In these times of social distancing and exhortations to stay at home, life has changed radically. As an example, just take a look at recent footage Times Square, the crossroads of the world, and note that very few cars or pedestrians are abroad. In order to maintain the social distance required to avert infection with the coronavirus (COVID-19), many more people than ever before are working from home.
How does a person work productively from home? There are a number of factors contributing to doing this successfully.
Let’s look at some of them.
Working from a home office:
In order to work efficiently from home, several factors must be considered. First, comfort is required, in the form of a good chair to sit in at a good work surface. These must be in a proper place, as isolated from domestic distractions as possible. It must be possible to spend the entire work day in the proper work space, leaving the area for meals and regular breaks.
Workstation:
A workstation computer powerful enough to meet the requirements of the job is needed, and it must be loaded with all the required software packages. Additionally, it must be equipped with a monitor that is large enough and high enough in resolution to permit one to see what needs to be seen easily. In some cases, depending on how many documents or files are typically open at a time, two screens might be beneficial. A basic laptop might be all you need, or it might be totally inadequate. It all depends on your job requirements.
Audio/Video Support:
A telephone might not offer sufficient communications capability when working from home. In order to use more sophisticated online communications apps, audio/video support may be needed in the form of a headset and a microphone. The microphone and speaker built into your computer workstation may be enough, but you may well need something beyond those.
The camera in your computer may not have adequate resolution or be capable of proper aiming to make an acceptable presentation. Camera options include a standard web camera, a GoPro camera (like the one below), or a digital SLR camera on a tripod (a tabletop tripod from 3Pod works ideally). A very high-end option is a pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) camera.
In order to avoid audio feedback and the generation of excessive noise for others in the household, you might need a headset or earbuds as well.
Finally, a proper backdrop behind you is necessary. Ideally, this would be a light-colored wall, or even a white sheet hung behind you might suffice. Bookshelves full of volumes are a nice touch. Certainly such distractions as family pets, baskets of laundry, and the like should not be in the picture.
Connectivity:
For most of us, good internet connectivity is required. It must be fast enough and reliable enough that it is not a hinderance to your work. Cable modem internet connectivity is typically fast enough, but there are other options. DSL may be inadequate.
You might need to revisit your WiFi setup. If other members of your family are streaming video or playing online video games, it might well be that you should connect your workstation or the kid’s computers to the internet modem via Ethernet, so that you can have a good, reliable, high-speed internet connection at all times.
Recreation:
While you are working from home, the other members of your household, such as the kids who are home from school, must be kept occupied. Additionally, you should put in a full work day, then look for some recreational activities to engage in. These can take the form of hobbies, streaming video games, and musical instruments, to name a few.
Conclusion:
Staying at home and working from home are the new normal, and this will be the case for at least several months. Both work and recreation will require some devices and systems that one may or may not have. You can count on Adorama to provide the required hardware, software, systems, and advice to make your working from home experience a good one.
For questions about gear packages or equipment quotes, call the team at Adorama Business Solutions at 888-216-6700.
Feature photo by Luke Peters on Unsplash
