Home Office Guide: How to Work Efficiently at Home

Network and work together

More and more companies are letting their employees work from home. For best results, you should install some useful tools on your computer to bring the benefits of your office into your home office. We show you the best procedures to make your work more efficient.

There are a few things to consider if you move your office to your own apartment or house. How do you best communicate with colleagues? How do you answer customer calls? How do you work on a project together? With the right software solution, you can almost do the tasks of daily office life at home. We will explain how this works in the various topic chapters.

table of Contents

1. Successful communication within the company
   

2. Company phone in home office
   

3. Share large files
   

4. Collaborate on documents in real time
   

5. Scan, sign and send documents
   

6. Send and receive faxes online
   

7. VPN connection to access corporate and university networks
   

8. VPN encrypts your own data traffic
   

9. Working time record
   

10. Solving Internet Connection Problems
    

11. More tips on best homework
    

Successful communication within the company

Anyone accustomed to personal communication at the office site faces challenges in the home office. Therefore, in the following article, we provide a detailed overview of powerful communication aids in everyday office life. It contains Messenger programs specially developed for communication between small and large teams. We also introduced task and project planners who can perform detailed, real-time organization of remote and complex projects.

Our article also contains procedures by which group calls, video conferences and presentations or seminars can be implemented from the home office. This can also be used to remotely control a colleague's computer if needed.

Company phone in home office

Answering calls is a challenge when your office is completely out of the office and can be easily mastered using an IP voice system. Callers can dial your landline number here, but they can answer the phone as long as you have an Internet connection. For this to work, a VoIP provider must usually be subscribed. If you work longer in your home office, it's worth it, our comparison provides information on the costs and services of different VoIP providers

Share large files

A particular challenge may be sharing large files, overwhelming email providers and chat programs. Cloud storage is the best solution here. Files and folders once uploaded to cloud storage can be shared by sending links. The recipient then clicks the link to download the content.

Our comparison provides information on the advantages and disadvantages of a single cloud storage. Depending on your needs, you can choose a provider here and use it to share large files. The corresponding sharing function supports all well-known providers. In the linked description, we use Dropbox to show you how to send content to colleagues exclusively via the cloud.

Collaborate on documents in real time

Some cloud storage allows multiple users to collaborate on documents, spreadsheets and presentations in real time. Changes made by users are always visible in real time to other editors using such cloud office services. This feature is already useful in real offices, and more useful in home offices. The comparison below provides information on which services support this feature and their respective advantages and disadvantages.

Scan, sign and send documents

With the right software, smartphones and tablets will become mature scanners in home offices. First use your mobile device's camera to capture the document here, then the scanner software uses filters to make your document appear in a typical scanner look.

Under iOS and Windows 10, you can use the car device to scan accordingly. If you use Android, it is recommended that you use the Scanbot application as an alternative.

Send and receive faxes online

If necessary, you can bring not only the telephone system but also the fax machine to your home office. Many of the VoIP providers we linked above already support fax. However, if you are not interested in a complete VoIP solution, you can find a more streamlined alternative in dedicated fax software. The following comparisons provide information on related markets.

VPN connection to access corporate and university networks

Many companies and universities offer the option to establish a VPN connection in a corporate or university network. In this way, a secure connection can be established in the corresponding network. You can then use the network and the Internet as you normally would. We are unable to provide details on establishing a VPN connection in your network because the steps vary depending on the protocol used and the associated connection details. You should get relevant information from your employer.

However, in general, most VPN connections can be established directly through the built-in operating system. Our instructions explain how this works overall.

VPN encrypts your own data traffic

If your company does not have a VPN, but you are still concerned about the insecure transmission of company and customer data in your home office, you can use a commercial VPN service-these services usually encrypt your data with a certain degree

Working time record

If you work from a distance, the recording of working hours may be particularly important. No matter what operating system you use, it's easy to implement in a spreadsheet. In the instructions below, we will walk you through how to do this.

Solving Internet Connection Problems

This can be particularly stressful during working hours in the home office if internet problems occur at home. The first thing to do is to diagnose the problem. Our overview of current failures gives you information about whether only one of the web services you are using is failing or if there is a problem with your network provider. You can also use our speed test to analyze if there are general issues with your Internet connection.

If you find that your DSL connection has actually failed, then we have summarized various problem solutions in the following articles.

More tips on best homework

If you are using a small laptop, connecting an external display can make your job easier. In principle, a television can also be used as a second screen. If you are not alone or living with your child, you should also be prepared to prevent interference. If you must concentrate on your work, we recommend using headphones with active noise reduction. These usually do not completely eliminate noise, but can significantly suppress environmental noise. There are also many options for using office numbers at home.

Do you have any other productivity tips in your home office? Then let us know in the comments below this article.