Many of our BiZHUB members work from home, combining work and home life in the same space. While the current COVID-19 crisis may be impacting their businesses in other ways, at least they're used to working alone and have learned how to keep themselves motivated and deal with any feelings of isolation. 

But for some of our small business community, remote working is a completely new world.

To help those that are struggling, I've compiled some tips and tricks that I've found work really well. 

Many home workers find they're more productive if they start early, doing a stint at their desk before breakfast.

Get dressed, make yourself a coffee and go to your home office or work area at a regular time. 

Spend time planning out your day (you can do this the day before or first thing) and have a realistic task list. 

Don't forget to schedule breaks. Making a cup of tea or taking a quick walk round the block (keeping a distance from other people!) can help you to refocus.

Cloud-based collaboration tools can create a virtual workplace where you can chat with colleagues and associates, schedule meetings and share documents and other resources. Microsoft is offering a free 6 month trial of Teams for enterprise users, but there are plenty of other SaaS tools like Slack, Google Drive, Zoom and Asana, that micro businesses can use. And some of these are free.

Have a definite finishing time and set an alarm to tell yourself it's time to pack up. You don't have to stop at exactly that time, but you can start the process of saving your work and calling it quits for the day.

If you've got any tips for working from home that you would like to share with our business community, please join our Facebook or LinkedIn groups and post your advice there.

Facebook Group - The Bordon Business Exchange

LinkedIn Group - East Hampshire Business Community