Self-employed, side hustlers, or founders with no employers also known as Freelancers, go by all these aliases. And they are present in numbers around the world. It is predicted that the major workforce in the UK and US will be freelancing by 2027. In 2019 alone 39% surge in freelancers was recorded in the UK.
There has always been a question for opting freelancing as a permanent source of income or should only be opted as a side income. The Fiverr and Upwork Union, however, disagrees with this proposition, they claim that freelancers consider themselves safe as compared to people working on day jobs.
So since one thing is established pretty much that freelancing is permanent and not going away anytime sooner, that is if it goes away. Since this being a permanent situation and companies now opting to hire remote help freelancers are in for a ride. With freelancing being very profitable there are still cons attached to it and freelancers often end up on the wrong side of deals. So here are our prospects that will tell you why Staff Timer App is essential in a freelancers war chest:
Payroll for freelancers
Let’s talk about the biggest hassle in a freelancer’s life: payment and service charges. There never seems to be an agreement of charges and services more than often employers change the terms of payments and many more.
Staff Timer App provides an innovative solution to this very common predicament. Payroll allows you to fix the payment per hour. This saves time and gives your employer a fair idea of expenses. This rules out any miscommunications between you and your employer who hired you for the job.
Make yourself productive
Mostly freelancing requires you to work at odd times an hour before sunrise 2 hours past midnight. There are no timings, the client requires results and they want it quick or they are moving on. So you need to be on your toes at all times. Regardless of the fact that if you have not seen your bedside for 48 hours, the deadline matters and must be met at all costs.
Time tracking is a feature that allows you to track not only your time. But also your progress over the said task, coupled with a payroll feature, your hard work will not go unobserved.
Working 10 hours a day is something admirable but not something you should be looking to do constantly. For you to be productive and meeting deadlines your day needs to be planned and divided professionally. Spending too much time looking for music is not productive.
Manage several projects at your fingertips
Freelancers seldom spend some free time, they always have something on their plate. Their day is divided into servicing clients of different sectors. It becomes hazardous at times and messing up the final product is never too far away.
With Staff Time App you can manage projects by adding them in the app and you will never be lost with data. You can add as many projects as you want and keep the data separated. This simple tool can change the way you function and make your work a whole lot easy.
So now never get stuck with a project and reject others because you cannot manage, with the Staff Timer App you can manage everything.
Meet deadlines effectively
Managing deadlines over deadlines are something that everyone struggles with. Freelancers or Side Hustlers as 14% of the self-employed youth likes to call themselves, have real issues with meeting deadlines. It can sour an entire process if deadlines are not met. The client will not return which is an unhealthy habit.
You can mark the deadline while creating a task with the Staff Timer App. This will help you keep up with your work and be done before the deadline. Hence your clients won’t be leaving you for a long long time.
Create your own team of freelancers
A real innovative feature of the Staff Timer App allows you to work in a team and form an entirely new team. So from freelancing, you can expand your horizons with StaffTimer App and start your own company providing services to clients. This will help you expand your affluence and you can become the top draw of the industry for anyone looking to get something done.
So these are a few pointers on how you if you are working as part of the $1 Trillion Dollar industry also known as freelancing, can get the maximum out of a management app. So for you to take the next big step in your career it is essential that you have a tool that can help you in your endeavors. Staff Timer can certainly push you that extra mile you have been lacking.
The best way to solve a problem is to trace it back to its origin, you would agree, right? So the loss of focus amid work from home situation is a problem, but to trace it back to its origin might not be as simple as Brad Pitt’s WorldwarZ script, we will still give it a go.
Let’s go over a few things that have happened during this pandemic, apart from an uncontrollable hike in the virus, we have seen major industry shutting down and remote work taking its place becoming the new normal.
Before the entire industry migrated to remote working, 38% of the total American companies were still using punching machines for attendance. With this “new normal” came new issues for the employer and for the employee subsequently. One of these issues was a distraction that sub-divided amongst many other hurdles workers were facing while continuing work from home. So before we move further let’s just do a recap or a re-visit to a few popular issues faced by employees and employers while pursuing remote working:
Distractions are real
According to a study carried out in 2018 about 34% of the employees use social media in order to relax during work. Whereas 51.4% of companies do allow social media usage in their offices.
The mother of all issues while remote working is: inevitable distractions. Keep in mind it is not only the kids or pets, but it is also everything and everyone you have in your surrounding that is essentially disturbing. Including smartphones and social media, which contribute the greatest towards distractions, all the apps we have that we use contributes to distracting us from our real tasks and there really is no shame in admitting it.
The Lazy highness
This here is an issue related especially to being locked down in houses and not being able to leave, the more we stay indoors the lazier we become. What happens when we become lazy? We lose creativity, we start finding shortcuts and we plagiarize stuff which ultimately gets us caught. But that’s for another topic, let’s stick with the former: loss of productivity.
