Because the COVID-19 crisis has caused a large uptick of the number of people working from home, I’m going to try to write a bit more about effective strategies for doing that. What that means is that as I find articles that seem helpful, I’ll write about them to share them with any Irreal readers who find the information useful.
Much of the advice I’ve seen has a lot commonality but there’s surprising disagreement on the best way to proceed so it’s worth taking a look at several points of view. Simon Harrer and Jochen Christ, both of INNOQ, have their own take on what makes an effective home office. They have some suggestions that I hadn’t seen before.
For example, they note that when you’re in a small room the oxygen level can go down surprisingly quickly and adversely affect your cognitive efficiency. The easy way to combat that is to open your window and to let you know when you should do that, they recommend getting a simple CO2 sensor.
Another useful suggestion is to avoid headphones by investing in a quality microphone. They recommend the Blue Yeti, which is not too expensive for what it offers. A good microphone will do noise cancelling and obviate the need for headphones to eliminate feedback.
There’s a bunch of other good suggestions in their post so it’s worth taking a look even if you’re not new to working from home. Harrer and Christ state up front that theirs is an opinionated guide but even if you don’t agree with everything they say, you’ll probably find lots of value in what they offer.