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Solutions For When Cabin Fever Sets In At Your Home Office

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article |Home Office|Solutions For When Cabin Fever Sets In At Your Home OfficeWorking from home is a great way to run your own business, enjoy a better work/life balance, save business costs and more. With more and more people adapting to home working as a result of COVID-19, it could soon be the new normal for a lot of people.

But despite the many benefits of working from home, it can be difficult to focus at times. It can also become difficult to separate your work and home life, creating an imbalance that can be hard to break. So what can you do when cabin fever sets in at your home office? Here are some things you can do to shake things up.

Move into a bigger space

Sometimes a home office can be a temporary solution, or you can soon find yourself outgrowing your space. Expanding your office or moving to a different space can help make things feel more permanent, as well as make your office better fit for purpose. If you’re looking for a larger space, why not convert your garage into a home office? You’ll be away from the house itself, putting a bit of distance between your work and home life. From your garage, you can benefit from some peace and quiet, helping you enjoy a more productive workday.

Consider a co-working office

It’s easy to miss the office environment once you start working from home. One way you can solve this is to use a co-working office, even if it’s only a couple of days a week or month. By renting an office, you could meet some like-minded people, benefit from some great facilities and enjoy a break from your home office. Co-working can be an affordable solution for freelancers and small business owners, working as a great alternative to renting a space full time.

Improve how you manage your schedule

If you’re struggling to find a work/life balance when working from home, you might need to look at your schedule to see if you could work more productively. From choosing different working hours to making sure you take a break during the day, you can change your routine to help you find the right balance.

Lighten your workload

If you find yourself working late into the evenings or having to work weekends, your workload could be too much. In these situations, outsourcing some of your work could help make things more manageable, freeing up your time to focus on running your business. You can outsource admin, accounting, and other business functions, helping you to do the best for your business.

Your home office can be an excellent way for you to work, giving you some freedom and flexibility. But when things get too much or you need a change of scenery, it’s good to know that you’ve got options. Reevaluate your home office space to see how you can improve your work environment to help you work more effectively, and get to make the most of your life outside of work too.

Managing Your Business Better In A Post-COVID World

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Post-Covid|Managing Your Business Better In A Post-COVID WorldThe battle with COVID-19 is far from over. There is a long way to go before the world can confidently say that it has a handle on the virus and that life can return to normal. However, many businesses are cautiously looking towards the future, and how they can adapt the way that they work in light of the pandemic, and the changes that we may have to make in the future.

The way we work has changed completely. While most companies were already moving towards being digital, this has accelerated the process somewhat. What other changes can you implement in a post-COVID world to help you to manage your business better?

Take feedback on board

It can be difficult to ask for feedback. After all, no one wants to hear what they are doing wrong, even if it is for the good of their business, but it really can make a significant difference.

The most obvious place to start with this is on your reviews and social media pages. If the same comments and criticisms about a particular product or business product keep cropping up, take heed and do something about it.

However, you can also create a focus group, made up of your target audience, and ask them what they think you are doing well and where they think you could improve. Above all else, take the feedback on board. Customers like to know that their opinions matter, so show them and tell them of the improvements that you have made based on their feedback.

Outsource tasks

Small business owners wear so many hats, and sometimes, one can slip and make the whole thing fall apart. Stop trying to do everything yourself and outsource. What is the point of you sitting there staring at a spreadsheet full of numbers that you do not understand when you can search for things like ‘a bookkeeper near me’ to do the hard work for you – and do it better!

Aim for a better work-life balance

If there is one thing that the coronavirus pandemic has taught us, it is that nothing is more important than our health. When you are not healthy, you can’t work as productively or efficiently as you could, so it is not only in the best interests of yourself and your family to stay healthy, but your business too.

One of the biggest health issues affecting business owners is burnout. As mentioned above, they wear so many hats and try to do so many things that you can end up burning out, which can be terrible for our health. Make sure you take time to be you, and not just a business owner.

Stay positive

We are in a situation like no other, and no one has any idea what the future is going to hold. There are undoubtedly going to many challenges in the road ahead, and sometimes, you may well feel like quitting. However, try to stay positive. You are far from the only person or business experiencing feelings like this, and while some will end up closing, many will survive, and come back stronger than ever.

Here’s What CEOs Say on Working From Home Without Compromising Productivity!

