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Suffice it to say, nothing about this year has lived up to expectations.
The promise of 2020 was bright and gleaming. The images it conjured up were overwhelmingly positive: 2020 vision, the roaring 20’s, the dawn of a new age. The reality has been absolutely incomparable. From the bushfires, the global pandemic, rising unemployment, Brexit, growing social divides and the increasingly terrifying situation that is the entire United States, things have been moving from bad to worse and there’s seemingly no end in sight.
It’s okay to be depressed about the state of the world in 2020 and it’s absolutely understandable to hope things will all go back to the way they were before. We’re all eager for the return of carpooling, communal dining, hugging our loved ones and dance floors and we’re hopeful that these things are not gone for good. However, the changes to the way we work, seem to be here to stay.
So, what does this mean? We predict we’re going to be seeing more flexible working arrangements, a shift towards working from home and a move away from high rise office buildings and excessive staff meetings.
So, check out these tips to help you seamlessly transition to the new working world that has become our reality in 2020.
Consider whether your job can be done from home.
Whilst the limits of what sort of jobs can be sustainably done from home has been stretched lately, there are definitely some jobs that are better suited to working from home than others. It’s a lot easier to be a graphic designer or a
Learn how to communicate effectively.
Without the face to face communication you rely on in the office, you’ll need to step up your written communication skills. If you’re a manager then it’s important to make sure you’re effectively communicating to your team, setting clear expectations of work, deadlines and making it clear how they can communicate concerns and who they should get in touch with if they have problems. As a supervisor, it’s up to you to make sure that you’re communicating clearly, concisely and constantly so that your employees can know what you want from them. If you have trouble expressing yourself, download a tool like Grammarly or create a template that you can work from when emailing team members, clients or colleagues so that you can communicate quickly and effectively without having to put too much time and energy into thinking about your phrasing.
Focus on your work-life balance.
Back in the day when we physically worked in the office from nine to five, it was easy to create a division between your work life and your personal life when you physically walked out the door, everyday leaving your work worries behind you and getting ready to focus on your personal life, your friends and family, children and your own mental health. When you’re working from home it can be hard to keep your world/life balance in check. For young people in sharehomes working on makeshift desks in their own bedroom, waking up and seeing your work staring back at you; for parents who are dealing with toddlers interrupting conference calls or having to answer questions about home school whilst also submitting a brief – navigating the increasingly blurred line between work time and personal time can be incredibly challenging.
Even if you’re in a situation where you have the space and resources to have a dedicated workspace outside of your bedroom or kitchen, it’s still important to set boundaries. Make sure you really log off when you’ve finished work at the end of the day, that you take a real lunch break and set clear boundaries for yourself. And, as much as a bummer as it may be, make sure you get dressed every day. You don’t have to wear full office attire but aim a bit higher than PJs and track pants to help differentiate between your working life and your personal life. For more tips on how to create clear boundaries for yourself and those in your household when you’re working from home, head here to check out an article.
Make sure your technical skills are up to date.
If you’re in the market for a job right now, as many people are, then you might need to skill up to make sure you’re able to convince potential employers you’ll be able to adapt to a new job while working remotely. Make sure you’re up to date with how to use all the common teleconferencing and telecommunications applications such as Zoom, Trello, Slack, and Todoist. You’ll also want to make sure that you can demonstrate familiarity with any applications that are specific to your industry such as QuickBooks for bookkeepers or Pipedrive, Responda and Agora Pulse if you’re working in the marketing, PR or communications industries.
Forget the old concept that you must work now and live later. Escape the endless cycle that takes you from work to home then work again. Relieve financial tension without working a second job.
