Working from home can be challenging in a number of ways, especially if it’s not something that you are used to. In this article, we’ve compiled our top tips on how to work from home and compiled them for you here to make life just a little bit easier.

1. Keep a regular schedule

Working from home sounds like a dream until you’ve somehow spent sixteen hours working and can’t seem to stop checking your work emails before bed. It’s crucial to set your own working hours when working from home. We suggest a schedule that is similar to what you had when you were working in the office. Choose a start and end time, and make sure to give yourself breaks every couple of hours. Installing a time tracking app, such as RescueTime, can help make sure that you are sticking to your schedule. 

That being said, your schedule may need to adapt. If things are chaotic right now at your job, you may be finding that you are working longer hours. If your job requires you to coordinate with people in different time zones, you might have to wake up earlier or stay up later in order to make it work. Don’t worry about needing to move your schedule around, but do try to stick to the same schedule as often as you can.

2. Have a morning routine

The most successful people in the world have a morning routine, and chances are you already had one before you started working from home. While your old morning routine might not be functional anymore, it’s important to establish a new one. Use your morning routine to set yourself up for success.

You don’t need to go crazy with your morning routine and start doing everything that is recommended; pick a couple of things you would like to add. You can meditate, exercise, plan out your day, or spend quality time with loved ones. Have your morning routine end with you starting to work.

3. Give yourself breaks

This is one of the most important aspects of working from home. It’s really easy to spend your whole day working and forget to eat lunch or take the dog out for a walk. Have set times during your daily schedule where you take a break. You can plan for several shorter ones (ten to fifteen minutes) throughout the day, and don’t forget to take a little longer to have lunch!

It’s important that you don’t shortchange yourself during your breaks. If you give yourself ten minutes, take the full ten minutes. You can grab a drink, go to the bathroom, do a bit of stretching, say hi to your family, or plan what you want to have for dinner. Once again, having a timer here is really useful to make sure you are taking your breaks and spending time away from your computer and phone.

4. Have a dedicated workspace

If you don’t have a desk or table you can use in a quiet room, now might be the time to get one. Working on your couch or in bed sounds appealing, but these are spaces that your brain associates with leisure and as a result, your productivity may suffer. Finding a dedicated room or surface to work on helps keep your work life and your home life separate.

While your entire family may be home with you right now, do your best to find a space that is free of other people and request that people don’t bother you. If you have young children at home, this might be tricky, but you can redirect them to quieter activities while you are working. Do your best to set ground rules with the other people in your home or who share your space with for when you work.

5. Go outside

This might seem counterintuitive, but try to leave your house at least once a day and get outside. When you’re working in an office, you don’t spend an entire 24 hours there, and the same applies to your home office. While coworking spaces or cafes are not the best idea right now (it is recommended to practice social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic), there are other things you can do.

If you have any meetings that are over the phone and don’t require a computer, go for a walk while you’re taking the call. You can also get outside during your breaks. It doesn’t have to be for a long time, but breathing in fresh air has a number of benefits that are good for your brain and your body.

6. Change out of your pjs

It is incredibly tempting to spend the day in your pyjamas when you’re working from home. However, it can be hard to feel motivated and productive when you look and feel like you should still be in bed. Now you don’t have to wear a suit at home every day (unless you want to), but it is important to change out of your pjs. 

Additionally, many businesses are now choosing to communicate to their employees through video calls. While your boss probably won’t expect you to be dressed to the nines for every call, you should put in an effort to look presentable, especially for group calls.

7. Over communicate

When you’re working in the office, communication is easy. You can quickly stop by someone’s desk, have a quick chat in the hall, or simply wait until you see them at lunch. When you work from home, this form of communication is entirely eliminated. As a result, it’s important that you communicate what you are doing to your coworkers, managers, etc. If you finish a project, start working on something new, or are working on an important task, let people know.

This is especially important if your availability is changing or you’re about to take some time off. Make sure that you communicate to everyone clearly so they are aware of when and why you won’t be available. 

8. Make a to-do list

The humble to-do list can have a big impact on your motivation, productivity, and organization when working from home. When creating a list, include big goals (like quarterly and yearly KPIs) and smaller goals. Your smaller goals should help you work towards your bigger goals. Checking off the smaller goals not only helps you towards achieving your bigger goals, but also gives you positive reinforcement. 

