10 Tips for working from your Sotogrande home
The global spread of COVID-19, the new coronavirus, keeps many people at their home in Sotogrande or anywhere else in Spain.
For those living in Spain, today, it is almost mandatory for the vast majority of people. Many of us will probably work from home for an indefinite period of time.
During my professional career I have worked with distributors in several countries, but the company that employed me had no offices in the country where I worked. So, on many occasions I worked from home. I can tell you from experience that in order not to go crazy you will have to change some habits and routines so that working from your Sotogrande home is a success. All of us who work remotely must determine when to work, where to work, and how to create boundaries between work and personal life. Here are some tips:
1. Maintain regular hours
Set a schedule and stick to it. Have clear guidelines on when to work and when not to. Maintaining a balance between work and personal life is important. Working from your Sotogrande home sounds like a dream: pyjamas all day long, not shaving, lazing around! – but it can become boring and unproductive fairly quickly if not addressed in the right way.
2. Establish ground rules with people in your space
Establish ground rules with others in your home or who share your space when you work. If you have children, make clear rules about what they can and cannot do during certain hours. If you simply take everything by default because you are at home, you may feel taken advantage of by your family and your productivity may be affected.
3. Keep a dedicated “office” space.
Dedicate a desk and some peripherals for work use only. For example, when your laptop is connected to the monitor and external keyboard, it’s time to work. When it’s on your lap, it’s personal time.
4. Have a Work Plan
When working alone, you should keep a more structured schedule than usual. In my case, as a Sotogrande Real Estate Agent they would be:
1. Clean my inbox.
2. Contact all my clients of Sotogrande and maintain dialogue.
3. Review all my inventory that I have on the website www.noll-sotogrande.com, making sure that the photos, descriptions, and documents of our listed Sotogrande properties are in order and up-to-date.
5. Socialize with colleagues of Sotogrande, Marbella..
Loneliness, disconnection and isolation are common problems in remote working life, especially for extroverts. With today’s technology it is easy to connect with colleagues via Skype, Facetime or other means. Communicate with your colleagues regularly.
6. Take advantage and get into better physical shape.
There are many workouts you can do from the comfort of your home and doing it can seriously help your mental health. There are tons of exercises you can do without any equipment, and YouTube has tons of channels offering instruction on everything from yoga to Pilates to strength training.
7. Clean your house.
Working from your home in Sotogrande not only does it protect against the spread of disease, but it also makes being cooped up in your home much more enjoyable. Take advantage and do a “Spring clean”.
8. Perform a digital cleaning of your mobile or computer.
Take advantage of idle time or short breaks to optimize your work-tools. Having everything well organized and up to date will help you work with greater productivity when your are working from your Sotogrande home. This is an opportunity to make back-ups, errase old documents, clean up obsolete files. And install to your electronic devices the latest updates.
9. Be positive
When you work remotely full time, you must be positive, to the point of feeling that you are being too positive! Working from home is not forever, and many of us will be judged on our behaviour when we return to normal. Being recognized for being positive can help you in your career.
10. Remember to stay healthy and practice good hygiene.
Information is power and having the right information can be helpful in avoiding freaking out. It is a good idea to be aware of what to do if you think you have contracted the coronavirus. And perhaps the easiest way to stay healthy is to maintain proper hygiene. You don’t need a face mask (unless you’re sick), but you should wash your hands regularly (and remember, soap and water are just as effective as hand sanitizer).
These are difficult and uncertain times, and the best we can all do is be kind to ourselves and to our neighbours of Sotogrande as we go along.
Thank you for reading, Charles Gubbins.
