Remote work is fast becoming the new normal in the corporate world, especially with the current outbreak. With the prevalence of collaborative tools such as Trello, Jira and Slack, companies are beginning to find new ways to help their workers to maintain productivity in the comforts of their home. For freelancers majorly, such setup is quite the order of the day for them.
For business owners and new moms who get afforded the opportunity to work from home, they would definitely need to make some changes in order to adjust to this lifestyle. Although working remotely could come with less stress of having to drive down to work, catch a bus or spend a lot of time getting ready, the feeling of loneliness could set in.
2 Important Tips to Note While Working Remotely
Asides this, having kids around the house or your workspace could get really stressful and could get overwhelming as time goes on. In light of this, outlined below are two essential tips to help new moms, business owners, and even employees settling into the remote life make the most of it:
- Assign an Area for Your Workspace: Dedicate an area in your house that can offer you the privacy you need, appropriate comfort, and adequate lighting. This helps create the feel of an office and induce the productivity you need to complete whatever tasks you might be looking to complete. Bear in mind that you might need to make video calls while working so the area should have a decent enough background.
- Set Boundaries: Now more than ever, you need to set boundaries in your home. This is so you can avoid distractions from your pets, kids, and anyone else living in the same building with you. Intimate others on the purpose of the boundary and how they can communicate with you – if necessary once you’re in your zone.
Online Security at Home
Setting boundaries and avoiding distractions are a good way to boost productivity while working remotely but how about online security? Due to the low level of security infrastructure employed by individuals on their home internet, people working from home tend to be an easy target for cybercriminals and they are often exploited in the following ways:
- Malware and Viruses: This is the most common cyber threat faced by the average internet user – and every remote worker should be wary of as well. Seeing that they are easy prey, hackers can exploit their devices and use them to spread malicious code to the company’s network when the employee connects to it.
- Spyware: Spywares and other malicious code can be used to snoop through a user’s PC and steal passwords, login details in order to make away with sensitive financial information or gain access to the organization’s system.
To mitigate these threats, it is advisable that users do the following:
- Avoid connecting to company websites or submitting sensitive information on public WiFi.
- If the need to use a public WiFi arises nonetheless, download and install a VPN on your device in order to secure your connection.
- Other than that, download and install good antivirus software and avoid downloading files or attachments from untrusted sources.
About the Author
Jack Warner is an accomplished cybersecurity expert with years of experience under his belt at TechWarn, a trusted digital agency to world-class cybersecurity companies. A passionate digital safety advocate himself, Jack frequently contributes to tech blogs and digital media sharing expert insights on cybersecurity and privacy tools.
