This guest post is provided by Rob Teitelman.
Did your office embrace work-from-home measures last year? Now more than a year into the pandemic, these temporary policies aren’t looking as short-term as they did at the outset. In fact, most CEOs believe work-from-home options are here to stay.
If you’ll be working from home for the foreseeable future, it’s time you reconsider how you work. Your makeshift solutions to temporary work habits won’t cut it anymore. You need to think about your tech, finances, and work-life balance before you can truly benefit from a permanent work-from-home gig.
Your Tech
Like many work-from-home professionals, your personal computer, phone, and Wi-Fi replace the tech you used in the office. You need to make sure it’s up to the task.
Reliable communication is essential when it comes to working from home, so you’ll need to check in with your phone and Internet plan to confirm you have what you need to stay connected.
If you don’t, there’s a chance you go over your talk minutes or data cap — two things that guarantee a big bill in your future. Upgrading these plans can be costly, so ask your employer to see if they’re willing to pitch in.
As for your tech, you’ll want to stay on top of updates and other security patches to ensure you can use programs without interruption.
Emergency Preparedness
Despite your best efforts, accidents happen. You can spill water over your laptop and fry its motherboard, or your ancient computer might be too old to keep up with your modern workload.
Being prepared can help you respond to these emergencies and solve them with fewer interruptions. Part of being prepared is having an emergency fund you can tap into should any essential tech go unexpectedly wrong.
You’ll want to start squirreling away a bit of money each month toward these savings so that you have what it takes. Eventually, you’ll want to set aside as much as six months of living expenses to feel secure.
If you fall short of your goal before your tech dies, you might consider taking out a loan to help cover unexpected emergency repairs or replacements. There are easy borrowing options with simple online applications, like an installment loan or line of credit designed specifically for these unexpected emergency expenses.
Like any borrowing option, an online loan is a big decision. To make sure it’s the right fit for your needs, compare their rates, terms, and conditions before you apply.
Time Management
One of the challenges of working from home is logging off. You’re always connected, so you can feel obliged to answer calls and respond to emails round the clock. With no clear boundaries between work and home life, your workday can easily bleed into your evening — or even the weekend — if you aren’t careful!
Political groups in the EU, Canada, and America are urging their governments to pass laws granting remote workers the right to log off. Until these laws become a reality, talk to your boss about creating clear expectations about when you’ll be working.
Bottom Line
There’s a big chance you’ve been working from home for more than a year now. With all this time to troubleshoot, you’ve probably worked out most of the kinks to sharing a space with loud children or unemployed roommates. These tips help polish the rest of your experience as a work-from-home professional.
This guest post is provided by Rob Teitelman.
