Starting to work from home may require you to make some changes to your home office and upgrade its technology. Be sure that your home office technology is adequate to get you through your busy workday.
High Speed Internet
In order to work online all day, you need a high speed internet connection. Your internet service is the backbone of all of your work from home tech. It needs to work quickly, reliably, and consistently. You can’t be experiencing frequent interruptions when you’re trying to complete work, and you can’t wait an excessive period of time to download or upload documents.
You certainly don’t want slow internet freezing you up when you’re participating in a virtual meeting. You may want to consider upgrading your current internet speed so that you can navigate everything that you need to do remotely with ease and efficiency.
Consistent Signal Strength
When you’re using a wireless signal to supply internet to your work computer, you need to make sure that your home’s Wi-Fi transmits well in the area where you’ll be working. You may need to invest in a new router or signal repeater to eliminate any dead spots or areas with intermittent Wi-Fi coverage.
Effective Antivirus Software
The computer that you’ll be doing work on needs to be equipped with a good antivirus program. It’s important that you update the program as soon as updates become available. You’ll likely be using the same computer to go on the internet for personal use, so it’s essential that you take active steps to protect the security of information that you send and receive for work.
Updated Operating Software
Operating system updates can take a significant amount of time, and you don’t want your computer to decide to do an update right before you need to get to work or participate in an important virtual meeting.
Stay on top of system updates; if your computer tells you that an update is available, you need to perform it within a reasonable time and not continue dismissing it indefinitely. Not only could it start the update at an undesirable time, it could also hinder your computer’s performance or create a security risk if you fail to install a critical system update.
Ergonomic Equipment
Regardless of whether spending all day on your computer is consistent with how you spent your days at the office, it’s imperative that you use ergonomically designed equipment so that you can remain as productive as possible and avoid developing any computer-related injuries in your new home office environment.
You need to work on a monitor that is placed at eye level and not crane your neck upwards or downwards while you work. In addition, you need to avoid having to lean forward, so you may need to get a desk with a keyboard tray. You may also benefit from using an ergonomically designed keyboard or mouse to reduce the strain on your wrists, arms, and upper back.
High Resolution Camera
If you’ll be a part of virtual meetings with your colleagues or clients, you need to look professional. If you’re going to be using your phone, you need to make sure that it has a camera with decent resolution. Also, you need something to hold it stationary during the call. Likewise, if you’ll be using your computer’s camera, it needs to have adequate resolution so that you won’t look digitized or grainy.
Working from home necessitates using updated operating and antivirus software, ergonomically designed equipment, and internet and technological tools that enable you to work quickly and productively. Once you get all of the tech that you need to work efficiently from home, you may find that your overall productivity is better than when you had to commute to the office.
