With the current world-wide situation regarding the Covid-19 virus necessitating many people to either start or exclusively work from home for the first time in their careers, the traditional 9-5 working day is constantly being rewritten and re-evaluated by companies being forced to change the way their staff work. 

Due to the current crisis, many companies are now being forced to update their working practices for the first time in generations or risk going out of business and potentially contributing to the spread of the virus to vulnerable parties. With the changing of these traditional working attitudes, companies all over the world are having to find new ways to adapt in order to remain active, relevant and accommodating to workers affected by the current situation

Why have some companies resisted the working from home movement?

Before the Covid-19 outbreak, it was estimated that 70% of people worldwide work remotely at least once per week. Even before the virus forced a fundamental shift in working patterns, statistics have shown that working from home has been gaining in popularity all over the world due to the increase in high speed internet and changing demands and expectations of a younger workforce to have a better work/life balance. However many old school companies have been resistant to change and have clung to the traditional 9-5 model due to lack of trust in staff, poor infrastructure and the inability or desire to evolve. In the UK the TUC estimates that around 4 million UK workers would like to be given the chance to work from home at least some time during the week, but have never been given the opportunity.

It is not just the improved work/life balance that attracts many workers to the idea of working from home. Nearly 10% of commuters spend 90 minutes or more travelling each way to get to work, with “extreme commuters” now hitting 2 million in the UK. The environmental impact of having millions of people travelling such great distances for work (that we are now seeing can largely be done from home) is another major factor in the desire to commute less for many workers. 

While it may be an extreme example given the overall quarantine guidelines enacted during the early stages of the outbreak, the Nitrogen dioxide levels from China dropped massively during the lockdown period of February and March, showing what can be done to limit climate change and improve air quality just by eliminating the commute to a job.

What can we learn from WordPress bloggers?

A big share of WordPress users are those who use the platform for blogging. For this army of WordPress users very little will change during this time, but there are valuable lessons about how to successfully remote working we can learn from our blogging colleagues. 

There are many guides on the best methods and rules to follow when working from home. As we discussed in our previous blog, there are several basic rules you can follow during your enforced ‘work from home’ period if you hope to achieve the same kind of work ethic as a successful WordPress blogger.

• A designated work space
  While you may not be able to dedicate an entire room to your new ‘home office’, there are still things you can do to help create a more work-like environment. Sitting in front of the TV on your laptop isn’t going to result in much work getting done, so if you are working from a dining table or the desk in your bedroom, make sure that it is free from clutter, obvious distractions and you have enough room to work comfortably. 
• Plan your work day
  If you make a list in the morning of what jobs you want to get done and by when, it can help keep you motivated and give you clear goals and targets for the day ahead. Working to a pre-set plan can help create the traditional ‘deadline’ mindset that can help improve your output and performance.
• Limit your hours
  While working from home can save hours everyday as you no longer need to commute, it might be tempting to put those hours towards your work instead, This can result in someone potentially facing burn-out from working too long and not taking enough breaks.
• Remember to exercise
  From getting up in the morning, to sitting at your desk: The whole process could take less than 10 steps. Sitting at your computer all day in the comfort of your own home could potentially cause you to neglect the need to get up, move around and step away from the screen for a break. By spending too much time at your computer, you can risk eye strain, repetitive stress injuries and fatigue. By taking regular breaks and exercising, you can re-energise your mind, re-focus your concentration and increase your productivity. 
• Limit distractions
  With smartphones, the internet and streaming services, there is literally an unending amount of content and services to distract you when you are trying to work. As WordPress bloggers know only too well, it is necessary to limit these distractions if you ever want to get anything done. The easiest way to do this is by making sure your new home working area is free of these distractions. While it may not be possible to remove every attention g rabbing app or website, you can still limit their impact on your focus. For example, try setting your mobile phone to silent so you are not distracted every time you have a notification

In summary

While we do not know how many weeks, months or even years the current situation will continue for, we do know that when it comes to remote working, WordPress bloggers around the world have shown that we can still have a rich and fulfilling work life environment. By following the above steps when setting up your home office and work environment, it is important to remember that it is going to take a fair bit of time, effort and focus in order to establish what does and doesn’t work for you personally.

 

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It feels like the whole world is turned upside down. 

Everybody and everything has been affected by the global pandemic. Even those who avoid exposure to the dreaded virus have their businesses exposed to a new, unknown environment of economic uncertainty. This is an unprecedented time and for many, it’s deeply unsettling. 

At a time when so many of us are shut in, the internet provides us with some consolation: it is, for many, a vital lifeline to the outside world providing news and advice, a way of us getting hold of groceries, medication and other necessities, and of getting e-learning resources for our children.