Loss of productivity
Now we have already traced the reason for productivity, and we find laziness a big contributor to it. Loss of productivity refers to the inability to do simple tasks efficiently and important tasks with care. This situation breeds frustration and anxiety.
Burnout incoming
Oh yes, this is important, running on full cylinders and exhausting routines do eventually cause burnout. The simple reason for this is turbulent mental health.
While working from home anxiety and frustration can creep up sometimes due to pressure other times due to a monotonous routine and never-ending work. These two symptoms piling up are detrimental to mental health, couple this with lack of communication with the office, and voila you have yourself a dose of potent burnout.
Wake up already!
Sleeping at 3 waking up at 3, a common issue these days. Sleepless nights and sleepy days eat up productivity and creativity making you nothing more than typing zombies. So no sleep at night can be considered as the core issue for all other issues to take place.
Less or no sleep means the body is tired; the recuperating time of a body normally is 8 hours, which is also the amount of sleep a person needs, coincidence I think not. So no sleep means, starting the day late, inviting pressure from peers, going through tasks rapidly with no real conviction and just getting stuff done. Repetition of this cycle can and will cause burnout.
So after going through the previous predicament, we can establish a course of action for the future that would help not only you but people around you dealing with similar issues all the while enhancing your productivity and bringing the positive vibe back in your life. A brief introduction of the common factors impacting performance and focus during remote working, let’s get to the point of dealing with them one by one.
It is important to notice a few pointers regarding remote working before we further explain how Staff Timer App is exactly what you need. During this Pandemic 39%, fewer people globally visited their offices making remote work inevitable. So for you to get your focus back on track here are some pointers from the best remote working solution: Staff Timer App.
Go to sleep
According to the sleep association in the USA, they report 37.09% of 60 million Adults, with sleeping disorders, report unintentional falling to sleep during the day. It only gets dangerous from here on, 4.09% of that population reported falling asleep or dozing off behind the wheels.
Remember the lullaby back when we were toddlers, go to sleep, we need that right now. Remember your entire life depends upon how you spend your night, no puns, so try sleeping on time. The reason for that is you need a full 8 hours sleep to function normally and at full capacity. Also when you spend your entire day staring at your screen it is better to give your eyes rest because 10 hours of screen time is by no means a healthy habit.
Eat healthily
Now before we enter the tech and other areas of the discussion it is essential that one keeps full track of their health, being at home puts us at an extra advantage that we often take for granted, we have “food at home”. Yes so say goodbye to the oily chicken burgers from the office cafe. Eating healthy food, fruits and nuts are essential for enhancing brain activity Vitamin C, B3, B6, and B12 are an absolute necessity to increase focus and there is only one way you get this in abundance, fruits, and nuts. So eat healthily
Now here we are to the technical aspect of the discussion where we uncover simple tools that can help you focus and push your burnout farther ahead and keep you fresh Staff Timer App here is how simply an app can keep you focused and keep you fresh and take care of all your worries regarding work and productivity.
Distraction disabled
Since the pandemic struck us down 88% of the companies have encouraged their employees to work from home or remotely. Whereas in contrast prior to the pandemic 3.4% of the U.S population works remotely already.
The first and foremost issue we uncovered was the advent of countless distractions ever since we’ve moved to remote working, now how do you disable them? The answer is simple, staff Timer App: it calculates the total hours worked minus the idle time. This feature keeps the user on toes regarding idle time and also keeps him or her away from social media apps and other distractions.
The other efficient way to deal with this is to choose a workplace that has less or no distraction, no TV work beside a landline you are already logged into the Staff Timer App you don’t need a smartphone for communication.
Break the habit
Quit taking breaks after every twenty minutes of writing an application or blog. The best way to deal with it is by taking a regular break during the work for an hour or an hour and a half. In this hour you can carry on with everything you have a habit of, jump on the couch, watch TV or scroll through your feed, have lunch, relax in this time and continue working afterward it will freshen up your perspective and give new ideas.
Never ignore the need for a break. It is important not only for you but also for people around you all that pent up frustration and anxiety needs to be let go of to get a focus on the task at hand.
Run baby run!
Prior to any ideas that you get reading this, it is just to capture attention. Exercise is the key to focus and self-discipline and both these qualities walk hand in hand. Exercise keeps your body healthy and minds fresh, how so? There is an entire science behind this. When we exert ourselves in certain or exercise we increase the intake of oxygen hence increasing the run of oxygenated blood from lungs to all parts of the body and especially the brain providing the brain with fresh ideas and enhancing focus keeping yourself healthy too. So bottom line exercise helps with focus. Now the app might not measure calories burnt, for now, but it allows you to have sufficient time for yourself.
Now this here is a tricky one: remember the sleeping issue? This is where it comes in handy. Sleeping early or even in time gives you a great advantage. You can start your day early and the 8 hours of your work can begin at 9 if you like giving you ample time in the evening to be with your family and friends and spend time with your loved ones.
