If you’re reading this in March, 2020, you are probably practicing social distancing and self-isolation due to the COVID-19 Coronavirus that is spreading around the globe. And, if you are not in the hospitality and food service industry, you are likely working from home (WFH) and maybe for the first time. For some, the idea of working in your pajamas at the kitchen counter with a mug of coffee is a dream come true; for others, it’s a true nightmare. No matter where you are on that spectrum, we are all going through this together (by being apart) and a few tips might make your work from home time productive, both personally and professionally.

I have been working from home full-time for 17 of the past 20 years so I thought I would share some tips for the WFH newbies. Below are some general tips and of course, to stay on brand, there are cybersecurity tips as well.

General WFH Tips

1. Find a comfortable place to work. sitting on the couch with your laptop sounds great, and it is, but not for 8+ hours a day. Find a place where you can sit or stand comfortably while typing, taking phone calls or whatever your work has you do.

2. Sit AND stand. Sitting all day is not good for you and standing all day is not good for you either. Be sure to switch it up throughout the day. This seems pretty obvious but when you work in an office, you may need to walk to a meeting room a few times each day or stand and chat at the water cooler. At home, the water cooler is either talking on the phone or chatting online and if you don’t pay attention, you may find yourself in pain after 8 hours sitting at the kitchen island.

3. Limit distractions. Not everyone has a home office with a door that they can close to keep out the hungry kids who are home from school, the dog or socializing neighbors. If you fall into this category, you may need to get creative and put a chair and TV tray in your bedroom, but keeping focus is something that many people struggle with when they begin working from home. Make sure the family knows that you are working and if you are on the phone, they should pretend that you are not there. If it’s not urgent, have your family text you, the way they would if you were actually in the office.

4. Take breaks. I can’t stress this enough. Many new WFHers get caught up in the work and never get a break. If you don’t take a break, you are likely to become much less productive. If you can, schedule 45 minute meetings so you have 15 minutes in between to get water, stretch your legs and use the restroom if necessary.

5. Don’t eat at lunch? Over the years I have stopped eating at noon. I can grab a quick snack or sandwich in between meetings or even during meetings if I’m on mute (more on the mute button later). I like to take a lunch hour and go for a walk, or a run, or head to the gym for a quick workout. In the office, you can’t go to a meeting in gym clothes and drenched in sweat but you can at home! Getting out for a mid-day workout can really help your mind and body rally in that second half of the day when many people get very tired.

6. The mute button is your friend. I’m sure many of you have a great story about someone who didn’t use the mute button. I have had a mishap or two but most of my good stories were from other people. From dogs barking and people yelling at their kids to “shut up! I’m on the phone!” to elderly parents with dementia picking up the phone and talking to everyone in the meeting, there is an endless list of things that could embarrass you. Not the least of which is if you need to use the restroom during the meeting. This is the peak of the mountain of embarrassment so get in the habit of hitting that mute button any time you aren’t talking.

7. Headsets are a must if you spend a lot of your day in meetings. Speakerphone can be distracting to others in your house and usually doesn’t sound good to others on the call. Be sure to ask people if you sound OK so you can make adjustments if necessary.

8. Enable Wi-Fi calling on your cell phone. If you’re like me and you have terrible cell reception at home, you will want to enable Wi-Fi calling which will route you call over the Internet rather than the cell towers, if your signal is bad. Here is how to enable Wi-Fi calling on iOS and Android devices.

WFH Cybersecurity Tips

1. Learn about phishing attacks and expect them.

   1. COVID-19 themed phishing attacks and malware are prevalent and increasing in numbers.

   2. Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks trick employees into sending money to the attackers. This is typically aimed at the finance department but there is no reason this couldn’t be used against a small business or even families and individuals.

   3. Sextortion is a type of phishing attack that uses a victim’s previously compromised password or other information to create a sense of validity to the attackers threat to release sensitive information or video of the victim to the victim’s friends, family or publicly on the Internet.

2. Use your company virtual private network (VPN), especially if you connect to a Wi-Fi network that’s not yours (neighbor, relative, coffee shop). The VPN ensures that all of your work traffic, and likely all of your network traffic, goes through the company network before it gets to the Internet. This means that all of the company’s security tools are working to make sure that your computer doesn’t get infected or attacked.

3. Secure your Wi-Fi This is nothing new, but here are some high level tips.

   1. Ensure you are using WPA2

   2. Create a good password for your network

   3. Enable a guest network for your visitors. Don’t give them access to your personal home network.

      1. FUN BONUS TIP: Make a QR code for your guest network. Print it out and put it in small frames around your house so guests can just join your guest network without having to give them your strong password.

   4. Do NOT hide your network SSID. This actually makes your network less secure.

4. Network Segmentation is becoming as important for home networks as it is for business networks. If you have some extra time on your hands, it might be time to put your home IoT devices on a separate network than your regular computing devices.

5. Password Managers sound super boring but they not only make you more secure, they really help you organize your digital life. If you’re not using a password manager at home or at work, take some time to read about them and download one for free. It will greatly reduce the likelihood that you become the victim of a cyberattack.

6. Not only do you need to create great passwords and use a password manager, but anywhere you can, you should enable multi-factor authentication (MFA), also referred to as two-factor authentication.

7. Here are some general cybersecurity tips including whole disk encryption, patching, endpoint firewalls, and more

8. Backups are a very important part of modern computing. We used to create backups in case of a computer crash or theft but today, they are even more critical because of the potential data loss from ransomware. Since ransomware will usually look across your network and encrypt your backup drives as well, it’s best to swap backup drives regularly or only connect them to your computer or network when you are doing a backup.

BONUS TIP

If you are used to having other people and noise around you, working from home may make you feel isolated and alone. One thing that you can do is turn on a TV or play music in the background. However, don’t put on the news (unless that’s part of your job) because watching updates on the spread of a global pandemic can be stressful and detract from your work. For TV, I like the Netflix show, Moving Art. There are no words, just high def video of nature with some music (also with no lyrics) playing in the background. If you don’t have a TV in your home office space, then streaming music is a great alternative. I prefer music with no lyrics because if I recognize the song, I’ll start to sing it in my mind which distracts me from my work.

Working from home can be a great thing. WFH workers tend to work more hours (no commute = more productivity) and have better work-life balance. And if you haven’t had enough, here are 64 more tips from ZDNet for staying happy, healthy and productive when working from home..