesn’t have a VPN, what do you do?
Your best bet is probably to get all of that necessary data copied to a cloud storage account you can access from outside of your company LAN. By using a service like Google Drive, you won’t have any problem working with those files.
If, however, your company has a policy that prevents you from using the likes of Google Drive, you might need to have internal software development services create some hybrid cloud solution that can bridge the data you need to a service you have access to. Or, if your company doesn’t have the internal resources for such a task, you might suggest they go the outsourcing software development route.
No matter how you do it, one of the first things you need to secure is your ability to access the files and data required to do your job. Without that at the ready, your getting up to speed with working from home is going to be a long, drawn-out process.
Along those same lines, make sure you have a backup network solution. This could be in the form of tethering your mobile device, a hotspot provided from your mobile service provider, or even a second network service installed in your home. There’s no telling how long the stay-at-home order will last, and you do not need to be worried about whether your internet connection is up to the task of you working from home. Outside of procuring the files and data you need from work, having reliable network connectivity right away will help you along with the process.
A meeting of minds
This small piece of advice can’t be overstated. On the very first day of you beginning your work-at-home stint, you must sit every member of your family (or your roommates) down and explain to them how important it is for them to respect your needs and boundaries. You might have to get very specific with them and set schedules for your workday. You’ll have to make it clear that they must not interrupt you during your workday.
By having a meeting of minds early on, you should be able to avoid falling victim to the standard pitfalls of working from home—such as family interruptions, noise, and other demands.
Don’t overlook this task. Don’t put it off. Give your children, your spouse, and/or your roommates “the talk” immediately. Lay down the law and make sure everyone involved understands.
Conclusion
This transition is probably temporary, so it shouldn’t have to cause you no end of grief. With just a bit of planning and up-front management, you should be able to get up to speed with working from home quickly and without too much effort.
To find out more go to - https://www.bairesdev.com/software-development-services/
Malcom is a tech expert at BairesDev specializing in the software outsourcing industry. He has access to the latest market news and has a keen eye for innovation and what's next for technology businesses.