Working from home: how to stay motivated

 

Use digital tools to manage your day

 

Staying motivated is challenging when working alone. Digital tools help teams to work effectively with their colleagues. Digital project management tools give visibility over what’s happening. Communication tools bridge distances. Some of the best digital tools so far are:

• Trello

Free for charities, Trello offers a lot of functionality to manage projects. Projects are set up across ‘boards.’ To-do ‘cards’ are added to the boards, much like a sticky note. Each card is customisable, showing a workstream, deadline, responsibilities, and progress.

• Monday.com

Monday’s project management platform offers a free trial. With more sophistication than Trello, Monday has a team scheduler which shows progress on a project and what team members are doing. Each task also includes a priority rating, which helps those working from home to see what should be done ahead of other things.

• Asana

Available on The Charity Digital Exchange, Asana is a powerful project management tool. The platform takes projects from inception to close. Teams can set strategic goals, build Gantt charts, and monitor progress. For more advanced users, Asana integrates with Microsoft Teams, Salesforce, Slack, Gmail, and many others.

• Microsoft Teams

Teams helps charity staff to keep in touch and collaborate. The digital communication tool lets teammates chat, video conference, and exchange files. To stay motivated, charity workers can share how they feel. The platform includes emojis for those needing to let it out.

• Zoom

Zoom’s easy-to-use video conferencing tool has been one of the most lauded platforms for working from home. To keep motivated at home, Zoom helps charity workers keep in touch with colleagues. The digital tool also has a mobile app, so charity workers don’t miss a beat even if they are doing errands. For charities, Zoom is available on the Charity Digital Exchange.

 

 

Follow your schedule

 

For goal-oriented charity workers, having a schedule and to-do list keeps up the sense of achievement. Digital calendars and lists help to break-up the day with different tasks. To keep yourself sharp, schedule in breaks from work.

 

Digital calendars are available for personal and work use. Google Calendars is free for charity workers. The digital calendar lets you have multiple coloured agenda items for different purposes. Social, work, and personal appointments can be colour coded. For work, digital calendars like Zoho Calendar work well. Zoho Calendar allows users to send meeting invitations and share calendars. The more forgetful colleagues can set up customised alerts.

 

 

Reward yourself and your team

 

Whether it’s the end of the day or the end of a project, reward yourself and reward your team. Despite the remote environment, charity digital leaders can host away days and online ice-breakers. Virtual events don’t have to be just for fundraising. Team leaders can host their own online quizzes, digital sporting events, and much more.

 

Working from home for a prolonged period of time wasn’t anticipated and for many it’s been difficult to adapt. Sharing mental health resources with team members can also help boost your team’s motivation and morale.