Although we have mentioned it previously it is important to understand the effects it will have on your day. Start your day early login and start your StaffTimer App to get through to the pending tasks first thing in the morning. This will leave you with only the major tasks or urgent tasks.
Get productivity back
In a Gallup survey of 7,500 full-time employees reported burnout and an additional 44% felt burned out also.
Now the biggest challenge is to get the quality without initiating the burnout. This is highly unlikely if there is no way to measure productivity or results. Luckily the Staff Timer App measures the mouse clicks and keystroke all the while showing an idle percentage so that the user and the employer are on the same page. This is how you stay productive throughout the project or day.
Communication is the key
Most issues happen because of lack of communication of clients with the team and team lead with the team itself, so all it does is create uncertainty and tasks start getting pushed away and the lack of transparency and the absence of the team lead front causes issues and serious slack. Staff Timers App’ 2-way in-app audio communication resolves this issue with constant and instant feedback so there is no lagging and everyone is focused on the work that has been assigned to them.
So these were a few techniques that could actually help you during these distressing times, remember we all are frustrated about the monotony of our routines and since we all feel locked up but there are ways to counter any self-harm thoughts. There are help centers and anon chat rooms designed especially for this. If you feel too much work just stop and relax. Take a day or two off, relax, sleep, walk bare feet on the grass to make yourself feel better, and always remember we will get through this.
Staff Timer App understands that during 2020 a global recession will be in effect and the situation is not getting better anytime sooner not at least for these 12 months. So to facilitate the business community we now offer free services for 7 days. With this impending recession, one thing must be considered above all others that remote working is the future. It is our job to make it essentially easy and do-able, 56% of the total companies are already working from home.
Humans have always been intrigued by stories and folk lures. Ever since the inception of humanity, history has recorded the evolution of storytelling from cave paintings, to live theatres in Rome all the way to the advent of the printing press and Broadway Ave. Films have been a part of human culture for more than 3 centuries now, speaking of which here is how we at the Staff Timer App describe our work from home ever since we have been confined to our homes due to this ‘Never Ending Story’, – yes you guessed it right, we are talking about the Pandemic.
Below is the list of films which best describe work from home situations, these films have been chosen not only for title but for content and also for famous quotes, so let’s get on with it:
Taxi Driver (1976)
Remember Robert Di Nero’s mohawk in the 70’s, probably one of his best performances ever in cinematic history. Now how does it describe work from home? Imagine being in a team meeting on Zoom or Google Hangouts and suddenly the presenter asks a question while you are having a cup of tea or coffee. What are the first lines you say to him: ‘Are you talking to me?’, obviously in a more respectful way. So believe it or not we all become Travis Bickle in a zoom meeting one way or another.
The next one is funny enough and relatable to most remote resources working these days.
Scarface (1983)
Yes Tony Montana in the house, now we at the Staff timer App do not endorse selling or consuming cocaine or any other intoxicating drugs. We all have pets who love us at all times and cannot leave us alone. So whenever we are in a team meeting and little “fluffy” wants to pay us a visit. We all become a sober and less harmful Tony Montana and raise our pet screaming; ‘Say Hello to my little friend’.
Well with these two out of the way we now turn our attention to a film whose title everyone in this day and age knows, no not “Peaky Blinders”, its:
Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Now most of you might not know about this gem of a film but here’s how this represents our lives: exhausting deadlines and never-ending hustles. That’s how! If you do the above mentioned things you are a midnight cowboy. These are strange times when 5 pm has been pushed to 10 am tomorrow.
Time has stretched and trapped us in a loop like ‘limbo’ (introducing a little Christopher Nolan in the list). So we all at this moment are midnight cowboys hustling towards normality and a good night sleep.
This one is my favourite and one cannot be so accurate while talking about work from home and cinematic jewels. This here ladies and gentleman is not only a great explainer of our lives but also a must-watch classic:
The Groundhog Day (1993)
This title is not only a film but an actual holiday, how about that, so why does it represent our lives at the moment? The film basically talks about a time loop where a person is stuck in a certain town in the North of America and is bound to wake up and do the same things over and again until he finally gets everything right. Sounds similar?
Waking up everyday, following the same routine, doing the same jobs over and again from the same place. A little too close to reality if you ask me. But on the bright side groundhog day is a popular American tradition observed in the United States and Canada as a holiday on February 2nd. We all our on holidays, more or less. Aren’t we?
Hard Target (1993)
Remember the Van Dam brothers? One is a wrestler who became a movie star. This action flick is what we go through everyday. A seemingly unachievable goal in the most unrealistic manner ever, a lot like Hollywood. I mean Vin Diesel still is flipping cars. Everyday we receive a mail saying ‘your goals for today’ and at the end there is a little note saying: ‘I know its hard but you can do it’. So we get on our work mode, strain some coffee, put on our Dre Beats and we start the hustle.
Now let’s take a dive in James Cameron blockbuster of the century.
