With many of us working from home this week, we thought it would be a good opportunity to look at some tips and best practices for telecommuting that will help you make the most of your at-home office. These tips are applicable to anyone working from home; whether you’re telecommuting due to sickness, for convenience, or you’re someone whose physical circumstances make it difficult to access a typical office environment, there’s something here for you.

Stay Focused

It’s easy to get sidetracked when you’re working from home. The set-up is not always ideal, and there are bound to be extra distractions. Take a look at the following tips to stay on task and comfortable in your at-home office environment.

Eliminate Background Noise

Noise-cancelling headsets help to keep your focus off the outside world and onto your work, and the attached mic allows you to participate in virtual meetings, use speech recognition to control your PC, or use dictation to write emails hands-free. Less expensive options like the Microsoft LifeChat Headset provide entry-level performance, while Dragon Dictation-certified options like the Jabra EVOLVE 75 Headset provide exceptional clarity and comfort.

Practice Good Ergonomics

Proper ergonomic positioning is essential for achieving long-term focus and comfort. Take a look at our ergonomic checklist to see if your workstation is up to par.

Maintain Concentration

The StayFocused extension for Chrome is a great tool for limiting or blocking distracting web sites, and productivity/task management apps such as Todoist keep you on track and organized, whether you work from a PC, smartphone, or tablet.

Stay Connected

Most office environments provide fast, dedicated internet connections, as well as a physical space to interact with clients. When you’re working from home, you might be forced to make do with less-than-ideal internet connections, and, you’ll be relying on video conferencing apps to stay connected with clients and co-workers.

Monitor your Wi-Fi

Apps like Google Wi-Fi allow you to better manage the devices on your network. With Google Wi-Fi, you can pause, monitor and prioritize Wi-Fi devices with ease, so your at-home “colleagues” won’t slow down your video meetings by watching YouTube videos or gaming online.

Communicate Clearly

For crisp, easy-to-use video conferencing and screen sharing, try Zoom. Joining a Zoom meeting takes only a couple of clicks. One-on-one meetings are free and easy to organize, and meeting participants are not required to download the app.

Tap into Remote Resources

If you need to provide or receive IT support, or, connect to your office computer from home, TeamViewer has you covered. Connecting via TeamViewer is easy, secure, and free for personal use.

Stay Productive

Once you have the basics covered, take a look at these tips designed to help further maximize your productivity while working from home.

Consider a Second Monitor

Plugging your laptop into an external monitor allows you to run multiple apps at once, compare documents and research, stay on top of emails, and much more. With this additional digital workspace, you’ll find you get a lot more done at home, and you probably won’t want to go back to using a single screen.

Fill your Calendar

If you don’t already have access to a digital calendar, start simple. Create a Gmail or Outlook account and take advantage of the built-in calendar to effectively keep track of your tasks and appointments. Consider breaking down your larger projects into smaller, more manageable chunks. Your day will be more structured, and bigger tasks won’t seem as daunting.

Collaborate with Office 365

Connecting with your colleagues at home is easy with Office 365 and supporting apps. Office 365 instantly syncs your work across all devices, and Microsoft Teams allows you to collaborate, chat, and call from anywhere.

This post originally appeared on the AT Help Desk website.

Tags: apps, AT HelpDesk, ergonomics, technology