This time of crisis makes us more aware than ever of our frailty- both as individuals and as a society. It makes us conscious of just how interconnected our world is, and there’s strength in that fact too. We can all do our bit and stand shoulder to shoulder with others.

We want you to know that at UpdraftPlus, we’re here for you. With so much else going on, the last thing you want to worry about is your WordPress site’s basic functioning, so rest assured that we’re here to provide expert support 6 days a week, around the clock.  We’re a team of 15, distributed across 9 different countries and 4 continents and as of the last few weeks, we’re all working from home. Whatever happens over the coming weeks and months, someone will be on hand to help with your backup queries. 

In the midst of reports of the internet becoming slower from all the people working from home, we’re also working hard to process all your support requests at Updraft’s WP-Optimize Cache to ensure your website runs as fast and efficiently as possible.

Finally, the team here at UpdraftPlus want to hear about how your WordPress business is being affected by this crisis. What’s your experience? How have you adapted? Has your business been hit or your online presence providing a crucial service? And what advice would you pass on to other businesses?

Please share below how your WordPress business has been affected for the worse or better at this time.

The UpdraftPlus Team

The post How has your business and WordPress site been affected by the Covid-19 crisis? appeared first on UpdraftPlus. UpdraftPlus – Backup, restore and migration plugin for WordPress.

Trying to keep active and healthy during lock-down is proving to be challenging as the spread of the novel Coronavirus has now reached every corner of the globe, including Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas resulting in many people across the world being directed to begin working from home in the largest mandatory change in work direction since the second world war. 

If you had asked most businesses if it was possible for them to switch to a work from home platform, the majority would have no doubt told you such a change was impossible and would result in mass firings and countless businesses going under due to lack of constant management oversight and inadequate infrastructure. Yet here we are just a month or two later and countless millions across the world have joined the existing 1.5 million that currently work from home in the UK. 

Of the millions of new employees that are now remotely working, only a small fraction of those have the experience and knowledge of how to successfully balance your home based work demands and the need for an active and healthy lifestyle. Those of us at UpdraftPlus have also had to adapt to the full-time ‘at-home’ working experience currently recommended, with our Monday morning video conference chats becoming an important factor in maintaining important working relationships and giving everyone a chance to catch up with colleagues, while sharing their latest work and developments. 

While maintaining social interaction with colleagues during the lock-down is important, the challenge to keep active and healthy (both mentally and physically) while balancing the demands of our new work/life schedule during this time is something we all need to address, especially given the restrictions imposed on going outside unless absolutely necessary. 

Following on from our recent blog: WordPress community: Helping to provide services online for people in isolation, there are a few simple ways to make the best of a bad situation and we are happy to share with you some of the tips and tricks we have been following in order to make the best of this difficult and challenging time.

1. Keep work separate

While this may not seem like an obvious ‘health-tip’, it is important to identify when you are actually at work, even when at home. This will play a massive part in your overall health and well-being (not to mention quality of work) while stuck in the house. It can be tempting to blur the lines between personal and work life when they occur in the same building, so it is important to try and follow something broadly familiar to your normal working patterns and routine. Stick to a regular start and finish time, wear appropriate work clothes (no pajamas!), follow the same hygiene pattern you would as if you were going to your office (shower, shave etc) and create a suitable home office environment so you are not distracted by family, pets or the TV. 

2. Have a proper home office set-up

The thought of working from home probably brings up images of slouching on the sofa in front of the TV with a lap-top, and while this may sound appealing, it could cause some serious problems with your health. The lack of proper lumbar support, constantly slouching and looking down at your screen can cause serious neck and back problems if you are not careful. This is why it is highly recommended that you have a dedicated home office space from which to work, an office chair with lumbar support, a monitor properly adjusted to your eye level and a traditional separate mouse/keyboard (not a track-pad) to use. 

3. Try to avoid being too isolated

While governments all over the world are recommending social distancing as a way to slow down the spread of the virus, for people who are used to the hustle and bustle of a busy office in which they interact with people all day, this can be very challenging. To counteract the enforced isolation, try to physically talk to someone on the phone or via video conferencing at least once a day if possible. You can also undertake personal social interactions remotely by having a group Netflix viewing party with your friends. Netflix Party is a Google Chrome extension that allows a single person to share a video with friends, allowing you and all your invited friends to binge watch Tiger King together. 

