"The Little Voice of Vista": How to Prepare to Work from Home
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Time flies so fast, today is already the third day of the Lunar New Year! I wonder how you are doing this Chinese New Year? Have you gone with your family, relatives or friends to pay New Year greetings or go shopping? Because of the epidemic, I believe many friends choose to celebrate the New Year at home this year.
说到在家工作（WFH, Work From Home），我相信大家并不陌生。这两年因为新冠肺炎疫情肆虐的关系，为了防疫的关系，全球有超过数百万的上班族在一夕之间被迫离开原本的办公室而选择在家工作，有些人因此感到开心、雀跃，但也有人无法适应这样的生活，还是比较习惯以往人声嘈杂的办公室。
I wonder if you also have experience working remotely? Do you like working from home? Has working from home made you more productive? Or does it disrupt the original rhythm of life?
In today’s program, let me talk to you about how to prepare for working from home!
Recently, as the domestic epidemic has shown signs of intensifying, many companies have begun to resume working from home. As far as I know, many of my friends’ companies started working from home the week before the Lunar New Year. Therefore, the bustling office in the past may suddenly become deserted again…
How can you prepare if you have to work from home?
Recently, a new book was published in China, and I happened to recommend it.书名是《在家工作的成功秘诀：美国中小企业最佳CEO教你高效、弹性、具团队精神的企业竞争新优势》，作者罗伯特・格雷瑟（Robert Glazer） 是一位跨国伙伴行销代理公司的创办人兼执行长。这家名为加速伙伴（Acceleration Partners）的企业，也是目前全球规模最大、历史最悠久的全面远距工作组织之一。
Another co-author, Mick Sloan, is the manager of leadership development and content innovation at Acceleration Partners.
To put it simply, this book compiles the experience of Accelerator Partners, a marketing company, in practicing remote work for many years.
说到在家工作，对于以往未曾经历这种工作方式的人，可能会有一种错觉：误以为在家工作时员工会偷懒、或者穿着睡衣在家晃来晃去，甚至是一边工作、一边吃零食，甚至找到机会就偷懒。
Working from home has been practiced for many years. Even before the COVID-19 epidemic began to spread, advanced countries such as Europe and the United States had already led the trend of remote working. 《在家工作的成功秘诀：美国中小企业最佳CEO教你高效、弹性、具团队精神的企业竞争新优势》的两位作者也提到，过去五年来这种工作型态成长了44％，放眼过去十年来看则成长了91％。
当然，因为疫情的关系让许多的企业、组织转变为远距工作形态，尽管对于这项转变的经验和准备有限，但大家很快就发现即便在家工作，大部分的工作内容仍能正常运作。 Therefore, many business owners have changed from “doing it as a last resort” at the beginning to “following the flow of good things” later.
根据美国史丹佛大学经济学教授尼古拉斯・布鲁姆（Nicholas Bloom）和他的两位研究伙伴针对超过3万名美国人所做的调查显示，只有22%的受访者表示，他们不太需要或完全不想在家工作，其余则是希望每周在家工作从1天到5天不等，其中希望每星期5天都在家工作的比例，还超过3成。
尽管有些雇主或主管对于员工「在家到底有没有在工作」，依然存在怀疑与不安，但是调查发现，近40%的受访者自认在家工作更有效率，主要原因是通勤时间大幅减少。
When talking about the advantages of working from home, you may immediately think of “no commuting” and “flexible working hours”.这的确是在家工作最大的两个好处，另外也有很多人认为可以省下治装费，穿着可以较为随性，只要考量舒适即可，不必花太多时间打扮。
Of course, working from home has many advantages, but there are also some disadvantages that need to be overcome.国内的yes123求职网就曾做过调查，居家工作的「缺点」，在可复选状况下，前五名依序是：「因为家人或宠物，造成上班时受干扰、分神」(38.4%)、「上下班时间、工作与生活界线模糊化」(35.8%)、「伙食费、水电费增加」(34.1%)，以及「软硬体设备不足或自费添购」(31.9%)、「少动导致体重增加、体力变差」(27.2%)。
How can we prepare when working from home is the future?
First, we must solve the problems of software and hardware equipment.既然是在家上班，也就意味着我们需要使用自己的电脑、网路来连线，而且也可能没有MIS同仁可以协助。 Therefore, if you want to work well at home, you must first prepare your computer and network environment.
In addition to considering the computer’s CPU, memory and hard disk space specifications, the quality of the network connection is also important. In addition, in order to participate in the video conference conveniently, you also need to prepare a microphone and headphones.在《在家工作的成功秘诀：美国中小企业最佳CEO教你高效、弹性、具团队精神的企业竞争新优势》这本书中，作者也有提出一些采购或升级设备的建议。
因为在家工作的关系，为了方便与同事或客户之间的沟通，大家常有机会需要开视讯会议，所以也需要熟悉像是Zoom、Cisco Webex、Microsoft Teams或Google Meet等各式各样的软体。
另外，利用云端服务来共同作业，无论是将工作任务新增到待办清单、将会议通知新增到行事历，或是和同事们共同编辑文件、简报等等，想必也是工作中常见的场景。有趣的是当大家都在家工作，很多人发现工作量反而急速攀升，所以我们除了要熟悉相关软体或网路服务的操作，建议你最好能慎选工具，尽可能将工作自动化。
另外，伴随工作量的增加，可能你也会发现开会的次数变得更频繁了，而且开会时间也愈拉愈长，导致团队成员的压力也愈来愈大。 Therefore, how to effectively shorten the time of meetings and even control the frequency of sending and receiving emails has become a required course for every office worker.
