- Ankur Sachdev
Work From Home Essentials
Right state of mind is an extremely important trigger to support, sustain, and scale up remote work or work-from-home. -Dax Bamania
The office where we work is our second home and the people we work with are our second family. This has changed since the Covid-19 pandemic has begun. All of us are at home and our home has become everything for us - School, Office, Gym, and whatnot.
Work-From-Home is a necessity right now. There is a chance that this may become a new trend in the future. While many companies have expressed mixed responses about their employees' productivity, some companies have expressed positive opinions about this new trend.
Companies like Quora, Twitter, Facebook, and Atlassian, to name a few, have announced that they are planning to ask most of their employees to stay & work from home permanently. Atlassian has even announced a new policy called, "Team Anywhere". According to this policy, employees will only have to visit their office four times a year. This is expected to give the management of Atlassian more freedom to hire people from anywhere in the world.
Many employees are now efficient as they do not waste their time to fulfill the social obligations of meeting their colleagues every hour. Some employees are not affected by this but many employees are affected by this obligation. Employees have to move to a conference hall whenever a meeting is scheduled and not everyone feels comfortable in doing that too. Employees, when at home, can attend a meeting in any room they want - bedroom, living room, guest room, or maybe a home office. They may be sitting on a sofa or a chair or the floor based on their convenience.
A home office is what we are going to target in this article and i will help you to set up an office at your home with all the essentials.
Benefits of work-from-home
Does work-from-home benefit anyone? Yes, it benefits both the employees and the company in a positive way. Here's how:
1. Work-From-Home offers an opportunity to employees to have a flexible schedule. Many companies assign a project to their employees with a deadline. Since there is no personal supervision, employees feel free to complete the project at their convenience and in their way. This does not affect a company provided the deadline is met by the employee. This flexibility also makes it easy for employees to look after their family, especially the elders who need constant support. Work-from-home is a treat for those who like to work during the early hours of the day which are normally spent getting ready and commuting to their office.
2. This brings us to the next point. With a lot of time being saved by not commuting to the office, employees feel relaxed as they do not have to rush through the traffic to make it on time. This helps to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Since they do not have to rush, there is no reason for them to stress out. They can also get the much-needed extra sleep that they have to neglect every day when working in the office. Employees can also work out during the hours that they save.
3. Employees feel independent and this drives them to work with confidence. This is also applicable to people with disabilities who also deserve to work like others. Everyone has got a family to feed and the situation for people with disabilities is not different from any of us. Employers benefit from this system by saving a lot of money that is otherwise spent on their employees' commute, fuel, & wardrobe, and the company's overhead & real estate.
Work-From-Home, to exaggerate a little bit, is controversial but it seems to be a perfect system to adopt in these times, and if it gives companies the output that they want then maybe it can become the "new normal".
Problems faced while working/studying from home
Work-from-home offers many benefits to everyone. It is meant to make employees feel comfortable and supportive. Despite so many benefits, there are a few problems that persist. These problems are as follows:
1. Communication Communication is the very basis of everyone's work in the corporate world. Communicating with others is an issue unless we are on a video call which may not be every time. Everyone has only two hands which are needed to type, do paperwork, or take important notes while on call. Keeping our mobile phones between the head and the shoulder is not recommended because it negatively affects our neck. Managing communication while performing our tasks is the key to improve our productivity.
2. Maintaining schedule An employee may procrastinate on some occasions. He/She gets too comfortable at their homes and end-up sleeping more than they should. They lose track of time and their submissions get delayed. Many employees also find it impossible to turn the work mode on-off. This severely affects the morale of an employee when he/she is working from home.
3. Distraction Employees may not take their work for granted but their family members may, especially if they have a kid at home who likes to play a lot. Sometimes, other family members forget that you need a quiet environment and they end up turning the volume of their television higher. If not family members then neighbors may end up creating an auditory disturbance.
4. Set Priorities The superior might want an employee to work on a project while the employee's favorite colleague may want him/her to help them out. Another department may come in at the same to demand the attention of the employee because the project affects them. An employee starts everything without considering what's more important and forgets what he/she was originally asked to do. This affects the employee's image in the organization and coordination within the team is disrupted.