4. Watch what you eat and drink

With the confines of a traditional office, you are somewhat limited to what you can eat or drink during a working day. The fact that the canteen is at the other end of the building or a neighbouring office has stolen your milk again probably limits what you consumed while in work. When working from home however, these issues are out the window. Unlimited cups of tea, toast, sandwiches and snacks and just a walk to the kitchen away. To limit your excess consumption, make a list of what you would normally consume during a regular working day and try to stick to the same pattern when working from home. With all the extra food available combined with an increased sedentary lifestyle, the risk of putting on weight (which could lead to health problems) is very real. If you do find yourself consuming more, try purchasing fat free or diet options the next time you go shopping.

5. Get as much exercise as you can

This may sound like the most obvious advice, but with an effective lock-down essentially in place, the options and opportunities to stretch your legs and go outside have become incredibly limited. With all the gyms closed and Police being somewhat overzealous with what constitutes an acceptable reason to go out and exercise, home workers are having to look elsewhere for their daily fix of endorphins. 

All is not lost however. With just a yoga mat and a YouTube link, a whole world of possibilities can open up for those stuck inside. Consider trying a high intensity work-out from professional exercise instructors such as The Body Coach, who have generously put videos online for free. 

If that is not your speed, you could take a leaf out of a book from people who have no choice but to exercise with limited space and follow the tried and tested ‘jail-house’ exercise regime of push-ups, sit-ups, squats and planks. Remember to start slow and slowly build you way up though as the last thing you want to do right now is to go to hospital due to a pulled muscle or a head injury from over enthusiastic jumping jacks. If you are not able to undertake these kinds of exercises, at the very least remember to get up and walk around for at least 5 minutes every hour.  

In summary

While the dangers presented by the COVID-19 virus have rightly confined us to our homes and out of our offices for the foreseeable future, it is important to remember that the dangers to our health come not just from this virus, but from the new (for many) and unfamiliar working environment most of us now find ourselves in. 

Without proper consideration of our health and well-being (both body and mind), we could risk becoming overweight, depressed and anxious. Be sure to create and set up a work schedule and exercise plan to see you through the lock-down in order to give you a better and happier work from home experience. 

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With most Governments all over the world implementing further isolation practices in order to limit the spread of the COVID-19 virus, many of us have found that the internet has become an even more essential and important tool in our everyday lives. It has allowed people to stay connected to loved ones, has reduced the risk of spreading the virus by letting those most vulnerable stay home and order essential products online and gave businesses the option of continuing to operate in some capacity through work at home programmes. 

With WordPress underpinning 27.5% of the World’s websites (with 50,000 new websites being added daily) and with many businesses now moving exclusively to an online ‘work from home’ model, the platform is at the forefront of keeping these services open and running smoothly. With continued business operations such a necessity, WordPress is having to quickly adapt to meet these new demands in order to meet the rapidly changing needs of it’s massive user base.

From a more practical perspective, WordPress cancelled WordCamp Asia back in February in response to the outbreak, while developers have built and launched a variety of plugins that are helping websites to share important information with their users. One new plugin that is helping is the CoronaVirus (COVID-19) Banner. This simple plugin allows website owners to add a banner notice to their website informing users of any COVID-19 related updates that they need to share.

The potential difficulties of working from home

While practical applications are indeed useful and can help spread awareness and up to date developments, more personal issues such as depression and loneliness will become an emerging factor for those who are experiencing working from home in isolation for the first time.

As many freelancers and self-employed small business owners already know, working by yourself from home can be both a blessing and a curse with freelancers reported to be twice as likely to be depressed compared to office workers. The effects of spending long days working alone has resulted in 56% of freelancers reporting to suffer from depression as a result of their job, with a further 62% saying they feel stressed due to the lonely nature of the work. This is compared to office-based workers, where less than 30% say they suffer from depression and 55% reported feelings of stress.

While working from home may be the dream of many who harbour thoughts of creating their own work hours and operating in a much more comfortable and familiar environment, there is also the downside of being starved of important emotional factors such as social human interaction (something we are biologically hardwired to seek out), personal contact and suffering from increased feelings of isolation and lack of community. This of course is on top of the extra anxiety and stress that has been created from the extra child care issues many parents are now facing, as well as having to ensure the safety and well-being of older relatives and loved ones.

In an effort to stem these negative emotions, organisations such as WPHugs have been established to provide a community for like-minded people to discuss these difficult topics in real-time. The WPHugs Slack channel is free to join via an invitation by registering at the WPHugs website and has the goal of providing community support to those who need help during these difficult times. While not a professional therapy channel, it’s founder Leo Gopal hopes that by crowd-sourcing tips, tricks and conversations, they can help to maintain good mental health amongst the WordPress community. 

