WFH Practical Tips

• Teams and Skype – these platforms are excellent, and we realise now that we could have been using them far more, prior to the crisis. There is different functionality in each and its worth playing around to discover them, such as silent text chats between members, document sharing, etc.
  
  
• Team meetings – use of conferencing calling apps means we’re getting far more out of meetings than if they were just phone calls, attendees are far more engaged when they can see each other.
  
  
• Contact – it’s useful to set daily catch up time to maintain contact with teams, it keeps the familiarity of working together and enables people to share good practice, practical tips and to maintain the sense of person-to-person contact likely to be lost whilst we are isolated.
  
  
• Documents – where your document systems allow, share links to doc’s rather than copies of doc’s, this ensures editing of one common copy, rather than having to assimilate changes included in several versions.
  
  
• Downtime – pick up the phone or con’ call colleagues – you’d normally have conversations and interactions around the coffee station or the photocopier – it’s healthy to keep those interactions going.
  
  
• Check emails – one problem with using non-verbal communication is that misinterpretation is easy, check the tone and content of emails before you send them.
  
  
• Set a timetable – it’s easy to get out of sync without the routine of the office.
  
  
• Schedule breaks – take lunch, have coffee breaks and get fresh air (if you can).
  
  
• You can be flexible – so be flexible, if you’re a morning person start work earlier and finish sooner and vice-versa – take a mid-day break if that works for you.
  
  
• Out of hours, systems can be quicker – if you’re finding certain app’s are slow at pinch times, schedule tasks that use them for early or late in the day, better still early mornings and evenings.
  
  
• Children – if you have children, the chances are they are now at home with you. Schedule time to spend with them, set them tasks to do, let them know when you’ve scheduled in breaks – enjoy the chance to spend more time with them by managing your day.