Alveena Ahmad
Coronavirus: Twitter tells employees to work from home
Twitter Ceo Jack Dorsey has asked his staff in Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea to work remotely on a blog post.
The company spokesperson said it was strongly encouraging all of its 5000 employees around the world not to come to work. This news comes a day after the company banned all non-essential business travel and events for its staff members
Like other companies, they have announced to be pulling out of this month’s SXSW (South by SouthWest) media conference. The post also highlighted that Twitter has been developing ways to allow its staff to work from home also known as `Remote Work”. This is good news for many staff as this enables the social media giant to enable staff to work from anywhere.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has long supported remote work and in November announced plans to live in Africa for up to 6 months this year. That plan might change after the Coronavirus epidemic. Many other companies such as Facebook and Google have also decided to cancel their invitations to SXSW. GDC (Game Developer Conference) was also canceled as many developers and publishers decided to pull out after fears of COVID-19 infection.
Google Irish staff members will be off on Tuesday in order to be tested for the viral epidemic but most of its staff are expected to come back to work on Wednesday. Ireland houses the leading digital marketers for various conglomerates.
Financial behemoth CitiGroup has restricted international travel for its staff and the US oldest Telecom giant AT&T has done the same. These announcements come as more than 3000 people have died and the viral infection is still spreading.
The US alone has 70 infected residents while the government dismays any news about it. Iran and Italy having 2000 infected respectively is a shocking number. This viral epidemic will not only change our livelihood but also how we work.
The real question should be, are we ready to accept the change or are we gonna let our egos get the best of us?
COVID-19, Getting motivated to work from home
Coronavirus Pandemic is causing a lot of stress among people all over the world as everybody is experiencing lockdown and working from home.
People who’ve still got a job and are forced to work from home, stress, and long hours are making it difficult to stay motivated to work from home.
It feels extremely hard to maintain your enthusiasm or commit to whatever profession you have. Motivation rather becomes elusive when your work hard and stare at the computer screen forcing yourself to start working. You feel totally uninspired and don’t know how to get motivated and stay motivated.
Following are the few motivators that you should practice on a regular basis while you struggle to cope with this new mode of work:
Don’t fear the hard work:
When you have some hard work to do, you feel your heart sinking and your motivation getting depleted. No matter how puzzling you’re your task appears you don’t have to fear it. Find the small clues that can help you understand how it will work and start with smaller steps. This essentially is called “smart work“. As you will move forward, you will start accomplishing things and motivation will come along the way.
Create smaller goals:
Having a big goal in life gives you a sense of purpose but accomplishing it sometimes seems daunting. Do not focus solely on the larger goal instead, begin by taking smaller steps. Start setting small goals for achieving what you have in mind. You will not lose motivation and will come up with better ideas to reach your goal.
Read more:
Make it a habit to read books on a daily basis. As you will read more, it will expand your horizons. The knowledge you will gain through books will give you a better perspective of who you are and what you are pursuing in life. Reading will bring a great impact on your thought process and will help you to excel in all areas of life.
Remember. readers are leaders. This is why Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Mark Cuban read 50 books a year.
Do not worry about unnecessary things:
People waste a lot of time worrying about things that do not matter a lot. These are the things that cost you a lot of mental energy and make you depressed. Therefore, look carefully at your list and think only about the things that actually add something to your life.
Take care of yourself:
When you are working hard, it is often considered unnecessary to take care of your own self. But when you take care of your mental and physical health, it not only keeps you fit but also becomes happy and satisfied. While you are forced to stay inside your house, you can still handle small exercises to increase the blood circulation in the body and keep you energetic enough if not physically 100% fit.
Celebrate your wins:
It is important to celebrate the small steps that you take toward your larger goals. Be happy for yourself, tell the internet about it, and acknowledge your efforts for every task that you complete. This will motivate you and will encourage you to see how capable you are of doing things.
Covid-19 – Here is how to make working from home more productive
Coronavirus has forced the world to go into lockdown. People are forced to stay at home and work from home.
Working from home has been a priority for many people, especially freelancers for the past few years.
Those who work from home know that in today’s busy, open-plan environment where distractions abound, it is hard to become more productive at work. There could be colleagues coming up to ask questions or merely the hubbub of the day. This is the fact that often a strict office regime is not conducive to productive working. This is the reason working from home is preferred by many businesses nowadays.
People have realized that performance matters more than presence, therefore, they prefer ways in which more work can be done in less possible time.
In this time of world crisis, if you are working from home. here are some ways that can help you become productive from the comfort of your own home:
Set and share your schedule:
When you are working from home, you often get interrupted by excessive use of social media, internet usage, phone calls, and unexpected visits. Therefore, you need to set a schedule and share it with your family and friends. Don’t assume that people will automatically respect your set schedule because it is your scheduled time, not theirs.
Make investment:
When you are working from home, it is only the knowledge that can help you promote your work. For transferring your knowledge more effectively, you must invest in buying a good computer, a good phone, and most importantly, the correct chair and a desk. These things will help you become comfortable and focus on your work and work more productively.
When this crisis is over and the world gets to normal. Make sure, you come out as a better person. Make learning a priority.
Take scheduled breaks:
For working from home more effectively, split your day into 90 minutes windows. This means that instead of thinking of a 6 or ten-hour workday, split it into 90 minutes windows. This will help you have a time limit and your work will get done more quickly and efficiently.
Turn off all the alerts:
Notifications are the biggest distractions for your work, therefore, turn them all off when you are working on a project. Don’t let the digital elements disturb you and check them when you get done.
Follow a routine:
For making your work more productive, create your own schedule. It will help you from mistaking things that seem urgent but are not. Take advantage of your routine and get things done methodology. Here is why four power hours set up your day nicely.
Clean your place:
You cannot work better if you stay in a cluttered place. So, clean up your place once a week and get rid of things that are not needed. Arrange the documents that are important and keep your working area tidy up. It will help you become more productive while working from home.
Set a nighttime routine:
When you are working from home, you think you can work till late at night because there are no specific hours. But that is not true; always stick to a nighttime routine. Before your bedtime, review the information you acquired during the day, make a list of the projects that need to be completed the next day, and knock out the unimportant items from your worklist.
Think of the advantage that you have:
Working from home is a blessing for people who want to focus more on their work. Therefore, think of your facility of working from home as a competitive advantage. You should be glad that, unlike office workers, you can get your work done even at odd hours. And this can help you gain more advantage over others.