5. Keeping a track When in office, the performance indicators along with the scores are within the sight of an employee. This helps the employee to know if he/she needs to improve the score to get their incentive. Entrepreneurs, mostly freelancers, have a lot of responsibilities on their shoulders. Sending bills to and collecting payment from their clients are two major responsibilities. A lot of disturbance and workload may make it difficult to keep track of the billing system.
These are the problems that i will help you to resolve in this article by sharing the list of essentials for work-from-home. The great news is that you can click on the links to directly visit the relevant page and buy your favorite essentials. These essentials will also serve fruitful for students who are studying from home.
Work-From-Home essentials
The pandemic is hard and work-from-home may seem like trouble to some people. It is better to take this as an opportunity to create a customized home office and make this time memorable. Irrespective of your work timings - full-time or part-time - these essentials will solve all the problems that i have mentioned above and, most probably, the ones that i have missed.
Whether your company reimburses you for setting up a home office or not, you will find these essentials extremely affordable. If you like something that i have listed below, then feel free to purchase it. I have mentioned the link of the essential along with it. The link will redirect you to the relevant shopping page.
Some important work-from-home essentials are as follows:
1. Bulletin/Whiteboard
Keep every note in front of you to keep a track of what's important. You can take a note of performance, target, or deadline and put it on board. A bulletin/whiteboard can be hung on a wall but that may not be possible for everyone to do. Hence, i recommend you buy it with a stand. The best part is that there are sellers who sell the combo of a board and a stand. You can buy them together instead of adding them separately to your cart.
A board of 4x3 ft along with a stand of 6ft is sufficient for an individual. You also have an option to buy a smaller board of 3x2 ft.
The board that i recommend comes with four color options: blue, green, red, and beige.
The whiteboard that i recommend is 1.96x1.47 ft. It comes with an eraser, two markers, and 6 magnets that you can use to keep your notes. You get an option to add a stand while adding this item to your cart.
You may click here to buy the bulletin board on Amazon. You may click here to buy the whiteboard on Amazon.
2. Sticky notes
One cannot take every note on a random page, tear it, and paste it on a wall even when at home. It is important to maintain professionalism even while you are working from home. Sticky notes might be a small piece of paper but it serves as a great advantage. You can write important points on it and paste them on a board that we have talked about in the previous points.
It is wonderful how the board has already started to serve its purpose, isn't it?
Getting something extra feels good. That is what this sticky note is. It comes with a notepad and a pen. Moreover, there are three different sizes of sticky notes. You can use any of them based on your requirement.
The notepad that is attached comes in ten different colors: White, neon green, Peach, crimson red, lemon, mango yellow, neon orange, neon pink, ocean blue, and rust orange.
3. Table calendar
There is always a need to highlight the deadline or an important date, like your boss's birthday or the launch date of your product. A date-based note cannot be forgotten and has to be kept marked somewhere. This where a table calendar comes in. A board can be used for this purpose too but it's better to use the board for notes that help us to keep a track of general activities like key performance indicators.
I recommend a table calendar that comes with inspirational quotes.
The table calendar comes marked with important holidays and has enough space to write a note. The dimensions of this table calendar are 6x8 inches. The section of inspirational quotes and dates is separate and both can be turned individually. If you come across a quote that inspires you the most then you may keep it for a longer time.
4. File cabinet/organizer
A table has limited space which may not be sufficient for you to keep your files that you are not using at the moment. It is better to set them aside in an organized manner. A file cabinet or a file organizer provides you space where you can keep your files.
The file cabinet that i recommend gives you a lot of space to keep not just your files but also your stationery like a stapler, pen, pin, or a diary.
You get five tiers to keep your files, documents, and stationery. The construction of this file cabinet is that of a metal. This makes it steady and long-lasting. Another benefit is that each tray comes out smoothly. This enables you to keep your files, documents, and stationery with ease. This also enables you to clean each tray comfortably.
5. Stationery kit
A stationery kit is a weapon, if you will, that everyone carries to the office to perform the basic tasks. Employees have an option to get it from the administration department but in the case of work-from-home, home is everything for an employee. Hence, it is important to keep the 'weapon' fully loaded to make sure that we do not run out of the basic ammunition.
Every element of a stationery kit can be bought individually; however, it is recommended to buy a combo pack first and then buy every element individually depending on what you run out of first.
