Here Are The 10 Mistakes To Avoid When Working Remotely
Many full-time workers have transitioned to working at home (or working remotely) for various reasons.
The flexibility of work-at-home opportunities offers something that is not offered in full-time job settings.
There are also other perks in working at home, such as the fact that work-at-home settings tend to be less boring than full-time job settings.
At the same time, the transitioning phases give their special challenges to workers.
We’re going to see 10 examples of the most common mistakes that you, as remote workers, should avoid when working remotely:
1. Getting Unprepared For Your Home Office Settings
The #1 thing you should remember in working remotely is that your home should be your office.
Here, “getting unprepared” means not only failing to connect with relevant business connections while at home, but also the acts of not being willing to invest in ergonomic desks and other home office equipment, such as mouses, chairs, laptop stands, and many other more.
2. Not Taking Time To Self-Reflect
Self-reflection is always inevitable, even in professional lives, such as when working at home.
Hence, not taking time to do so means inviting potential disasters to your work-at-home lives.
Ask yourself questions, such as whether you have access to productive workspaces or whether you like working alone or with teammates, to avoid making this mistake.
3. Forgetting To Set Up Realistic Limits
Many remote workers see their fellow remote workers’ successes in earning more money. Hence, they make mistakes by overworking, even until the weekends.
To avoid this mistake, make weekends your exclusive relaxing times. Don’t forget to set up clocks near your workspaces to avoid burnouts.
4. Not Balancing Your Routines
Even though you are working inside your home, make sure you don’t forget every day’s routines, such as getting up at the same time every morning, showering, getting dressed up, and many more.
Avoid oversleeping to avoid more blunders while working at home. Instead, make time for sporting inside your home or making a cup of coffee or tea to enhance your productivity.
5. Multitasking During Meetings To Appear Productive
You may have good intentions to open up multiple tabs or do household errands during meetings, so your coworkers and managers will think you are productive and multitalented but think again.
While getting distracted by home-related issues can be tempting, especially for newly-transitioned remote workers, working lives are supposed to be professional lives instead of being personal.
So, avoid multitasking, especially during meetings and on matters that are not relevant to work.
6. Using Too Much Of Old-Fashioned IT Equipment And Tools
Here, too many usages of old-fashioned IT equipment and tools means relying only on one communication method (Hence risking yourself being uncommunicative) and being too lazy to take care of needed IT equipment for work purposes.
A person once said over-communicating is better than under-communicating, especially regarding approaching deadlines.
If your IT equipment and tools are outdated, chances are you will miss out on important communication methods by your clients or project managers, risking you being labeled as uncommunicative.
Additionally, be sure to back up data regularly, keep updated on the latest software, and run antiviruses and safety-related software accordingly to ensure your equipment and tools are not old-fashioned.
This way, you will be able to keep abreast of the newest technology while working remotely.
7. Not Using Zoom Or Other Video Conferencing Tools Correctly
Regular schedules on face-to-face meetings between coworkers are crucial to boosting camaraderie and forming relationships within the same and different departments.
Zoom and other video conferencing methods are facilitating those needs in remote working situations.
Most remote workers frequently misuse the mute feature in Zoom and other video conferencing tools, especially when dogs barking, children throwing tantrums, and many more around the home that can give impressions of not looking professional.
Others simply do not show their faces up during the meeting, which makes them appear like ghosts to the participants.
Be sure to avoid these problems so your face-to-face video conferencing experiences won’t lead you to work disasters.
If you haven’t got time to practice using video conferencing tools, do so now for the sake of your online coworkers.
8. Using The Feelings Of Isolation As Excuses
It’s easy to feel isolated when working remotely.
It’s so easy that remote workers can feel like they’ve just realized they haven’t got out from home for some consecutive weeks, even months.
To some extent, feeling isolated can tempt remote workers to complain about their feelings and use them as excuses to be heard.
Still, there are so many ways to get out from the vicious feels of getting isolated that you should avoid using such feelings as excuses.
For example, you can opt to turn off your computer after you finish your daily project milestones.
Then, you can go hit off nearest gyms, walk near your home, or even connect with other people.
9. Becoming Lazy Just Because You Work At Home
There are different manifestations of being lazy online coworkers.
Yet, two of the most common manifestations are mixing the home office setting the wrong ways, such as using couches or beds as the working tables and wearing pajamas on meetings, and just plain lazy.
Nobody likes lazy workers, including lazy online workers. To avoid being lazy, put priority on your works and project goals before anything else.
10. Telling Yourself You Don’t Need Anymore Remote Work Resources
Arrogance is a big put-off, including in the remote working world.
Indeed, telling yourself that you don’t need any working resources, including work-from-home resources, is one of the mistakes to avoid when working remotely.
There are tons of available resources to enhance remote workers’ productivity, attitude, mindset, and even ideas of fitness routines for remote workers to avoid burnouts.
Be sure to use them according to your unique remote working needs.
Those are the mistakes to avoid when working remotely. So, be sure to avoid those mistakes so your remote working lives will be successful.
In the end, we wish your smooth transitioning process to be outstanding remote workers.