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article |Working from Home|Here's What CEOs Say on Working From Home Without Compromising Productivity!How many of us realize that we are experiencing history? This is the most unprecedented and unforgettable time of our lives. The outbreak of the pandemic has left for us nothing but experiments, challenges and learning opportunities. Mid May Twitter announced its employees can work indefinitely from home, being the first big tech company to come up with such a policy. For over a long time, a lot of employees who thought of #wfh as a luxury are now compelled to stick to it overnight for the time as long as eternal.

Amid this crisis, a lot of CEOs are coming up with various ideas and offers for their employees to not only ensure their productivity but also their mental well being.

1.Stay Organized: It Is Going to Help in the Long Run

Having a fixed schedule and creating boundaries between professional and personal life is the key to maintain productivity and be efficient when working from home. It is comprehensive that one needs to look after their home and work simultaneously in this tough situation. It is important that people identify when to work and where to work without being pulled into domestic chores or personal matters when working from home. If you start your day with a proper schedule and stick to it strictly, you would surely be comfortable with the new normal.

Do Not Just Work! Work! Work!

Plan your breaks too as you would at the office premises. But remember not to leeway and stretch these breaks.

2. Have a Plan Before You Begin

Well moving your workstations overnight to your home was surely a big thing to do. It is important for the organizations to gather a cross-functional team that includes business-line leaders, IT, HR, communications, and facilities, to plan for the worst and the good to come. It is important that the business is least affected by the employees working remotely. A lot of software development firms that had been providing remote services had an experience of handling clients remotely, but handling the teams remotely is a completely different chapter. Also, it is vital to ensure that employees have a good infrastructure back home to support their tasks and meet the business process.

Lack of communication is going to be a major drawback here. It is important that your team bridges the gap between them and doesn’t let its productivity be affected. Trusting the team in such times is very important. Provide your team members guard rails with the flexibility to deliver their defined targets in the defined time.

3. Short Breaks and One at a Time Approach

It is crucial to take care of your mental well being when working from home. Taking short breaks while staying connected to your colleagues always helps in remote working culture. This is not the time to take it all together. Understand this is not a productivity competition. This is pandemic and not regular work from home exercise. With no domestic help and lots of things being messed it is always difficult to find the right schedule, In the initial days experimenting a little is cool. No one knows how long we are going to stay out of the office, so making temporary adjustments won’t help. Employees and even the managers and leads need to have a plan where they can easily connect and enjoy their work. Enjoying your work is the priority here. Push yourselves and enjoy your work, maintain your productivity and keep calm.

4. Millennial Workforce Are the Key Drivers

The on-the-go technology helps the millennials be more productive and available all the time. They have better ideas to stay connected and hold meetings. With various apps put to function, we can easily predict their productivity. Working from home is quite beneficial for employees as it eliminates their daily commutes. It also helps them to lead a better and healthier life with their family around all the while. A lot of employees relish the model for the flexibility it has to offer. It is always a great choice to work when you are comfortable. This adds to productivity and better results.

A lot of millennials are making the best of the opportunity by joining e-learning classes and certification courses. They are making the most of their time and coming up with some great ideas to hone their skills and contribute to the organizations.

5. Discipline and Dedication Drive the Results

When at home, many of the employees go lethargic with their work. It is important to put your laziness in the backseat and work in a disciplined manner. It is always important to have a balance between work and personal life. Remote developers and other employees often struggle with a stringent deadline. It is important to deliver your customers a world-class service you are available as per their ease and strictly stick to the deadline that you have asked them. This not only makes you look professional but reflects your sincerity for your work too. To make sure you stick to this, the magic trick is to have a well-designed work set up and be dressed smartly. If you take things seriously and work dedicatedly the work hours at work from home won’t be as long as at the office because of the cozy set up and support of being at home. Initial work from home is going to be all kinds of a mess, taking more time than ever, but once you adjust to it, you will realize how easily you can be through your day.

6. A Separate Work Station Gets You Halfway Through

This advice actually works wonders. Get a separate work corner for yourself. This makes it easier for you to realize what and where you need to focus. Keep all your work-related documents, notes, and other accessories together so that you don’t waste hours looking for them each time you want to use them. Add some beautiful quirky elements in the place to ensure that you like the place and it helps you stay concentrated. A cool workstation is always an inspiration to work well and work hard. It becomes a little corner that you would always want to be at. Be at your office on time, take short coffee breaks, and don’t let the pandemic affect your productivity.

