The COVID-19 outbreak is causing a lot of uncertainty in our daily lives. Many countries are constantly working on enforcing social distancing and safety measurements. Workers, as well as job seekers are therefore experiencing disorder in how they work and live. But in these troublesome times, digitalization proves to be a powerful ally. Many institutions are working on developing methods for transitioning to an online environment. Even the ones that weren’t used to working online, such as schools and universities. But how to survive working from home during Covid-19?
We understand that these transitions can create some pressure. While the whole world is turning upside down trying to tackle the pandemic, you don’t have to! That’s because our team at Moyyn came up with a mini survival guide to help you stay ahead!
1. Maintain a balance between professional and private life
From not being able to meet up with your colleagues at work to not being allowed to go outside at all. We understand that it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by all those sudden changes made in your routine. Now, as you’re self-isolating at home and working remotely both your private and professional life merge. This easily results in your schedule suddenly being even more confusing than it was before. If you don’t want to fall behind, it’s important to make a clear distinction between your work and your life. This can be done by creating some structure in your life:
- Firstly, create a new routine to keep yourself busy. Have a regular sleeping schedule, so that you would feel fresh when you wake up in the morning. Then you can create and stick to a morning ritual that would fit a normal day in your life: everything from taking a shower, to having a delicious breakfast while listening to music and to getting dressed for a new day helps.
- Secondly, in order to focus better and to be more productive, try to minimise distractions. Create a special working place for yourself! Try to keep this working place clean, organised and free from distractions such as housemates or loud noises. Also, be sure to let your friends and family members know at what time you will (not) be available. This will minimize the reach on social media/telephone, and to avoid any further distractions.
Another thing that is important to remember when it comes to balancing a private and professional life is keeping a firm distinction between working days and the weekend/free time. To achieve productivity it is advised to not work in your free time. You should also not work at times when you know you’re not going to be productive.
2. Plan in advance
Start by creating a weekly planner. Start planning either from Sundays or Mondays and include all activities, for both working and daily life. Plan in a way that suits your needs and style. But make sure to always have a 10 minutes break at hourly intervals. But make sure you have some additional time slots left available! This will be for all the tasks you weren’t able to achieve during a certain day/week. If planning goes wrong, don’t panic! Just start again until you find a program that works for you!
3. Keep in touch
After you’re done working, it’s important to check up on friends and family. With the help of technology, it was never as easy as it is now to keep in touch. Especially for an international that is stuck in a foreign country. From video calling to hosting events on different social media platforms, it is quite easy to engage with the people that you care for. And all the great talks you are going to have online combined with the great activities and ideas you’re going to come up with will make you feel like you’re psychically spending time with your loved ones. You can even ask them the question: How do they survive working from home during Covid-19? Sharing those moments with them will remind you that you’re not the only one who’s going through tough situations, which helps with staying sane.
4. Learn how to relax
Especially now, the fear of missing out is stronger than ever. It’s indeed good to be productive and to use your newly acquired flexibility and free time for good practices such as improving skills or working out. But at the end of the day, it’s already hard to figure out how to survive working from home. Putting extra pressure on yourself to achieve ultimate productivity is not the best solution. You have to take everything one step at a time. And when you’re feeling stressed or anxious, find a hobby to help you relax!
5. Be kind to yourself
As we’ve mentioned before, this is not the best time to be in a worse state of mind. It’s important to stay healthy, safe and focused to function properly. Work on finding solutions to your problems and adjust your approach if something doesn’t work out. If you’re feeling burnt out, relax for a moment. If you find a difficult situation to cope with, then don’t be afraid to ask for help. Call your friends and family for support. If the situation that you’re facing worsens, there is nothing wrong with seeking help from a professional.
We realise that a situation like this is likely affecting more internationals, as they are more inclined to feeling social or financial pressure. But it’s important to remember that you have to do the best you can. Ultimately you have to accept and to be kind to yourself.
Adapt
Lastly, it’s very important to keep in touch with yourself. Redefine your goals and expectations in order to make it work during the current pandemic. Adjusting yourself to a new lifestyle doesn’t happen easily. You will have to use discipline to train yourself.
We hope you enjoyed our survival guide on how to survive working from home during Covid-19. Moyyn is a recruitment platform for highly skilled professionals in Europe. We have thousands of experienced engineers in all domains looking for new opportunities at the moment. If you are a company looking for talents, you can get access to our highly skilled talent base. Getting profiles is completely free of cost. If you like to recruit engineers and feel that you have a shortage of skilled labor in your company, feel free to contact us.