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How I Work Efficiently From Home

5/3/2020

 
Working in a home office since 2005, I have made many changes to my setup in the interest of improving efficiency. Here are a few improvements I have made to my home office over time. 

The Office

A room that is an office and not used for anything else. The separate room allows you to leave everything set up and provides the ability to leave the office. For myself, I find it hard to stop working and having it in a separate room does help.  

For many, this is not a practical solution; however, finding a dedicated space can be a big help. 
One more thing, you need a good office chair. Using the dining room chair is not going to be comfortable when sitting in it for hours at a time. 

Monitors

Including my Surface Pro display, I use four monitors at my desk. Multiple monitors are a significant way to improve your efficiency. I find it slow and awkward to work on a single display.  

In addition to improving the process of moving and viewing data, multiple monitors provide a screen to keep open the office chat program. The separate monitor makes it easy to stay in touch with co-workers. Glancing at the chat screen and a quick response keeps office communications flowing. 
Picture

Collaboration Platform

A collaboration platform, such as Slack or Microsoft Teams, provides everyone with the tools to work together. These tools include chatting, audio calls, video calls, file sharing, file commenting, and file co-authoring.  With all of this in a single application, it is very efficient for people to work as a team without being at the same physical location.

For us, this has been a great addition to our workflow. Simply ping someone in a chat and meet anytime quickly. Microsoft Teams collaboration platform can extend to people in organizations outside of your own. Recently, while working with another firm on a joint project, we used Teams to meet, collaborate, and share files. The collaboration was all done with the security of Teams allowing the outside organization access only to the project.

When meeting with people, video can make a considerable improvement in communication. Invest in a good quality webcam or use the one on your laptop or phone. To make it easier for others on the call with you, try to book meetings when the house is less active. 

Most online meeting services today allow custom backgrounds. These backgrounds are a great option if you can’t set up a clean physical backdrop.

Mouse and Keyboard

A good quality ergonomic keyboard makes all the difference in your comfort. Combine the right keyboard and mouse, to make your day at the desk just that much better. Trying to use an inferior quality keyboard just slows you down.

Paperless

Scanning and storing documents electronic keeps the home office clean and organized without taking up valuable floor space with filing cabinets. We have been paperless since 2013 at K2E Canada Inc., and my accounting practice has been paperless since 2005. At this point, I can’t imagine working in a paper-based office.

Ward Blatch

Nisha Pedro
5/5/2020 02:13:08 pm

Thanks for the excellent tips!

Ward link
5/5/2020 02:42:24 pm

Appreciate your comments. Stay Safe


Comments are closed.

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    Authors


    Ward Blatch
    Ward provides consulting and training services as the Managing Director of K2E Canada Inc. He joined K2E Canada in 2005 and is responsible for the Canadian operations of this international consulting group, which provides professional development technology education for accountants across Canada and the US. Ward lives in rural Nova Scotia and can be reached at ward@k2e.ca.

    Tommy Stephens
    Tommy is one of the shareholders in K2 Enterprises, affiliating with the Firm in 2003 and joining as a shareholder in 2017. At K2, Tommy focuses on creating and delivering content and is responsible for many of the Firm's management and marketing functions. Tommy resides in the metro Atlanta area. You may reach him at tommy@k2e.com.

    Randy Johnson
    Randy is a nationally recognized educator, consultant, and writer with over 40 years experience in Strategic Technology Planning, Accounting Software Selection, Paperless, Systems and Network Integration, Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning, Business Development and Management, Process Engineering and outsourced managed services. Randy can be reached at randy@k2e.com


    Bernie Smith
    Bernie coaches businesses to develop meaningful KPIs and present their management information in the clearest possible way to support good decision making. As the owner of Made to Measure KPIs, he has worked with major organisations including HSBC, Airbus, UBS, Barclays, Credit Suisse, Lloyds and many more.

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