JeanneinDoha’s Guide to Working From Home

With the contagion of coronavirus on everyone’s mind, it appears that organizations in Doha have finally accepted working from home as a viable option. As someone who has worked from home for the past two and a half years, and who successfully manages a team of close to twenty, here are my top tips for making a home office arrangement work.

Focus on your routine.
Start your day as you would were you going to work. get dressed, have breakfast and get to your home office early.

Write out your to do list for the day. Commit to what you are going to do, tick off items on the list as you go along. Be realistic when constructing your goals and resist procrastination. Structure in breaks for coffee and lunch as you would at work. 

Find yourself a quiet space and eliminate distractions. No, you cannot work productively whilst watching Netflix. Successfully working from home relies on adopting a conscientious attitude. The more time you waste, the more time you’ll need to make up. Discipline yourself.

Start early and finish early. I love working from home because I can start as early as I want, avoid a commute, and finish my hours with enough time to spare to pursue my hobbies. 

Handle childcare efficiently. This is the hardest part. For me, successfully working from home has relied on having accessible childcare. However, there is one day each week when I am required to work and for which I do not have external childcare. If you and your partner are both working from home with limited access to childcare, it is imperative that you support each other with childcare responsibilities. If your partner cannot change a diaper or finds themselves unable to put a meal together for the children, it's time to learn, so that you can both juggle your professional and personal responsiblities. That said, we all do the best that we can in difficult circumstances. If your child interrupts your conference call, smile, apologize and move on.

If you manage a team, make sure you have great tracking in place to review work output. Schedule weekly video calls and use chat tools to communicate with everyone on a daily basis. Keep your eyes open and your monitoring tight. 

Don’t slack! You’ll just have to catch up over the weekend. Trust me, I’ve been there.