5 Tips to Successfully Work from Home in Nigeria -By Victor Winners

Over the years, widespread advancement in technology, growing internet penetration and adoption of digital technology has changed the face of work in countries around the world.

From a brick-and-mortar-only work space, today we have a virtual system where people can work virtually or work from home, without having to get to their offices.

This virtual system of working from home and elsewhere has continued to gather momentum around the world. Spurred by extensive internet penetration and the unfortunate Covid-19 lockdown, countries and businesses in Africa have both grudgingly and wholeheartedly, accepted the new system of work, including even countries like Nigeria that were practically skeptical about the innovation.

This development has encouraged a lot of businesses to adopt the new mode of work. However, compared to working from home in other parts of the world, working remotely in Nigeria and most other African countries has its own peculiarities. And often times, these peculiarities are based on Africa’s own economic realities.

Before you jump in on this exciting alternative to office space, I want you to know that unlike what is experienced in most developed parts of the world, in Nigeria, from getting back-up electricity gadgets to making provisions for alternate internet connections, there’s indeed a bucket list of things you need to get prepared for before embarking on a successful work from home experience in Nigeria.

This is exactly what you’re going to learn about in this article and we’re starting right away, in the following paragraphs.

Set up a Work Corner

In Nigeria, working from home does not necessarily mean that you need to have an exclusive home office for your work before you can get productive. However, you definitely need a safe space where you can do your work effectively without much disturbance, especially in a situation where you don’t live alone.

In such situations, to enjoy a robust work from home experience, you need a corner that is quiet, free from distractions, a place where you can create an ambience of an office space, exclusively for your work.

Get your Tools Together

To work from home effectively, you need certain tools to get your work done. From your gadgets to apps, internet service, stable power supply etc. you need to put these tools in place in order to get your work coming up successfully.

If you were to be in a developed country or some choice locations around major cities, you may not have a lot to worry about stable power supply but where you’re living in a developing country like Nigeria, power outages could be one of the biggest fall outs that will affect your productivity.

To get around this, you want to work on getting at least the most affordable alternative power sources like Generating sets, Power banks, Solar panels etc. to power up your gadgets.

Where you can’t get one, you have to utilize whatever electricity you have very effectively. For example, instead of working abruptly, consider spreading up your work so you can focus on performing most of the tasks that’s less dependent on electricity when there’s power outage so that when power is restored, you can then focus on doing most electricity reliant work at that time.

Of course this approach may not fix your issues entirely but, with much flexibility and pragmatism you can rely on this until you afford an alternative energy source.

Set clear Goals

Working from home might require that you identify and set out your goals clearly. These goals could be anything from getting an ABC number of clients for your business to getting your business from point A to B within an XYZ time.

Without a clear goal, you’ll not achieve a lot working from home. And where you don’t get to achieve a lot, you’ll definitely lose the momentum to work so, in order to avoid this, you have to identify the things you want to achieve and then set your goals clearly.

While at it, remember you want to set goals that inspire you. And to do this, work on making your goals realistic and allow it to power your drive to work as you wake up every day. Without this in place, you’ll hardly get better results when you work from home especially if you’re working for yourself.

Working for others is a bit different because you’re most likely under supervision and you’ll be reporting to a superior. But when you work for yourself, you’re not reporting to anyone so you may not feel accountable to any one if you decide to nibble away some hours. And you’ll definitely not get penalized. But of course, your bank account might get to suffer for the incessant nibbling.

Organize your Schedule

One habit that sets successful people apart from less successful ones is the habit of planning. When you work without a clear plan of work, you might find out that you’re actually working hard but on the wrong things.

To get this out of the way, you need to identify the things you want to work on and then organize them accordingly, either on a daily or weekly schedule or based on need.

After doing that, be sure to stick to your plans without fail. Also, as much as possible, avoid the habit of stopping in the middle of one task to go for the other. Regardless of how urgent you think it is, doing that will not enhance your productivity.

Stay Committed to Work

As an employee, one of the high points of working from home is that it might cut off some expenses and also, you may not have a lot of supervision compared to what you would have in a formal office environment.

With this, you could be tempted to put in less effort to work and this can affect your productivity in the long run. For an entrepreneur on the other hand, being self-employed affords you the opportunity to get up to work whenever you want and leave your desk at your convenience and no one would question you.

Managing such freedom without discipline and a serious commitment to your overall business goals can affect your business to a large extent.

So either as an employee or entrepreneur, you need lots of self-discipline to set your goals and stay on track even if you could walk away without consequences. This commitment is what will keep you on your desk even when you feel like taking a break or leaving your desk before your scheduled close of work.

Conclusion

Just like elsewhere, to work from home effectively in Nigeria, you need to follow certain strategies and protocols so you can improve your effectiveness and create a more meaningful work from home experience, regardless of any limitation whatsoever.

Besides the tips you just learned in this article, while working from home, be committed to getting the best from yourself during your working hours. Evaluate your effectiveness and track your goals from time to time.

Doing this and getting feedback consistently will help you to adjust effectively until you’re able to evolve a working mechanism that will be suitable for you as you get to achieve even more success while working from home.