In addition to solving software and hardware problems, of course if you want to work from home smoothly, self-psychological construction and mentality adjustment are also very important.
When everyone is working from home, how to communicate effectively with others and maintain good work efficiency will become two very important topics.
Let’s talk about communication first. Sometimes, it’s hard for us to understand each other’s true intentions even face to face, let alone without meeting. Think about it, how do you get your colleagues or customers to understand what you want to express?虽然透过视讯软体的协助，可以让你缩短距离，感觉好像跟对方「当面」沟通⋯⋯但是，这毕竟跟我们亲自到客户公司去拜访，或是走到同事的办公桌旁去交流有所不同。
因此，为了避免误会，同时也希望能够增进沟通效率，我们每个人都要耐住性子，设法用浅显易懂的表达方式，具体地说出自己的想法。 Of course, if once is not enough, you may have to say it several times, or express it in another way. I also suggest that you don’t just use spoken words, but also give more examples. It is best to use documents, presentations or charts to assist the explanation.
In the beginning, everyone may spend a lot of time in order to get along and establish a working understanding. But when you start to find a way to communicate with others and establish your own style and rhythm, I believe it will all get better.
Next, let me talk about it again: How can I work from home and maintain the same productivity as when I work in the office?由于目前远距工作已经逐渐成为主流，有许多为在家工作所设计的软体或工具也不断推陈出新，所以建议你不要害怕尝试新工具，可以多加选择是用自己的软体、服务。 Having said that, we are in the 21st century and we must keep pace with the times.
Of course, in addition to making good use of the assistance of various technological tools, we must also be patient with the various changes we may encounter when working from home.
Here, I would also like to suggest that you appropriately separate and segment your home life and work scenes. For example, you can divide your work area and living and leisure area. When you get down to work, stay as far away from a relaxing space as possible, like a living room or dining room.
当然，你也可以透过建立仪式感的方式，让自己快速进入工作状态。好比有些人喜欢在工作之前泡杯咖啡、听点轻音乐，或是先做半小时的瑜伽，我觉得都是不错的方法。 Putting your body and mind into a stable state will not only help improve work efficiency, but also help your physical health.
By the way, if you have poor self-control, of course you should be careful not to run to the kitchen all the time. Don’t keep running to open the refrigerator. This will not only affect your work efficiency, but may also have some adverse effects on your body in the long run!
One more thing, I also suggest that you consider using the Pomodoro Technique.这是1980年代由Francesco Cirillo所创立的一种时间管理法，简单来讲，就是我们可以使用一个计时器来分割出工作与休息时段。一个番茄钟，也就是25分钟，当我们工作了25分钟，就可以让自己休息5分钟，起来喝口水、上个厕所或走动一下。
Proper use of the Pomodoro Technique not only helps you focus on your work, but also helps you adjust your body and mind and establish a consistent work rhythm. In addition, if you are a supervisor or boss, based on your past management experience, you may be accustomed to evaluating and supervising the work performance of your colleagues by holding meetings and reviewing weekly reports written by subordinates. But when everyone is working from home, you may have to adjust your past habit of pressing people.
Everyone’s time is precious, and it’s unnecessary to keep an eye on everyone’s every move while working. What’s more, it may be difficult for you at the remote end to achieve watertight monitoring. Rather than spending energy on unnecessary fraud prevention, it is better to be open and honest and communicate well with colleagues from the beginning. At the same time, you can also make good use of management tools such as OKR, or set a common to-do list or calendar for the entire company or various departments to effectively help everyone set clear goals and clear deadlines.
Overall, working from home not only helps prevent the epidemic, but also has many advantages. From a corporate perspective, not only can it recruit talents with more diverse backgrounds, but it can also allow employees to take into account personal safety while maintaining work flexibility and continue to contribute to the company.
From an employee’s perspective, working from home also has many benefits. In addition to not having to commute and having flexible working hours, it can also save some equipment and transportation costs. If we can maintain some margin while working from home and be able to work efficiently, not only will this bring a lot of value to your company, but such skills will naturally become a very important competitive advantage for you in the workplace in the future!
I hope today’s sharing can help you prepare to work from home!
Okay, our program today comes to an end! If you like “Vista’s Little Voice”, please subscribe to my YouTube channel, or go to Apple Podcast Give me a five-star review and share this show with friends who are interested.
Thank you. See you next time. Goodbye.
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Further reading
- “The Little Voice of Vista”: How to host a webinar
- “Vista’s Little Voice”: Vista Reading 1/30/2022 - 2/5/2022
- “The Little Voice of Vista”: How to achieve your goals
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