An important part of having an effective to-do list is to write it down or have it on your computer or smartphone. Keeping everything in your head is simply not realistic. Plus, the act of crossing things off on your list is super satisfying!

9. Keep it healthy

Nourishing your body and your mind while working from home is more important than you think. During your breaks, make sure to stretch and move your body. Sitting for long periods of time is not great for your health, so don’t forget to move. You can even stretch in your chair, there are lots of guides for exercises you can do at your desk.

Eating nourishing food is also important. You want your brain to be at its best, and eating a bag of nachos every day is not ideal. Since you’re working from home, you have full access to a kitchen to prepare your meals and snacks. Make sure that you are stocked up on your favorite healthy foods by planning ahead. You can still treat yourself as a reward, just don’t go crazy.

10. Stay off social media

Social media can be a giant time suck, and we are all guilty of falling into its trap. When working from home, it’s even easier to suddenly spend half an hour laughing at memes because you’re outside of an office setting. Turn off social media notifications on your phone while you’re working (even better, leave your phone on the other side of the room) so that you are less distracted. Staying off social media can also be a great way to improve your mood. By avoiding a constant barrage of news stories about the Coronavirus, you may find that you are worrying less.

There are several different apps for your smartphone that let you limit and track how much time you spend on social media. You might be surprised at how much time you are spending on your phone which could be redistributed elsewhere. 

Conclusion - Working at home during COVID-19

We hope you’ve found our tips useful and that they make your working at home experience a more pleasant experience. If you’re brand new to working remotely, there might be some growing pains, but don’t worry - you’ll find your routine soon. 

COVID-19 is set to continue having a major impact on our lives during the next few weeks. Stay safe, and enjoy working from home.

However, COVID-19 has brought about changes in unexpected areas of our lives, in particular surrounding our data security. Cybercrime has been noticeably increasing, and there are concerns that ransomware attacks could disrupt both government and healthcare organizations. Here’s everything you need to know, including how to stay safe.

The current state of data security

The past year was not great for your data security. There were innumerable data breaches and billions of records were exposed. What has been notable is that there has been an increase in government agencies and healthcare companies becoming victims of data breaches. To give you some perspective, the following government or healthcare organizations were hacked in the last twelve months: the United Nations, the US Defence Information Systems Agency, LabCorp, LifeLabs, Bulgaria’s National Revenue Agency, Los Angeles County Dept. of Health Services, Maryland Dept. of Labor, and many, many more. 

Why exactly has there been an increase in targeting these types of organizations? There are a couple of reasons. The first is that, unfortunately, government agencies are generally not the most technologically advanced when it comes to cybersecurity and this makes them a prime target for data breaches. Old computer systems and out of date security measures allow hackers easy access. Obviously, this is not the case with every government system, but the majority do not have state-of-the-art security protocols in place to prevent breaches. 

Secondly, the data that healthcare and government organizations hold is incredibly valuable. In particular, there has been a rise in medical identity theft over the past few years, which makes medical records very appealing to hackers. Additionally, if a criminal has your social security number, they can steal your tax refund. Even if they don’t use the information themselves, hackers can sell your data to other criminals who can then steal your identity or use it to extort funds from you.

Thirdly, most major countries have their own government-backed hacking groups that they use to target rival countries. Naturally, confidential information and disrupting services like healthcare hurt the most, which makes them prime targets. While individuals are rarely the targets of these types of hacks (unless you’re a high ranking official), they can certainly have a major impact on your life.

What the past couple of years have shown us is that your data is not safe in the hands of organizations. Unfortunately, when it comes to government and healthcare related services, you don’t have much of a choice when it comes to handing over your personal information. However, it has been a wake up call for many organizations, especially with laws like the GDPR and California Consumer Privacy Act that make a lack of security and a lack of response punishable by law. 

The threats COVID-19 poses

During any tragic event, there are always people trying to capitalize off of it, and the Coronavirus is no exception. Cybercrime around the global pandemic has increased over the past few weeks, and in particular, phishing scams have used the virus as a theme. 

