The Best Hacks For Working From Home

The outbreak of COVID-19 has become a global pandemic, creating a lot of fear and uncertainties. To clear up concerns, many companies and offices are following protocols that could stop the spread of the disease by making everyone work from home. So instead of Casual Friday, it's Casual Every Day. Some employees think this is the best thing ever - they can sit in bed wearing the same pajamas all week - while others are worried about how productive they'll actually be. Here are the best ways to work from home.

Being separated from your work bestie can be hard, but with Zoom it'll be like they're right there! Zoom is a video-conferencing work-space that allows you to have meetings with up to 1,000 participants, chat with teammates, connect calendar events, and record the meetings. And of course you can do this all in pajamas.

If you're used to having a bunch of files, tabs, and notes on your desk at work, Microsoft Teams is a great way to keep you organized and efficient at home. While video conferencing, team members can send each other Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files for real-time editing and viewing. No need to email or walk across the office to hand your coworker a report.

Are you always calling Tech over to your desk when you have no idea what's going on? You can't quarantine yourself with the office's resident computer expert, but you can show them exactly what's wrong with TeamViewer. This allows remote desktops and mobile devices to connect from anywhere to share and control screens.

AIM Instant Messenger, meet Slack. If you're wearing a green face mask and are not screen ready, Slack is perfect. A lot of offices use this messaging system to start an individual and group chats, and send documents, links, and most importantly, GIFs. Just because you're not sitting with your favorite coworkers doesn't mean you can't discuss the latest office gossip. Oh, and actually work.

Some people like to work in teams, some work better on their own. If you feel overwhelmed with being alone and don't know where to start, try using a task manager. Getting Things Done organizes everything you have to do by writing it all down, assessing if you can get it done/its priority, and setting reminders. Make sure to give yourself necessary lunch and bathroom breaks!

Another way to get your life together while working from home is with Asana. This program puts everything you're compartmentalizing in your brain into a visual to-do list. You and your team can track tasks with boards, lists, a timeline, and a calendar. So all those post-its on your computer can be put in one digital place.

Working from a messy home could lead to messy work. Like the clothes in your bedroom, your notes might be all over the place. With Evernote however, all of your meeting notes and information are organized in one spot. You can also save websites, search for text in documents, sync notes, and use your notes without wifi. No more fumbling through papers and tabs on your computer!

If you're working from home, you can't pretend to do work every 10 minutes when your boss walks by because they wont be there. So how do you make sure you actually do all of your work by the end of the day? Tomato Timer uses a time management method to stop procrastination, giving you 25 minute breaks in between working and recording your progress.

If you're easily distracted in a non-office space, you should definitely try Cold Turkey. This website blocker stops you from browsing the internet (aka online shopping and watching Carpool Karaoke). However, if that's too intense for you, you can set up a timer for breaks so you can focus on your work and debrief.

To make sure you have the most productive day at home, install a VPN (virtual private network) or get a hot spot. You never want to lose wifi during a conference call or lose what you were working on. If you'll be home for an extended period of time, get a strong network connection so you can "work, work, work, work, work" - Rihanna.