The recommended stationery kit includes one piece each of stapler, punch machine, pack of stapler pins, paper cutter, marker, scissor, highlighter, pencil, sharpener, eraser, scale, transparent tape (1inch & 0.5 inches), glitter tape, and fevi stick.
6. Noise cancellation headphones
Your family members may, unintentionally, end up disturbing you by creating a lot of noise of toys or on television. If not your family members, then there is a chance that the family living next to your home may create an auditory disturbance. This needs to be avoided to make sure that you are completely devoted to the virtual meeting with your team or with your supervisor.
Noise cancellation headphones help you to remain dedicated to your work while you are in a virtual meeting. The product may be expensive but it is worth every penny that you spend. If not during work, then you can also use it while traveling.
The noise cancellation headphone by Sony comes with a battery life of thirty hours and Alexa enabled voice assistant. The headphone is wireless and comes with a built-in microphone. You can connect it to Bluetooth and enjoy the premium sound quality.
7. Laptop table and chair
A table for the home office should be portable because, let's face it, no one likes to sit at one place and work. Some employees don't mind sitting in one spot. Whatever the case may be, a table should benefit every kind of employee.
Getting just the table might sound like a bad deal but guess what, i have found a table that has a lightweight compartment too.
The table is portable as it can be folded and carried to any room. If you ever plan to visit your relatives and you are scared of getting a good table then you can carry it with you. The table will also come in handy if you ever visit a picnic spot with your family. You can use it to keep your belongings like a bottle, tiffin, napkins, etc.
I recommend getting a chair that does not have wheels. A chair with wheels gets damaged faster. The wheels often break or the back part of the chair becomes loose. A steady chair without wheels offers value for money.
8. Laptop/Mobile accessories
A system is as useful as its accessories. The accessories that i will talk about are a USB hub and printer. These two accessories are as important as the system itself. A USB hub lets you connect more than one device to your system and a printer lets you print a copy of your important documents.
There are many types of USB hubs. I will focus specifically on the one that everybody can use and not just the tech guys.
The USB hub is compatible with every kind of system - Mac, iPad, and windows, to name a few. The technology has improved to a level at which it can fulfill someone's demand to transfer data at a faster speed. The USB hub has four ports and all of them are 3.0.
A printer now comes with many functions and it is important to buy the one that serves your purpose the most. The printer that i recommend comes with a scanner too. It can be connected to your Wi-Fi and you can print a document by using its app. It allows duplex printing and supports A4, A5, A6, B5, C6, and DL size printing.
9. Hard Drive
Buying a hard drive may sound a little too much but it pays off. Your system - laptop or desktop computer - may break down for some reason making you lose all your data. The project that you have worked on for a long time goes in the drain. To prevent this from happening, getting a hard drive is a must.
A hard drive comes in many variants like 1TB, 1.5TB, and 2TB, to mention a few. The cost for every variant differs. The cost should not matter if you work with a lot of data.
I recommend a hard drive of 1.5TB. It would be sufficient to store your data. It comes with a USB 3.0 cable of 18-inch. The dimensions of the hard drive are 8x1.5x11.7cm and it weighs only 170 grams.
10. Work-Out device
With no commutation required, you save a lot of time. This time can be utilized to build your health. It may be difficult to become a body-builder but it is easier to take care of your body.
Whether you prefer to do yoga or you prefer to walk, these essentials are a definite purchase.
The yoga mat is made of anti-skid material. You can be carefree while performing your exercises as it would not slip on the floor. The dimensions of the mat are 6x2 feet. It comes with a carry bag that makes it easy to store or carry the yoga mat. It can be washed easily with soap and water as it is water & sweat resistant.
The recommended treadmill offers a maximum speed of 16km/hr and can take a maximum weight of 110 kgs. You get a running surface of 16.5x4.6-inches. It includes technical features like time, speed, distance, calorie, pulse, and fat measure. It can be folded and moved from one place to another. You can also connect your mobile via aux cable.
All of these essentials are available at an economical price. These will improve your productivity and some will take care of your health.
Conclusion
These essentials will make your home office the most productive space. Every issue that you face, or may face sometime in the future, can be resolved with these essentials.
That is all for this topic.
If you have anything to contribute then kindly share it in the comment section. I would love to hear from you.
*Kindly note that the author of this blog post will not be responsible for any transactions that take place between a customer and the seller. For any query, kindly contact the relevant service department.