To gain confidence at work and impress colleagues, one must present themself professionally. If you want to up your professional game, here are some useful tips for your workwear and business uniform.

Recommended Site: Uniform Shop NZ – The Uniform Centre

Present your clothes professionally

Items prone to creasing should be either ironed or steamed before wear. What is the first impression you want to give? Professional, right? If colleagues, customers or clients see a scrunched up blazer, it’ll give them the impression you just rolled out of bed.

Steamers are the more convenient option as you don’t need to take the item off the hanger to get rid of creases. Steamers are also more gentle on clothing!

Be prepared by making sure you’ve ironed or steamed your outfits before the work week ahead. No more looking for outfits to wear last minute.

If you live in a cooler climate, fabric shavers will be one of the best investments you’ll make. Run it over your knitwear and coats, and more, to get rid of bobbles. It makes an old knit look brand new – saving you the need to repurchase!

Wear colors suited to you

While you may have been wearing stunning styles or expensive items, you most likely have been wearing colors that wash you out, or actually make you look worse. Basically, every skin tone and hair color suits different colors.

With cooler undertones, bold colored clothing will make you look even paler. Whereas, clothing with blue undertones will flatter you, and make you look more lively.

However, if you are more warm-toned, you are lucky when it comes to the range of colors you suit. You can pull off bold primary colors as well as cool colors.

Take a look at which season you are within the four color families:

Spring:
-Warm skin tone
-Golden blonde or light-mid brown hair with highlights

Gravitate towards warm, bright colors (blue, brick red, salmon and coral,), beige, yellow undertones – light grey, dusky pinks, subtle green. Avoid deep shades or cool pastels.

Summer:
-Green, light blue or grey eyes
-Ashy blonde or light-medium brown hair
-Cool skin tone

Gravitate towards soft pastels with blue undertones (light pinks, blues and yellows), greys, off-white, blues – from pale to navy. Avoid yellow-based colours (coral, salmon pink, mustard, orange, tan), pure white, bold, primary colours.

Autumn:
-Warm skin tone
-Red, black, or dark brown hair

Gravitate towards warm/golden autumn undertones (rich browns, earthy reds and bronzes, olive/dark greens, burnt orange). Avoid pastel or bright colours, blue tones (except navy).

Winter:
-Brown, green or deep blue eyes
-Medium to dark brown, or black hair
-Cool skin tone

Gravitate towards bold blue-based colours, icy, cool primary colours (bold reds, blues and golden yellows), black, dark grey, pure white. Avoid yellow or orange-toned colours (rusty browns and reds), pastels.

Minimalism

Since consumerism took over, minimalism is taking its place for many people globally.

Minimalism is simply only owning items that have a purpose and will be used – timeless items you can mix and match, that you love and will rest assured be worn instead of sitting there collecting dust. To be minimalist, you have a small number of items for each season and certainly aren’t addicted to shopping.

To be minimal, life becomes more convenient. It’s easier to put outfits together, to organize and means you can purchase higher quality pieces you love. As a result, you will turn up to work more professionally than ever!

Minimalists curate their closet to hold only items that bring joy, selling or donating unnecessary items – now famously labeled the Kon Mari method. Don’t worry, it’s not small enough to make you feel like you’re wearing your school uniform again.

Even before the Covid -19 pandemic hit us, over 4.7 million people were working remotely around the globe. It’s safe to say that teleworking is the new normal. Whether that location is your home base, a coworking space, or the café down your street, one of the biggest issues reported by workers is battling loneliness.

According to Flexjobs, 75% of remote workers report being more productive without office distractions. Further to the point earlier about feeling cut off, however, you wouldn’t be at fault for craving social contact. The means of achieving it can be questionable, though, especially if you spend time scrolling through social media or mindless web surfing. What starts out innocently as a quick check-in or break turns into hours that eat into company time.

So here are a few tips to help you stay focused when you’re working remotely, whether you’re experienced, or new to it!

1. Create a dedicated work area
Reevaluate your workstation arrangements. Where you work says a lot about your style of working, movements, and comfort. Depending on the equipment you’ll need, in the form of monitors, desktops, keyboards, and other devices, ensure that you have the space to accommodate them without cluttering up your living space. An ordered and organized desk makes it easier for you to get into that productivity mindset, given that everything has a place. You know where to look for what you’re going to need, be it a notepad and pen to jot down notes on the fly, or hardware and software.

The ideal location gets plenty of light and cross-ventilation. Surround yourself with calming personal effects, such as a potted plant or photos. Do not compromise on ergonomic comfort, especially if yours is a desk job or standing station that you’ll spend a few hours on. Invest in a chair with height and posture adjustments so that your eyes, spine, neck, and fingers are at optimal positions.

2.Block out digital distractions
Digital distractions refer to websites and platforms that are irrelevant to work. You can use remote management tools such as Krisp.ai or Freedom. Before doing so, find out your productivity window, i.e. the hours that you have observed you get most of your work done. This way, you’re allowing yourself breaks without eating into company time. Krisp mutes background noises which are helpful during work calls. After all, you can’t afford to lose track of what individual speakers are talking about. Freedom detects sites and pop-ups and blocks addictive applications and games while you’re working so that you’re discouraged from going to them.

Suggested article: 22 Remote Team Management Tools BUILT For Remote Teams

3. Time timed breaks
According to Airtasker, 37% of remote workers report being more productive by taking regular breaks. This is echoed in a Forbes article that states that the pulse and pause technique helps people recharge while remaining deadline-conscious. Space out your breaks and take them in fixed times within the working window so that you can cultivate predictability into the overall routine. Categorize breaks by mealtimes, workouts, or just a quick lounge or social visit so that you’re mindful of how much time each break takes. You can even plan ahead for contingencies. For example, meal prepping the night before can reduce your cooking time the next day, and allow you to savor the meal instead of rushing through it in order to not waste another minute. This is an optimization measure that lets you get the most out of the time you take off during work.