Titanic (1997)
Yes, Di Caprio’s renowned role, one of his greatest ever performances, but you are doing exactly the same. How is it synonymous to work from home though? We are not on a luxurious ship, or on an ongoing journey, or sinking in the middle of the ocean. Not really, no.
However if you see closely, we all are aboard titanic one way or another. When this pandemic started, we were all hopeful that we will win and things will be normal but now it seems we have hit an iceberg and our hopes are sinking. Although there were some survivors in the film, there will be in this scenario too. So let’s not get our hopes down.
So here was our cinematic view of the entire work from home scenario, even if you don’t agree to the list you still have a great bunch of movies to keep you occupied over the weekend. We don’t only track time we keep track of fun too.
The methodology of saving time is simple, don’t waste it, easier said than done. I can vouch for that. We are living in distressing times. Even in a confined and suitable workplace, time-wasting is an even bigger issue now, surrounded by distractions. Now how to ignore these distractions and stay true to your work from home and remain productive throughout this pandemic.
However, being distracted by family and other obligations is also a real threat to already turbulent productivity.
So how does a time management app can help you not only to remain productive but also diminish time-wasting? One may argue that even with the help of a time management app you might still not get the results you are looking for because you still have the same amount of hours to work. Correct but those hours would be more productive and would be spent on tasks rather than slacking or doing fewer priority tasks.
So here is how getting an app as Staff timer might actually help you increase your productivity and help save your time.
Time your tasks
The biggest distress is spending too much time on a simple task for some reason. This is not exactly time-wasting but it is not productive either. To counter this there is an absolute need to track the amount of time we spend on each task.
This is the only way we can remain productive in our pursuit of a productive day of work. By timing your tasks you would have an exact idea of how much you have spent on answering an email from the client and how much time it took for you to actually get the job done.
Stafftimerapp eases your pain with its task timer that can be stopped and turned on as wished by the user. It lets you know how much time you are spending on petty tasks and how much you’re spending on actual priority tasks. It acts as a watchman, which helps you prioritize your tasks and usage of time.
Keep up the pace
Yea this is a bit weird when it comes to time management apps, but it is an important one because it also calculates active time versus idle. This is a feature that resolves the potential distractions to work.
But it is a good one in the way that your tasks will be completed early; this relieves you from the pressure of overtime and working late. Working late from home is a bigger nuisance as compared to when you were actually going out for work.
Working late from home can cause anxiety and stress issues. To avoid that it is necessary to keep your focus on work and this app compels you to do exactly that.
By tracking the mouse clicks and keystrokes it calculates the time that is idle and productive. So next time don’t get caught out in those afternoon TV ads about home products and just get the things done instead.
Breaks are important
Yes even in the management of time the first thing you need to manage is your idle time. You cannot go around idling just because your office got shifted to your own premises. This is where most people get stuck in. Your idle time or break must be a specific time and not more than an hour.
It is understandable that at times creativity gets stuck and you need some time off to cool your brain and relax while you work from home, perfectly normal. The proper way is to take a break for an hour, however, at times we get sucked in a little deeper, and restarting our work becomes a hassle.
But in this environment breaks are essential, working all day will only cause losing productivity but also can be dangerous for mental health. Creative blocks are reality breaks that help tackle them. If you can manage your breaks you have already managed your day better than yesterday.
Start early
The best way to keep things in order is to start your day early. It gives you a huge advantage and a head start. Having a jump on time is impossible but you can have a jump over your day by starting early.
Utilize the maximum part of the day in early hours. Get done with long-pending tasks at start and move to the high priority day task. And then to the usual tasks like reporting or posting. This way once you have planned your entire day you will cut out slack and have a fully productive day.
Doing this will not only help you but also will keep you free of tackling any issues regarding mismanagement during this time.
Record a journal
Remember Rorschach from the Alan Moore comic Watchmen, always started talking with a phrase: “Rorschach journal”. This is exactly what is going to help you. Record a journal of your daily activity so you don’t have anything left at the end of the day. It is always helpful to keep proof of your work from home.
It is really handy. Stafftimerapp really takes a leap in that your entire day is recorded in the form of a working video of your screen which is recorded. Now no one can say that you were caught slacking or you were not available.
Conclusion
Time management or task timing apps such as the Staff timer app prove to be helpful. They not only time your task but also provide you with the lists of tasks done or pending at the same time.
This allows you to organize your day better and be more productive while working from home. Now it doesn’t increase the work hours but it makes those limited work hours productive and useful.
Suddenly when the world has moved indoors it is not beyond imagination that deploying a time tracking software would ease a lot of burden from team leaders and would also increase the overall productivity.
Some biggest Tech giants including Google, Facebook, Twitter, Shopify, Microsoft, Amazon along with many others shifted to remote work in early March. They allowed their employees to work from home as the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread.
