Work from home was once a phenomenon that everyone wanted to join; everyone wanted to have the flexibility of working from their bed or from their home office without having to get up and commute. These days, it’s becoming the normal expectation.  Since you likely already have smart devices at home, take advantage of them!

Your home is likely outfitted with a good amount of smart tech that’s in place to make your life easier. You need to use this tech to make working from home an easier experience as well.

Staying Focused

One of the most difficult parts of working from home can be staying focused. After all, instead of sitting at your office with no distractions, suddenly you might find yourself sitting on the couch with your pets, family, and TV in the background. Luckily, the smart tech you already probably have at home is in place to help you stay focused.

Using ear bud style headphones with Google or Apple’s assistants built-in allows for not only silencing background noise but also getting hands free work done. Commands like, “OK Google, play a focus playlist from Spotify.” or “Hey Siri, turn off the TV in the living room.” will help you stay on track.

Staying Comfortable

Staying comfortable is essential to staying focused and being able to get your work done distraction-free. Technology makes it easy to stay comfortable in your home. You can usually take the time to set up your air conditioning and lights, for example, to your voice system through Amazon or Google.

That way, you can change things at a moment’s notice should you get uncomfortable with the amount of lights in a room or with the temperature of the room. You can replicate the conditions you’d normally find with your office, and you won’t even need to get up to change them.  You can even setup automations so that during your normal working hours, your home office is already at the proper temperature and with the proper lights on and ready.

Nest by Google makes a well known smart thermostat, and we’re big fans of the Phillips Hue smart home lighting solutions.

Minding The Time

With distractions quicker to come by with a work from home setup, it’s important to observe how efficient you are with your time. This is always the best practice for business but even more so when family might be pulling you aside with no notice. After all, typically you’re only getting paid if you’re tracking time, right?

There are plenty of great apps for your computer/browser/phone (Rescuetime, Toggl, Everhour, etc) but physical “tokens” might have the edge. Timeular makes an 8-sided time tracking dice that lets you set common (and billable) activities for each side. You then simply flip it to the proper side while you’re doing that task and the time is logged automatically.

Have a special client project taking place this month? Set one of the sides for that project and never forget to log the time again. With proper tracking, you might be quite surprised by how much time you spend on work or simply wasting after one week of use.

Final Work From Home Thoughts

If you have an Alexa, Google, or Apple enabled smart device, you need to take advantage of setting up your smart home for more beneficial work from home use. You’ll be able to stay comfortable, focused, and mindful of the work/home balance. Use the tech you already have and enjoy the opportunity to work from home!

If you need any help to figure out deploying the right solutions for you or your team, schedule a time for a call to discuss further. The team at 101 Digital love sharing ideas on how to use technology to help your business.