Frankly, I am thrilled to be working from home. Work from home for designers is not an alien concept. It starts during our hostel life, where more work gets done in your room than in your studio. More work happens at night than in the day.
We have decided to work from home for as long as possible. However, some of us do visit the studio for meetings or presentations once in a while. I feel some discipline, some planning, and some tools make DFH an absolute pleasure. So, this is what we are doing:
1. We agreed on work timings. We have a morning and an evening all-hands meeting (online). And we have decided not to work after studio timings. Weekends remain no-work days too.
2. We use a paid integrated communication tool to chat, share, talk and do video calls, and it is device agnostic. The training everyone had on social media is coming in very handy.
3. Bless the cloud and subscription model of design tools. It also helps that Apple has an online store, and they deliver anywhere in India now.
4. Our client contacts have increased, we have better projects than ever before, and we enjoy them even more. Yet, while work has increased substantially, somehow stress levels are down!
5. We opened our doors to interns, which has brought a lot of fresh energy into the team.
6. On Fridays we all get together online, including the interns, and tell inspiring stories and discuss motivations.
7. We have parties/drinks and get-togethers online on some evenings. They are preplanned, and it is incredible how enjoyable these are.
8. Everyone has lost weight, is eating healthy, and being more grateful.
9. We are now exploring if we can all get away together for a more extended working vacation (Worcation). Soon.
10. And we will keep the studio. In time it will evolve into a lounge we can visit when we need to.
How are you coping with Design from Home? Do share your tips.
Sudhir Sharma, Editor-in-Chief
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