Google, Facebook, Twitter… just to name a few have implemented serious remote work policies and practices for all of their employees around the globe. Despite pressure from the government to reopen places to revive a dying economy, these same tech titans have decided to continue working from home permanently or until 2021 at least.
Twitter
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey emailed his employees to break the big news! Saying that the employees can work from home permanently even after the coronavirus pandemic lockdown ends. According to resources, Twitter was one of the first major tech companies to announce that they are going remote in response to the pandemic.
Similarly, Facebook and Google told their employees they can work from home till the end of the year. But Twitter was one step ahead, of course!
The same order was extended to Square employees as well:
“We want employees to be able to work where they feel most creative and productive,” said the representative “Moving forward, Squares will be able to work from home permanently, even once offices begin to reopen. Over the past several weeks, we’ve learned a lot about what it takes for people to effectively perform roles outside of an office, and we will continue to learn as we go.”
Many big companies have finally realized that there are many positions within the company that can work from home easily. According to Dorsey himself, ‘the pandemic has proven that we can make it work.’
Google
After twitter’s big announcement, why should Google stay behind? After all, it’s Google we are talking about! In May, Google also announced that employees can work from home through the rest of the year and only those can join the office from June/July who really needs to, proper precautions are set in place and will be followed.
Microsoft
Microsoft employees can continue to work from home for the time being. Even as the pandemic passes and orders of staying home are lightly and gradually lifted across the US, the company has told the employees that they can keep working from home through October.
“When restrictions are lifted, working from home will remain optional through October unless employees are in an essential role that local authorities mandate otherwise,” the representative said.
Microsoft is one of the biggest tech giants there is. The company has more than 144,000 employees around the world and according to statistics around 85,000 are in the USA.
Facebook
Since permanent remote work is trending. Facebook decided to go with it as well. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company will allow permanent remote work for many of its existing employees. Few of facebook’s offices will open from July but only for 25% of employees.
“We’re going to be the most forward-leaning company on remote work at our scale,” Zuckerberg says. “We need to do this in a way that’s thoughtful and responsible, so we’re going to do this in a measured way. But I think that it’s possible that over the next five to 10 years — may be closer to 10 than five, but somewhere in that range — I think we could get to about half of the company working remotely permanently.”
Apple
Where some tech giants are letting employees work from home either till October or the end of the year. Apple decides otherwise!
Apple has been facing some secrecy issues and road bumps while working remotely. So it has decided to open the offices for employees who are working on confidential products. Apple will execute this strategy in phases. In the first phase, only those employees will be asked to join who are facing challenges while executing their work from home especially those who work on hardware related projects.
On the other hand, Amazon has told employees who can work from home can continue to do so until October 2.
Is permanently working from home a solution?
According to a survey by Gartner, companies who have been forced to work from home because of the COVID-19 may continue to work from home even after the virus ends.
According to a survey of 317 CFOs and business finance leaders. Gartner states that ‘74 percent of those surveyed expect at least 5 percent of their workforce who previously worked in company offices will become permanent work-from-home employees after the pandemic ends.’
The pandemic has literally forced employees to work from home. The transition was rather abrupt. Companies are extending their work from the home timeline to several more months now as the outbreak keeps spreading. This prolonged situation and the absence from offices has given birth to the debate whether workers will ever see the light of the day or be able to enjoy the physical working environment rather than virtual.
Even due to the available technology and digital solutions a little percentage around the globe worked from the comfort of their homes. Just in a few days, the percentage has risen rapidly. According to many resources, the transition is so transformative that employers might not let their employees come back to offices.
But we don’t see it as a permanent solution because if the remote work continues, it can lead to depression because of loneliness and minimum social interaction. Depression limits creativity and problem-solving capabilities and companies fear that work might suffer and collaboration may wither, so on and so forth.
Why has this change become so significant?
This change has seemed to become significant and permanent. Why? Simply because it benefits everyone, employees, or employers alike. Employees don’t have to spend time and energy on commuting to work. They can also maintain a proper work-life balance and productivity.
On the other hand, companies have many financial benefits. Their expenses and spending are controlled which in return is keeping the cost in check. Many organizations that were resistant towards going remote had major concerns about employee productivity and data security.
But the pandemic has forced companies to go home despite the challenges and barriers of working from home. And let them explore opportunities that can increase employee productivity and lift barriers while working from home offices. Having said that, not everyone is suitable for working from home. For some it is effortless but for others not so good.
Varying perspectives on remote work – To be or not to be?
The pandemic has proved that people are capable of working from home, with the same amount of productivity (or maybe more) than before.
Companies are more likely to save money and minimize expenses that come with monthly bills accumulated with other costs.
Working from home brings quality work to the table.
The pandemic is making companies invest in remote solutions and infrastructure to streamline work better.
But some employers want the control that comes with people working in the office environment aren’t very happy.
Working from home may or may not shift the cost from the company to employees in order to retain and motivate them better.
