This article will explain how to remain productive and ensure security when working from home:
Insecure Passwords
To get started, let’s first address online security. Your security is very important when you are working from home, because you are chiefly responsible for your work’s privacy. If it falls into the wrong hands, you can be held responsible by your employers. In order to maintain remote work security, one of the first things that you need to do is to ensure that your passwords are secure. Avoid using passwords that include your name, birth date, your pet’s name, or your address. This information is usually the first thing that hackers use to guess your password. Instead, use numerical codes that don’t include any personal information.
Phishing Emails
Phishing emails are by far the most common way that one’s computer becomes infected with a virus. Phishing emails contain files that are instantly downloaded when one opens the email. These viruses are usually created by keyloggers, who then track your computer’s keystrokes. With this information, they are able to find out your passwords, logins, and other sensitive information. If you are working from home, a keylogger breaching your account can be very dangerous, because they will have access to all of the work that you have produced.
Public Wi-Fi
Remote working gives workers the opportunity to work from absolutely anywhere, including destinations away from their home, like shopping malls, cafes, and even foreign countries. If you are working remotely, then avoid using public Wi-Fi to do your work unless you are using a VPN. Public Wi-Fi can be hacked into [and often is in public hotspots]. The hackers are able to access the personal information of the people signed up to the public Wi-Fi hotspot. VPNs protect you against them, preventing them from being able to access your personal or private information, by extension protecting your work.
Working Schedule
Moving away from security and to productivity, one of the first things that you should do if you are working from home and live with your family is to work out a schedule with your family. Make it clear that when you are working, they cannot disturb you. Give them set times that they can come into the room that you are working from. With a schedule, they have no excuse for disrupting you. Ideally you should pin the schedule up on a door or wall, so that your family can check it themselves. This is especially important if you have children or teenagers around the house, who can be very disruptive.
Select a Workspace
You also need to find an area within your home that you can work from privately. This is your workspace. Nobody should be allowed into your workspace while you are working, as you may get disrupted. Your workspace is your private zone. If you will be working from home for a long period of time, then you could consider decorating your workspace and making it your own. Consider putting up pictures, buying furniture, and generally designing it in a fashion that you like. You should feel comfortable in your workspace.
Start Early, Finish Early
When working remotely, you are often given the opportunity to start early and finish early. You may even be able to work out your own working schedule. As long as your work gets done, your employer shouldn’t take issue with this. When working from home, it’s best to start early, and finish early. This is because when you wake up, you are more alert, active, and motivated. As the day progresses, you become less so. Starting when you first wake up is a great way to remain motivated.
Take Regular Breaks
Working from home can actually be more stressful than working in an office. You should try to take regular breaks. Take a walk around the garden, check the news, or get something to eat. By taking regular breaks you will make focusing on work easier. When working from home, you need to ensure both safety and productivity. The internet’s a dangerous place, and your home is a distracting place. Both of these things can negatively impact the quality of the work that you produce, so give them great consideration.
