Working from home is a new experience for many around the world, as we navigate #COVID19 and the effects of social distancing. Some of our team members have been working from home for years, others only weeks, but they’re all ready to give you a sneak peek into what helps them stay productive and focussed.

Ashish Ghai, Senior Consultant

Ashish - Brisbane balcony - Sharing Minds

MY SITUATION: Mostly working from office and Client Sites with a bit of interstate travel. Right now, I’m working exclusively at home.

Throughout my career, I have been working in a corporate/office environment with a lot of friends (colleagues) and the luxurious facilities that an office provides to facilitate efficiency. I "had" a very strong belief that working in a formal work environment provides discipline, better coordination and teamwork, resulting in a high level of productivity.

When I heard we are going to be working from home due to the current situation, I was a bit thoughtful about how productive it is going be. At home, I have my wife who is a full-time homemaker and a teenager who is schooling from home, like myself. I was a bit sceptical of how it will work with two of us locked in office/class (our rooms) and my wife a bit disconnected in the same premise for most of the day.

I am a morning person, so to get ahead of the day I start early (7ish) to knock a few tasks out of the park, when it is quiet and fresh. Then have a break on the breakfast table with family to get set for the day. We have our daily stand-up via MS Teams on video every morning from 9:15am, a catch-up with all the colleagues on camera.

Key Challenges:

Keep focus when you have one family member in next room trying to do activities like juicing/ vacuuming 😊
It can become monotonous working in the same room every day for many days alone without colleagues around.
At times there are too many meetings and at the end of the day you may find you haven’t got much done.
Physical stress in sitting stationery for long hours - stiff neck and back.

A few of my tips and tricks to stay focused and be productive:

Start early to get a lot done and look forward to a break with family.
Stay on camera on a daily stand-up and have some fun with your colleagues.
Go for 10 minute breaks every 2 hours, or after a long activity or meeting. I head to my apartment balcony to have a refreshing river view and get some fresh air to the brain, or get into the kitchen to add some spices into the curry that is getting cooked. This is my key to break monotony.
Watch the meeting times and number of meetings for the day.
Track the tasks completed everyday through our timesheet tool - Autotask.
Use Microsoft Planner for creating project tasks and that helps me to stay on track for the projects.
Use Microsoft Teams to conduct meetings, use more chat than audio to allow multi-tasking.
To manage the physical stress, I do a bit of stretching when I feel like I need it, and at the end of the day we make sure we use the balcony, or go down to a park and kick the soccer ball around or play softball cricket with my son.

All this above has enabled me to stay on task and be better connected with the family. I think I am more productive as it gives me back the travel time into work.

Hope you’re all doing well, too.

Stay tuned as we interview more of our team for their
unique and effective work from home tips.