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Stress-free working from home as a management assistant
by Silvan van Hierden on Thursday 14 May 2020
Working from home can cause stress, which can make it difficult to maintain focus. Especially as a management assistant you have a lot of responsibilities and don't always have the same facilities that you have at the office. In this blog you will read the most important tips to work stress-free from home.
Mess creates stress
A neat and tidy environment helps to reduce stress while working. Therefore, look for a fixed workplace at home that is neat, clean and tidy. A tidy environment reduces impulses, helps you to keep focus and thus ensures a tidy head. Is everything clean and tidy? There you are. The first step to working stress-free from home is complete.
Make a planning!
Time for the next step. Make a plan. This will help you to create peace and overview. In addition, you monitor the priorities of your work and give it structure. This is especially important if you feel that there is a lot of work on your plate. Include a goal in your planning. What do you want to finish today?
Are you going to make a schedule? Then follow these steps:
- Put it on paper! Is it crystal clear to you what you need to do? You can avoid stress if you can clearly see what work you need to do.
- Do everything you can within one minute immediately. Think of an e-mail you can answer with 'yes' or 'no', something you need to check quickly, or something you need to clean up quickly. This kind of small work causes unrest, while you can easily solve it. Don't postpone it. Because you pick up these kinds of small tasks immediately, it doesn't take up any more space in your head.
- You don't have to do everything now. You don't have to do everything today either. Make time for planning. Put the work in order of priority and spread it out over the next seven working days, for example. Work according to your schedule and don't let the delusion of the day influence you. Will there be new work to do? You can put them back into your planning in order of priority.
After you have worked according to your schedule for one day, you can mark what you have done. It is sometimes the case that you have not gotten to certain points. But be happy with the work you have been able to tick off.
Reserve blocks
Besides making a schedule it can help to divide your day into blocks. This way there will be no small activities that 'you pick up quickly' in between. Such small things cause stress. Reserving blocks creates structure in your day.
For example, start every day by checking your mail and end your day by updating the schedule for the next day. It can also help to reserve a certain period of time in which you can best be reached. You can also put this in your signature of your mail. This way, people know when they can reach you best, which provides structure in your head and clarity in your contacts.
Our brains can work in a focused way for about 90 minutes. That is why it can work efficiently to work in blocks of 90 minutes and then take a 10 minute break. In this way you keep your concentration up to standard, get more done and most likely suffer less from stress.
Team meeting
Do you work in a team? Then make sure you coordinate everything. For example, schedule a recurring meeting with your immediate colleagues on every (working) day in which you discuss current issues and divide tasks. You can then adjust your planning accordingly.
Activate tools
Technology can give you a lot of peace. There are countless programs and handy online tools to help you work stress-free. Think for example of Microsoft To-Do and Easy2Meet.
- Microsoft To-Do
Here you can create, manage and share task lists and to-do lists. Ideal if you work alone, but also useful within a team. You can also add links and files. This way, you can also use this program as a moodboard for a specific project (or client).
- Indeqa
Thanks to Indeqa you can easily hold paperless meetings. You can plan, organize, facilitate and manage minutes and meetings. This solution makes facilitating meetings incredibly easy.
Would you like to organize digital board meetings based on Teams and Indeqa? Watch our demo videos or apply for our free 30 day trial.
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