COVID-19 Vs. Home Office Challenge

 Now it’s been more than a year since the coronavirus first crossed our path, we’re certainly more than sick and tired of all the restrictions, lockdowns, opening and closures of almost everything that’s possible.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned for sure so far, that’s home is the most secure place on Earth, and as long as we don’t have to go outside, we’re perfectly safe. While not leaving it for some reason is not an option, since as human beings we’re in a deep need of social contacts, plus we have serious duties to cover.

But when circumstances force us to be adjustable and turn our home into a working place, then it’s different. Nevertheless, it isn’t as difficult as we thought it would be, is it?

In fact, it appears making your home your castle is not as easy as it may seem, but either way there are some pretty good clues to follow, that bring a successful professional, even if it is a home-office based one.

First things first – the most important thing we should do, while working from home, is protect our health. That means we have to protect our eyes, back and neck, because we certainly don’t want them to cause us any additional trouble.

Second thing you need to do, is setting certain boundaries to your home office. Now that sometimes turns into a serious obstacle, because not everyone has the space enough to make such.

• In pandemic times doors are needed for a reason, and escaping distractions really means choosing a separate room to call it an office, even if it was used for a different purpose through the weekend. If not that, you can at least choose a separate corner of the room, equipped with everything that’s absolutely necessary to keep things going, as they were in the real office. That’s when a functional desk is essential and cupboards are in tremendous help to hide things, that you don’t need all the time and will limit your movements and distract you.
• In order to do that, you have to think of simple ways of setting up your furniture right. This basically means your screen must be at such a distance that’s comfortable for your eyes, and prevent you from any eye strain and staring at the screen. Your office chair must be really an office suitable one, since this is definitely not a few hour situation.
• Blurry vision, headache and dry eyes can and should be avoided by adding an extra-moisture to the room, by a humidifier, or at least by making regular breaks to open a window in your home-office. Support the need of fresh air either to your body, as to your room, considering that good ventilation is supposed to be one of the COVID-19 preventing measures.
• There’s a 20-20-20 rule in ophthalmology you might stick to, like looking 20 feet away every 20 minutes for 20 seconds. Artificial tears are also an option to keep your eyes good moisted and provide any unnecessary discomfort.
• Color psychologists say yellow and orange are actually great colors for the office, while yellow is supposed to be stimulating to think outside the box and come up with new ideas, and orange seems to promote creativity. However, try not to get surrounded with any harsh, heavy or dark color schemes, and avoid any distracting patterns.
• Computer glasses are here to help too, plus there are a few freeware programs that automatically calculate recommended colours on your display, based on your location, and the daylight that comes to you, creating illumination that supports a space’s identity.
• In fact, a research from Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering shows that in companies with a high standard of interior design, productivity can increase by up to 36 per cent. So, why not apply that general rule successfully to your new, productive and here-to-stay, home office?
• Although setting a physical boundaries is a priority, setting a mind boundaries is also vital. Your body just needs to know it’s a working situation, not a relaxing one. So before teaching your children daddy/mommy is actually working right now, which is not so easy to believe and achieve, set the pace for work in your brain.

While everyone has their own unique household dynamic, bringing in the office atmosphere can be a completely different thing. Expert’s advice ranges from taking a pet or a plant to care for, rewarding yourself, or wearing a working suit to choosing whatever music you like to keep you as much isolated of all kinds of distractions.

• Truth is that you need to make a similar work environment, as it is in your office and stick to your daily routine, as the only thing that’s not going to be the same, is having lunch with your colleagues.

But as long as you have a good wi-fi, virtual meetings are a possibility that can minimize the difference between home office and a real one, and communicate with people, share experience and troubleshooting during the working process.

• Scheduling breaks can be a useful trick, too. There are several platforms to arrange your working calendar as balanced and busy as you need it to be. It’s all about setting the right tone that triggers your brain from getting ready to steady-go daily buttons.
• Beyond everything, setting up with an action plan is really a must-do thing. Golden rules of goal setting is not any new, as it’s based on goal-setting theory founded by Locke & Latham, 1984. Nowadays it’s implemented and adjusted in various conceptions and is a powerful source of achieving better results and gaining self-motivation.

The most common one – S.M.A.R.T. uses the a mnemonic acronym, giving criteria to guide in the setting of objectives. According to it, a goal must be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-based. And as we’re eager to get the home-office job well done, we should keep these little things in mind, at the expense of achieving the big goal.

So you see, bringing a home office to success, through a pandemic breakdown is not as hard, as it seems. You can make it happen just by following simple rules. And if there’s one thing we’ve learned from the past year, it is to follow the governmental rules that literally stoke from everywhere – shops, pharmacies, schools, restaurants etc. And if we’re being true to ourselves, we’ll realize we need rules to survive, even if they’re sometimes unpleasant or restrictive.

You know how when life gives you lemons, you should make a lemonade. Now when life gives you the possibility of working from home, do it a favorite place, that’s not different from any office. After all, it’s your home we’re talking about and you can adjust it on your demand just fine.

MVS Pharma GmbH is an innovative pharmaceutical start-up company, which researches in the area of reducing viruses and bacteria with plant based aerosols. Their special formula ensures the purity and the stability of the used ingredients during storage.

Liliya Ganeva is an article writer, who explores all the actual, up-to-date Covid-19 in Baden-Württemberg information, and the possibilities for producing aerosols made out of plants against respiratory viruses and bacteria.