The bottom line is every company moving towards the future of remote working has had problems. And they might continue to face them unless they come up with the right solution because remote working doesn’t suit all.
Every global organization is very well aware that effective communication among remote teams is crucial for success. But if you have a remote team, communicating effectively with them has always been challenging. A lot of important details can be lost over long messages or emails.
So how can you have better communication with your teams dispersed globally? Staff timer app, like a lot of budding startups, has a very flexible remote work policy. Almost 10% of our team members work remotely full time, with many more shifting to remote work partially. We know, shifting to remote working arrangements makes communication and collaboration pretty daunting at first, but if you follow the simple tips given below with your remote teams, you are sure to see a difference.
Accept That There Will Be Challenges!
As mentioned above remote work has its own challenges. Specifically, if you have never worked in an office setting before. Adapting to remote work, making your own work schedule, using digital means of communication, and learning can be a hassle. Sometimes working from home can make you feel unproductive. But if you are aware of the challenges yourself and willing to accept them only then you will be prepared to face them one on one.
Before you transition to remote work, lay out a proper plan about difficulties that you may face such as team communication, meetings, distractions, and so on and so forth. Note them down and develop solutions on how you can best tackle them while you are away. A detailed policy document can do the trick!
Check-in Daily With Your Teams
Working remotely can make you feel isolated at times. With no one around to bug, you may start to feel lonely at times. So it is crucial to check up on your team daily. Ask them about their daily tasks. One best solution is to have video meetings to catch up on things.
Always have open lines of communication. Have weekly, monthly meetings but along with that stay prepared for any ad hoc calls too. Checking in with your employees not only boosts their morale but they can also share any or all issues they are facing. As far as the checking on the progress of employees is concerned, so that you stay on the same page as them is through the Staff timer app.
Intelligence reports can give you a sneak peek into daily work activities that make it easier to track daily tasks. Through real-time monitoring and screenshots, you can track roadblocks and progress that may otherwise go unnoticed.
Recognize Your Team’s Efforts
When employees are working from home, they might feel disconnected from their peers or may feel that their efforts are not recognized or acknowledged. You can prevent this if as an employer you make it an obligation on yourself to recognize your teams’ accomplishments and point out good work by giving a quick shout out through email or the company’s public communication channel. There’s nothing better than the feeling of accomplishment and success.
Watch That Tone with your remote teams
One of the biggest challenges of written communication is its ability to be misunderstood. Without facial expression or body language that we usually use to identify meaning, messages can sometimes appear as rude, when they weren’t meant to be.
That’s why it’s important that you thoroughly review each message or email before hitting send. Just ensure that your message is rightly conveying the meaning behind it. Pro tip: using emojis can help lighten up the tone of the message.
Use Team Collaboration Tools
Digital tools matter a lot while working in remote teams. Many companies have said that they can not live without project management or collaboration tools such as slack, zoom, google docs, and the like. Some of the most frequently used tools for remote team collaboration are listed below:
Staff timer app: Time and task tracking
Asana: Project management
Basecamp: Staying in touch with the client, also project management
GitHub : Version control
Google Suite : For emails and collaboration
Google hangouts/meet : One-on-one and group meetings
Dropbox: Document sharing
Google Docs: Document sharing and collaboration
Salesforce : CRM
Hubspot: CRM
Slack: Company-wide communication
Trello : Project management and communication
Skype: For client meetings and calls
Zendesk : Support
Zoom : Videoconferencing
Encourage Group Discussions and Feedback
It is important for you to encourage group discussion and open and honest feedback with your remote teams. Encourage them to ask questions, so that they can have a clear understanding of the subject at hand and tasks. This not only decreases errors but also increases your remote team members’ confidence to ask questions. At the end of the day, it is your responsibility to make sure that your messages are effectively and clearly communicated to them.
Also, you can get honest feedback out of your employees by showing that you are interested in paying attention to what they have to say. As an employer, you can also make mistakes so if ever you are wrong about anything instead of going into defensive mode, try to willingly own them.
Switch to Video Conferencing
Email is a useful way of non-verbal communication, but if you need fast responses, you should turn to video chat. It offers a more personalized communication because it lets you see body language and expressions. There’s no room for misunderstanding.
Some Intentional Fun is Good
One of the tried and tested ways to improve team collaboration is by having some virtual fun. Crack appropriate jokes, celebrate birthdays, have virtual lunch, and learn sessions for socializing. It helps remote teams to connect with each other and perform better with a refreshed mind. It also makes them feel special and included no matter the distance.
During the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, many companies have shifted to ‘work from home’ policy. Some of us, such as freelancers, writers, and developers are already familiar with the very notion of working remotely. But this is a very first experience for many other global teams and companies, forced by events obviously. Remote work does sound wonderful because of its many advantages such as no daily commute, no stress of work or waking up early, most of all home-made food! As good as it sounds, working from home is definitely not without troubles and challenges!