7. Trust Your Team

A lot of organizations that have experience in providing remote IT consultation service and development services understand how important it is for them to trust their team in the situation. The head of mobile app development team at A3logics quotes,

“We have been providing remote services for over two decades now, and we never had complaints from our clients’ end. We thought working from home would be the same, but it wasn’t. When in office the team was available on the go and discussed ideas and we knew we were all working. Being home made things a little uneasy initially. But gradually we realized it is almost similar to working remotely where our clients trusted us to deliver their projects. When working from home we need to trust each other that they are dedicatedly working on their parts and things would be in line. This small shift in thought process has actually made working from home quite easy.”

The Final Words

With the outbreak of the pandemic, we have experienced the world’s largest Work From Home experiment. Maybe the organizations won’t go 100% work from home forever but they will certainly enjoy much support from the virtual environments. With so much good and bad going around the business leaders are expected to support their employees and show some empathy towards them. Surely, this is the first time most of your employees are working from home and are connected virtually, but if this works then you are surely going to appreciate the way the results turn out to be with a happier workforce.

About the Author

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor | Scarlett BrownScarlett Brown is associated with the Content Writing team at A3logics for over a couple of years. She has been working on projects related to mobile app development and closely follows the trends in the field. She loves to read about the technical advancements and incorporate them into her work. She has been publishing a few articles on employee well being and work from home productivity hacks lately. When not at her writing desk she is often found enjoying her coffee in the nearby cafe and enjoying some storytelling shows.

Three Things Every Legal Firm Should Outsource

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Outsourcing for Legal Firms|Three Things Every Legal Firm Should OutsourceTime is the most valuable resource for modern business but launching and running a new legal business means a lot of demands on that time. The best way to make success more likely is to use the time that you have to work on the business aspects that have the most ROI. Unfortunately, there are a lot of time-wasting tasks that we can get stuck doing. That’s where outsourcing comes in. You can’t do everything yourself, and by using professionals to handle some of the more challenging and time-consuming tasks, you free up your own time to help your venture grow. Here are the top three options for outsourcing that you should make a priority.

Your Taxes

All businesses will have to deal with their tax obligations, but there’s nothing quite so laborious or as time-consuming as working out how much you owe, finding ways to cut what you owe, or ensuring that you don’t fall foul of fines. Hiring the assistance of a certified public accountant (CPA) can save you a lot of time in the long run but might also make your business more profitable as well. A CPA can identify tax breaks that you’re entitled to, and when those can change any time, it’s simply smart business sense to outsource your taxation requirements to ensure that you always stay up to date on the wiggle room that taxes often allow for.

Payroll Tasks

Even if you only have a single employee, payroll services are worth a lot more than how much they cost. Payroll services are an absolute money and time saver in the digital age, and no legal firm should consider hiring staff if they are still planning to do payrolls themselves. It’s easy to make a mistake with your payroll obligations, especially if this is your first business. When payroll mistakes happen, they can bring financial costs as much as a fresh headache, so it’s always worth looking closer at the benefits of outsourcing your payroll. Whether you’re paying your team once a week or once a month, you can save hours of work and masses of stress.

Legal Outsourcing

If you have a business that works in the law sector, then you may not have considered outsourcing your legal needs. It might seem counterintuitive, but you’ll find that getting rid of the stress of your own legal obligations frees up a lot more time to work on helping your clients. Don’t underestimate the high ROI you’ll benefit from when you acquire professional legal outsourcing for your legal firm. From back office support to case management or even basic legal research, you might be amazed by how much time and money you can save by outsourcing those very manual legal tasks.

Law firms can benefit a lot by adopting a more modern approach to their business needs. It’s easy to get stuck in ways of doing things. Still, a combination of the latest automation technologies with the most useful options for outsourcing, your law firm can benefit from being a lot more cutting edge in its approach to time management. If you want to ensure that your law firm is as lean, streamlined, and as profitable as possible, then outsourcing is an option that you can no longer ignore.

How Co-working Spaces Could Benefit From the COVID-19

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Co-working Spaces|HOW CO-WORKING SPACES COULD BENEFIT FROM THE COVID-19The coronavirus pandemic has pushed the global economy into recession. Economists across the world are predicting the worst economic recession in history, as countries struggle to contain the deadly virus. GDPs are plummeting, and unemployment rates are rising worldwide.

Businesses, from large corporations and MNCs to small companies and startups, are forced to make significant operational and structural changes. Many organizations have embraced the work-at-home model, as offices are the top contenders for spreading the virus. People are focused on avoiding activity or place that encourages social interaction.

It brings us to an important question: Can co-working spaces still survive when social distancing is mandatory?