What makes phishing scams work (some of the time) is that they create a sense of fear, urgency, or curiousity; feelings that are already elevated right now due to COVID-19. These are extremely powerful emotions that can cause you to make decisions you normally wouldn’t. If you receive an email that looks like it is from your government regarding the Coronavirus, your natural inclination is to do what the email says. Hackers are counting on you not taking a closer look, which is what makes phishing scams so effective. Using real human emotions to prey on innocent victims is called social engineering and can be incredibly powerful in the right (or wrong) hands. 

In January and February 2020, Japan was hit by a massive phishing scam. An email appearing to be from a Japanese disability welfare service provider was sent out with an attachment supposed to contain important information about the Coronavirus. When the document was opened, malware was downloaded onto the victim’s computer. And this is only the beginning, there are certainly going to be more phishing scams in the future.

There has also been an uptick in website domains related to COVID-19, and the majority of these websites are 50% more likely to be malicious than other domains registered since January. All sorts of suspicious websites are claiming to sell testing kits, vaccines, and protective gear when in reality they are just capitalizing on fear.

Ransomware may be imminent

If you’re unfamiliar with ransomware, it’s a pretty basic idea. Hackers gain control of a computer or other device and hold it for a ransom. If the victim fails to pay within a given time frame, then the victim loses access forever. Since ransomware is a criminal activity, sometimes paying the ransom doesn’t restore access at all.

It’s a pretty effective technique because it preys on your fear of losing all of your files, photos, messages, etc., that are stored on your devices. When you apply this to a medical or government setting, ransomware could have devastating consequences, especially during a global pandemic. Criminals are viewing this time as an opportunity rather than a crisis.

A recent report by RiskIQ proposes that criminals are going to leverage the Coronavirus pandemic to launch ransomware attacks, particularly on healthcare organizations. Why? Because healthcare organizations are going to be more likely to pay and willing to pay more to have data released, especially when lives may be at risk. The effects could be devastating, especially if hackers target COVID-19 response and relief efforts.

There is a very real fear in the cybersecurity community that ransomware is imminent, and that the effects it will have in the fight against COVID-19 could be devastating. In fact, ransomware attacks could lead to the spread of the virus if governments and health services are delayed in finding and relaying important information to the general population. So far, there is no evidence that hospitals and government agencies are being specifically targeted, but if the trend of increasing ransomware attacks continue, things could get ugly.

How to stay safe

While there’s not a lot you can do to prevent a ransomware attack against a healthcare or government organization, there are some steps you can take to protect yourself against hackers. Here’s what we recommend:

• Be suspicious - If you receive any email that claims to have important information, check to see who the sender is and what their email address is. Hackers will imitate actual organizations very closely, but something will be off. Don’t download any attachments without making sure it’s from a safe, legitimate source.
• Be cautious of tempting offers- There is so much misinformation circulating right now regarding the Coronavirus. If something sounds too good to be true, especially regarding a cure or vaccine, it definitely is. Only follow the advice of your government and legitimate sources like the World Health Organization.
• Install an anti-virus or security suite and keep it up-to-date - In case you don’t spot malware, it’s important that your computer does. Most email software is pretty good at catching phishing scams, but you may want something heftier just in case. Most importantly, make sure that your software is regularly updated as updates can include important security patches. To make things even simpler, turn on auto updates so you don’t even have to think about it. 
• Enable two-factor authentication - This is one of the easiest ways to see if someone is trying to gain access to your accounts and stop them in their tracks. While not all websites and apps offer two-factor authentication, most of the major ones do. It might feel like a hassle at the beginning but it does a great job of protecting your data.

These small steps could protect your data from being compromised. Given the uptick in ransomware attacks, hopefully government and healthcare organizations will update their security systems too. This is a trying time, in more ways than one.

Conclusion - Data security during the COVID-19 outbreak

The future feels very uncertain right now, in more ways than one. The effect that the Coronavirus is having on data security may seem like an unexpected one, but it is also incredibly important. Suspicious criminal activity is on the rise, and the elevated emotions surrounding COVID-19 could make them far more effective than normal. If ransomware is used on hospitals and government services, the effects could be truly devastating.

This is a difficult time for most of the population, however, for criminals it’s a time that could be very profitable. Crime never stops, even during a global pandemic. In meantime, we should remain hopeful that this chaotic time will soon be over, and that healthcare and government organizations are paying attention to the habits of cybercriminals.