It’s important to overcome the challenges whether you are permanently working remotely or are currently a remote worker. Not only will you be happier and more productive but you will also succeed in transitioning towards this new work arrangement.
Here are a few common remote-work challenges and how to fight them.
Separating work and professional life
It’s evident when you work from home, it becomes harder to have a clear boundary between work and personal space. Ideally, your home is a place where you unwind after a long day, feel safe and secure. It’s a place when you put all the stress related to work behind you. So when you are working from home, sometimes we might lose track of the time and even after working hours we are compelled to check that one last email or slack notification or even a meeting call.
This is why it is important you set aside a separate physical space for work and a separate place for relaxing once you are done. Also, advise your family to respect your boundaries. And for you, invest your time in your family after working hours are over and avoid checking up on any work-related notifications. Eventually, the clearer the boundaries, the better you will be able to distinguish between work and personal life.
Working more than expected
One of the many reasons why managers don’t approve of employees to work remotely is because they fear that the employees might dodge work if they have no manager overlooking them. But, in many cases the opposite seems to be true; meaning remote workers over-work. Just like mentioned above, when your professional and private life is under the same roof, it becomes difficult to keep the two distinctive.
Also, sometimes we lose track of when the work time starts and when it ends, which can be pretty exhausting and we are unable to realize it even. One way to avoid overworking is to set reminders to take regular break intervals after every hour or so. Either take a walk outside the house, have a tea break, or walk to the kitchen to even fill up your glass of water can be immensely helpful and ultimately make you more productive.
Distractions, distractions, distractions!
Even if you have a dedicated working space or have a set work schedule, you can still be prone to many distractions in your environment. Staying productive can be really challenging. It can become difficult to focus on when your family and personal chores are surrounding you. So it’s crucial to remove these distractions before they get out of hand. One of the effective techniques is to move yourself to a separate home office space as mentioned above. But also making sure that your home office is too free of distractions. Moreover, you can use noise-canceling earphones to steer clear of noise.
Once you are free of distractions, only then you will be able to work efficiently and measure your daily productivity. Another way to stay on course is to use a time management software (try Staff Timer app), which allows you to log tasks and know the total time spent on them. Just the act of keeping track of your time can make you more aware of where your time is going. You can see your work patterns and improve accordingly.
Feeling lonely when working from home
Feeling lonely is one of the biggest challenges that remote workers are facing nowadays. This physical separation has made workers feel less connected to their social circle and company. Humans tend to have social needs but when people are confined to just working remotely without any socializing, it can add to declining mental health and even productivity. Meeting and socializing at work not only strengthen bonds but also connectedness between teams.
So it is important to make your remote teams feel included even while apart. There are a few ways remote employees can avoid loneliness by working outside the home once in a while. Use video conferencing tools to communicate with your team. Schedule team-wide virtual meetings that allow employees to connect virtually especially in this period of a worldwide pandemic.
Communication challenges
While working from home it becomes super difficult to stay on the same page as the rest of the team. Instant messaging, emails, calls are just some of the ways through which employers and employees stay in touch. But sometimes people can misinterpret them in a big way. Team and task collaboration tools like Staff timer exist specifically to make it easier for companies to stay organized and easily delegate tasks to their members via voice notes.
Moreover, different time zones can add to your nightmare. You might be waking up just when your teammate is going to bed. That means you can’t always rely on your team members to be available to solve any issue when needed immediately. So it is important to keep the lines of communication open and according to schedule.
After the outbreak of COVID-19 in January, billions of people around the globe now have to sit at home in isolation to help stop the virus from spreading. With everyone indoors, many places such as schools, offices, and companies are facing problems to maintain operations.
Why is remote working so challenging?
It’s much easier to manage when working together in the workplace. Your manager’s presence allows tasks and pointers available at any time. Being present as a team allows more participation through discussions and feedback. But when everyone is separated, it’s hard to avoid the feeling of being lost. Especially for a manager who won’t be able to know how his team is working.
How can you make your workday at home go smoothly?
Although StaffTimer is a great solution to only a part of this problem. You can do more by following these steps:
Step 1: Start with priorities.
Begin each day with a clear mind about which tasks to do first. The focus helps get your goals more efficiently and quickly.
Step 2: Just do it!
Stop anything that gives you the feeling of procrastination even in the slightest. Too sleepy in the morning? Take a cold shower and breakfast when you wake up. Not motivated enough? Listen to uplifting music and give yourself small breaks after doing big tasks.
Step 3: No distractions.
Keep yourself isolated and away from anything that can make you lose your focus. Put your phone out of sight and out of mind. Set some ground rules with your loved ones so they don’t disturb you during your work hours. Make your workspace the best place at home where you can be alone with your job.
Step 4: Learn from your mistakes.
It’s like what Master Yoda once said, “Failure is the greatest teacher.” It’s okay to fail at your tasks as long as you learn and know how to do it right the next time. Making failure motivate you instead of letting you down can be a big game-changer for your working style.