It most certainly can. Even though co-working spaces are currently facing reductions in revenues and memberships, they have an enormous potential to benefit. Economists and experts observe that a recession and the work-at-home situation can open up new opportunities for co-working spaces. Currently, co-working spaces are empty, and many have shut down due to a lack of demand. But this situation is expected to reverse as people thrive in social settings and seek out co-working situations.

In this article, we will discuss the potential benefits co-working spaces can draw from the ongoing pandemic and recession.

Here, take a look at these points:

1. WORK FROM HOME CULTURE

In the wake of the pandemic, administrations and businesses are fighting uncertainty, which has given rise to the work-from-home model. It is an attractive and feasible solution to maintain operations and productivity in the immediate future. Twitter, amongst other corporations, is allowing its employees to work-from-home permanently.

Apple and Facebook have also extended their work-from-home operations until 2021. The demand for co-working spaces in Australia is also increasing as remote workers need a professional environment. Organizations and professionals are increasingly embracing teleworking, and co-working spaces play an instrumental role in this transition towards remote working.

They provide remote workers with an organized and systematized space where they can operate and network within the industry.

2. DE-DENSIFYING OFFICES

De-densification is instrumental in ensuring a smooth transition out of the crisis and towards recovery. Organizations are likely to explore practical solutions to de-densify their offices and operations to future disruptions and safeguard their employees. Major corporations and companies are already taking measures to relocate their employees and operations to co-working spaces.

As the economy moves towards recovery, the trend of de-densification and relocation to co-working spaces also expected to increase. Businesses are likely to position their employees across multiple co-working spaces to reduce their expenses and avoid over-densification. Corporations have realized the benefits and cost reductions of remote working, and this trend is likely to continue in the future.

Remote working and co-working spaces go hand-in-hand because professionals need a supportive and facilitative environment. Many small businesses and startups that forced to shut down can also rely on co-working spaces. They can position their operations temporarily to save money and recover from the recession.

Many professionals are just getting comfortable with remote work. They realize the comforts and flexibility associated with working at home. However, eventually, millions of work-at-home professionals will seek to escape their home environment and work from a different environment. They will be attracted to co-working spaces where they can practice social distancing without being confined to their home environment.

3. LIFELINE FOR SMALL BUSINESSES

Co-working spaces are not only crucial for freelancers and teleworkers. They are an essential lifeline for small businesses, startup entrepreneurs, and self-employed professionals. They serve as a supportive environment that offers structured discipline for coordination and allows greater affordability.

Countless entrepreneurs are unable to rent office spaces and rely on co-working environments to sustain operations and enhance productivity. Co-working spaces can play an instrumental role in coordinating resources and offering community support to small businesses. They can aid small business owners in exploring grants and governmental schemes.

Co-working spaces can also function as a bridge between local business networks and small businesses. They can provide them enhanced access to government schemes, grants, and local organizations dedicated to relief. Co-working spaces ideally positioned to coordinate the relief resources offered by various local funds and organizations.

They can utilize their peripheral connections and positioning to aid freelancers, remote workers, and small businesses.

4. COMMUNITY SUPPORT

Co-working spaces create a community where remote workers and small business owners can cultivate trust, grow, and build relationships. They are dynamic economic engines that fuel the financial stability and market presence of millions of professionals. Co-working spaces create employment opportunities; they allow businesses to save money and raise equity capital.

Once the COVID-19 crisis boils over, federal and local leaders will work towards creating jobs and restoring office spaces. Co-working spaces will play an instrumental role in recovering the corporate community. Community dimension is significant for allowing a smooth recovery, and co-working spaces will aid in restoring the balance.

The recession has hit hardest on small businesses and startups, and co-working spaces will facilitate restoration. They will help entrepreneurs and professionals regain their stability by offering social networks and industry connections.

It is essential to understand that return to normalcy after the lockdown won’t be easy. Many businesses won’t be able to reopen, and countless entrepreneurs will struggle to raise capital and cover losses. Community support and strength will be crucial in rebuilding networks, reconnecting with associates, and restoring the economy.

Co-working spaces are community hubs that offer support and create a facilitative environment. They will be instrumental in rebounding from the coronavirus pandemic and transitioning towards normalcy.

CONCLUSION

Presently, all businesses are navigating through uncertain times with depleted revenues and increasing losses. The global industry has embraced numerous adjustments and extensive restructuring to cope with the crisis. Co-working spaces are a vital ingredient in this restructuring as they will facilitate local economies and act as community hubs.

Co-working spaces are local economic engines that support remote professionals and entrepreneurs, and their significance is likely to increase. They will play an instrumental role in recovery and rebound, as businesses work towards restoration and growth.