Due to the recent issues caused by COVID-19, many businesses are moving most of their day to day operations into the homes of employees. It’s a shock going from a busy studio to working in the quiet of your home (or not so quiet if you have young kids!). Here at StudioPlus, our employees have worked remotely for years and have compiled a comprehensive list of tips and tricks to optimize your new routine.

1. First, give yourself time to make the transition. Don’t expect it to be perfect all at once.
2. Find a new routine that works for you and stick with it.
3. Dedicate a place where you can work comfortably and isolate it from your living area as best you can (and protect it from pets & children!).
4. Take scheduled breaks. Remember to get up and walk around every 20-30 minutes.
5. Use a white noise app or play your favorite music in background to help reduce noise distractions. Movie soundtracks are designed to motivate without distracting you from the task at hand.
6. Overcommunicate. Keep your colleagues informed with everything going on.
7. Tell your team when and how they can reach you.
8. Take time for virtual “water cooler” chat. Check in personally with your co-workers.
9. Dress to impress. Who are you trying to impress? Yourself! You’ll be more productive and focused when you feel good about your appearance. Also consider wearing shoes. It seems weird to wear them inside, but it’s amazing for your focus and posture!
10. Use video chats to communicate with others and reduce any feelings of isolation. At StudioPlus, our employees loved it when we added video chat. It completely changed how we run meetings. It’s that good!
11. Emphasize one-on-one check-ins to feel more connected with your team.
12. Stay hydrated. It’s easy to forget to drink water, which can lead to fatigue.
13. Pay attention to ergonomics. Protect your posture by getting the right equipment. Even adding a back-rest attachment to your chair will work wonders!
14. Ensure you have all the materials you need to work at your max potential. This includes being able to access your database from home:

Using myStratus Remotely

With this final step, we want to give you important information on how you can access your myStratus database from home!

Use the Desktop version of myStratus on a PC or the Web version if you have a Mac. Many of our users, including our own staff, work remotely and use myStratus successfully.

Check your Internet: To ensure you have the best experience working from home, check on your internet connection. Since there won’t be extra users accessing the database within your home, it’s good to have at least a connection speed of 25 MBPS download and 5MBPS upload speed. To test your connection speed, run a speed test using speedtest.net. This is where you can be sure you’re getting the speed you pay for from your provider. If you are not getting the speed you’re supposed to, let them know– you’d be surprised how many people have discovered they’re not getting what they pay for!

Connecting to the Desktop App: If your internet is running well, you can move on to either downloading the desktop version of myStratus or connecting to your company’s data on the web version using Google Chrome or Firefox.

Here is what you need to do to use the desktop version of myStratus:

1. Go here and install the desktop application if using a PC.
2. After installing, you’ll be prompted for your Account/Domain Name.
3. Once you’ve entered the name of your database, you’ll most likely be prompted for your IP address because of the myStratus firewall (This is a security measure to protect your database). If you are the account owner, this information should have been emailed to you when you first set up myStratus. If this is for one of your employees, we recommend they email you their IP address so you can authorize them remotely. Click here to read more about the myStratus Firewall.

If you’re not sure of the Account Number and Account Password for your account, contact us at support@studioplussoftware.com. For security purposes, we only give this information out to the Account Owner.

For Mac Users: If you’re using a Mac to access your database from home, you’ll need to use the Web version of myStratus or install a platform where you can also use Windows. Here is more information on that: Using a Mac and Windows.

Connecting to the Web App: From your internet browser (Google Chrome, Firefox, or Microsoft Edge), you’ll go to the site YourDomain.mystratus.com (Replace “YourDomain” with your Account Name). For example: TheStudio.mystratus.com, then you can log in as you normally would at the studio.

We also have a User Guide and training videos to provide more help with how to use myStratus, or to learn more about other features available in the software:

You can find them both here, User Guide and Videos.

As always, feel free to contact us at Support@StudioPlusSoftware.com if you have any questions!