Step 5: Break big tasks into small simpler pieces.
If you were told to write a book, it would take you more time to get it done than it would for George R. R. Martin. This is because you see it as a monumental task to deliver something so big at once. But if you were told to write one chapter each day, you’ll be done writing that book sooner than expected.
Step 6: Good is better than perfect.
Telling your inner perfectionist to take a hike will do wonders for you. You don’t need to spend too much time on a thing just because it’s not as perfect as you want it to be. As long as it’s done right, you can work on the improvements later.
Step 7: Keep yourself on track.
Time is your most valuable asset; you can’t get it back once it’s gone. It’s really crucial you spend the right amount of time on a task so you can allow yourself to get the rest of the things on your list done too.
How to keep track of time with the StaffTimer App?
Luckily for you, StaffTimer is the simplest time-tracker in the market. Just start it up, enter your task and you’re good to go! It’ll note down the amount of time you spend on each you do. With the rest of its features, you can make most out of each day being as productive as you can be.
What else can the StaffTimer App do?
Here’s a list of all the things the app can do for you:
You can keep track of your team’s tasks as they happen. By using the live screen sharing tool, you can make it easy to work remotely with others and give feedback. This prevents them from doing anything that would affect their productivity and work.
Keystrokes & Mouse Activity
StaffTimer App records the number of keystrokes and mouse clicks every minute. This allows tracking the time spent being idle or active during a task.
Intelligence Reports
Get detailed reports about your employee’s productivity based on the day’s activities which include the time spent on each app’s usage and URLs visited.
Screenshots Every Minute
StaffTimer App can optionally take screenshots at the intervals of your choice. Even if you lose your internet connection, you can keep your tasks recorded offline.
Record and Assign
You can assign tasks to your team members using voice messages as well. This saves time you’d spend arranging an online meeting or call.
Hopefully, with these tips and StaffTimerApp, you will be more than ready to face the next day of work at home. It might even be possible for companies to consider keeping their workers at home once they realize the benefits. You may never know.
Since the beginning of 2020 it was predicted that the COVID-19 pandemic will burst out of China toward global level and will cause an economic meltdown along with significant human loss. Survival is necessary now since global lockdown has forced employees to work from home.
Just as working from home has its attractions such as no commute, no early wake up calls, more flexible work schedule, and minimum stress; it also has some downsides. You are pretty less motivated if you choose to work from the comfort of your homes making it harder for you to achieve your organizational goals. Then there are internet connection problems which can be really challenging at times. Don’t even get us started on the distraction that comes with this attraction when left unchecked!
While working from home, employees are most likely to fall for these unwanted interruptions not only impacting the company directly but also affects your creative thinking capabilities. Just as employers have obligations to minimize work-place related stress, similarly employees should not place pressure on their employers in this economic turmoil by being less productive.
But it’s not everything that is bad here. Here we are going to help employers with a comprehensive guide on how they can manage their remote teams using Staff Timer App.
User Activity Monitoring
Staff timer offers one of its kind features: Real-time Monitoring. With real-time monitoring you can make sure that everyone is working, you can analyze employee’s work flows, monitor their activity as it is happening and avoid any unwanted online behaviours which would otherwise negatively affect the overall productivity. Sometimes distractions while working from home can backfire by making the most productive employees unproductive and lacking any progress.
Plus real-time monitoring is a live screen sharing and streaming tool which can not only help you collaborate but also work collectively on combined projects. It is also making online meetings and employee feedback easier.
Employee Work Diary
Replace archives with a work diary and track your projects through screenshots at defined intervals. Staff timer offers this feature as optional. Also, you can set any screenshot interval based on your online activity monitoring needs. Screenshots every minute (or more) will not only help you and your teammates to tally notes and work progress but also helps you while collaborating with your clients and major stakeholders. As a business owner you can have accurate tracking of your teams. Moreover, employers can see who is spending time on cat memes at work.
Using voice messages
Perhaps the biggest problem is communication when working from home or going remote. We all know that mobile phones are a big distraction but are an excellent medium for communication but let’s face phone notifications are pretty distracting even when you choose to ignore them.Plus other famous tools like Zoom, Google meet, Skype are really effective but are very high on data consumption. For many this may be a small problem but actually not that small when it comes to the majority of users working remotely, they have to be careful about their internet data consumption.
With the Staff Timer App we have an option of sending audio clips for task assignment where you can not only assign tasks via recording but team members have the option to add comments and/or file attachments to keep communication going direct and straightforward.
Advanced reporting
Nothing can replace the charm of being at the workplace but Staff timer app provides you with extreme near workplace experience. With its feature of intelligence reports, you can check the total time spent on each task, including app and URL tracking along with visual insights that tells total productivity and idle (non productive) time via keystroke and mouse activities.
All these features combine to give you an all in one solution to manage your remote teams even to all the way from Durham you can manage employees working from poole.
