Smart working opportunities
9 April 2025
This unusual situation generated by the coronavirus outbreak has presented us with a big challenge: keep working without leaving our home.
For many businesses working remotely, aka smart working, is already a common practice. It’s adopted by more and more companies, as an employees’ perk but also as a tool to increase productivity whilst improving work and life balance. But for who, like advisers, is used to seeing clients face to face all the times, this is without doubt a drastic change and the transition is especially difficult.
Like it or not, it’s the only way we can work in the coming weeks (or months), so I think to embrace the change and make the most of it, it’s worth focusing on all the opportunities smart working can offer.
Your home, your comfort
First of all, we get a chance to work from the comfort of our home, avoiding all that wasted time driving and sitting in traffic. This means more time for other activities and planning.
If you believe in separating work from private life, you can create your home office space, wherever you like. It doesn’t need to be a dedicated room, but you can use any corner you like in your house.
In addition, everything is more relaxed at home, you don’t need to wear your usual work attire, but whatever makes you feel comfortable.
Find your new pace
Working from home means you can take a break from the usual office routine (arrival, coffee break, meeting, lunch break, coffee break, set off) or customer visits routine of seeing clients on the road every day. You can create your new routine as it best fits you and why not, you can enjoy a slower pace.
You are in charge of your own daily schedule. Make your own plan making sure to dedicate some time to all activities -from work to home admin and house cleaning, exercise, prepare meals, family time, etc.
Your personal development
Since you are at home, now it’s a great time to dedicate some energies to upskill. You can refine your skills and learn new ones to be more effective and knowledgeable in the market.
Many online platforms and websites are making their online resources available for free. Whatever the topic you wish to explore, you have a large choice, from webinar sessions, to online classes, articles and magazines, videos, Ted talks, training materials and many others. With a simple online search, you will be surprised how many resources you have available.
And of course it’s important to keep informed of all the changes Covid-19 is bringing to products and processes in your industry. This is made easier by live news feeds that aggregates all updates together, like this one for the later life lending market.
Exploit technology
Technology and your internet connection can help make the most of your smart working, too. There is an app or an online tool for everything now.
You can use productivity apps and software to organize, manage your tasks and keep track of your workflow; there are many available and they are usually free.
Video conferencing software can make distance shorter allowing you to video call your colleagues, your clients, but also friends and family. You can still have those meetings you have scheduled in your diary and it will be almost like they were face to face.
If you miss your office colleagues, you can also use team chat apps; they make it easier to keep all the office conversations together, and they allow group discussions, private chats but also video calls and screen sharing, too.
Plan and organize
Have you ever had all this time available? Who knows when this will happen again!
You can finally go through those tasks you’ve always postponed because you didn’t have the time. You can organise your emails and complete all those admin tasks. Do you have any documents to file? And what about updating your antivirus? You can check updates for all your apps on your devices, not to mention all the paperwork that is still waiting to be filed.
And of course planning! Time is one of our most valuable assets, so with good planning you can definitely make the most out of it. You can plan calls with your clients and block time out to dedicate to their case. You can plan activities and all your breaks during the week- it’s a great idea to take a break in between your tasks with some housework, it refreshes your mind and it kills two birds with one stone.
Smart working might not be something you would have ever thought to try, but now you have the chance to give it a go, explore all its opportunities and maybe change your mind! After all, it could be the future.