Keeping the world running

With the majority of people being told to stay home and if possible do their shopping online, websites are seeing unprecedented levels of visitors and demand. With the extra millions of customers now ordering through online shopping channels for large stores such as Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrions, customers are facing a 3 week wait for their deliveries to be filled. While WordPress cannot do much about this massive surge in demand for groceries and delivery drivers, it has helped keep numerous big sites such as Microsoft News, Facebook Newsroom, New York Observer, TED, CNN, Time.com, The White House and the New York Post online and accessible to people looking for the latest news and information regarding the virus from local and national agencies. For people in isolation, these outlets are providing essential important information and news regarding the constantly evolving Government guides and plans for dealing with the virus outbreak. 

While many people are naturally adjusting to the massive change in their lives following the spread of the COVID-19 virus, WordPress has proved to be an amazing platform for evolving to the needs of its users and building a shared community. If you would like to share with us any of your stories regarding work isolation and stress and how you have managed to cope during tough times, please do so in the comment section below. 

The post WordPress community: Helping to provide services online for people in isolation appeared first on UpdraftPlus. UpdraftPlus – Backup, restore and migration plugin for WordPress.

Please share below how your WordPress site has been hit, or provides an important service at this time.

We know that many in the WordPress community will be badly affected by the global pandemic which is rapidly spreading across the world.  Even if it doesn’t affect your health, it may be damaging your online businesses and livelihood causing you a lot of uncertainty and concern.

For others, at a time when some countries’ physical stores are shutting, people are ordering necessities online more than ever.  Amazon this week is hiring 10 thousand more staff to help with demand in their warehouses, and has blocked taking on any more non-essential stock.  And if this is not happening yet in your country, then it may well be only days or weeks away.

Likewise, many of your WordPress sites will become more important than ever.  Whether you run an online store for hygiene products, an online pharmacy or grocery store, a health advice blog, or home schooling resources for kids out of school then they’re crucial.  Or if you run an online community so people can feel together even when they’re alone or simply providing entertainment to help people’s morale at a time when culture, theatres and concert halls are shut – you’re doing a great job, so keep it up!

So this is just to say we’re continuing business as usual here at Updraft.  The last thing you want to worry about at this time is your WordPress site’s basic functioning.  We’re here 6 days a week around the clock to provide support to those who need it for backing up and restoring.

Likewise, there are reports of the internet becoming slower as more people work from home on networks which are not designed for the level of traffic they’re getting.  So we’re also working hard on all your support requests at Updraft’s WP-Optimize Cache to make sure you make significant improvements to your website speed to help your customers’ experience.

We’re a team of 15 here at Updraft, distributed across 9 different countries and 4 continents.  As of this week we’re all working from home.  We expect that even if things get much worse over the coming weeks that there’ll always be knowledgeable team members on hand to help you with the plugin problems you have.

Please share below how your WordPress sites are affected, whether you’ve been badly hit or whether your site is providing an important service for those who need it right now.  Let us know!

The post Coronavirus: for the millions in isolation, WordPress sites are more important than ever. appeared first on UpdraftPlus. UpdraftPlus – Backup, restore and migration plugin for WordPress.

No matter the size of your WordPress website, finding a way to keep it safe from issues such as updates gone wrong, hacking, user error and crashes should be of the utmost importance. If you’ve not set-up regular backups of your site yet, now’s the time to get it done, and it couldn’t be easier with the world’s most trusted WordPress backup plugin, UpdraftPlus.

In this article, we’re going to show you how to backup a WordPress site with an easy-to-use, free backup plugin. Follow our step-by-step tutorial below to get started.

UpdraftPlus allows you to backup your WordPress website and restore it with a single click. It also allows you to:

• Backup all of your WordPress files, databases, plugins and themes
• Set backup schedules every 4, 8 or 12 hours, daily, weekly, fortnightly or monthly
• Restore backups directly from your WordPress control panel
• Store your backups remotely on Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive and more

In this article, we’ll show you how to set-up and use UpdraftPlus to backup your WordPress website with ease so you can get on with more important stuff.

What does ‘backup’ mean?

Put simply, a ‘backup’ makes a copy of the files or data on your site in case the originals are lost or damaged.

A backup of your WordPress website makes a copy of your entire database. It will backup every post, comment and link you have on your site, as well as your plugins, themes and uploads. 

Why you need to backup your WordPress site

Backing up your website regularly is an essential part of managing a WordPress website. Your site contains every post, comment and link you’ve ever created, if something were to go wrong, all of that could be lost in an instant. 

Without performing vital backups, your site could be at risk from any of the following problems:

Updates gone wrong

WordPress websites are notorious for needing regular updates to plugin files, theme and WordPress itself.

When performing these updates, there’s a small chance your site could be negatively affected by the changes. You could lose vital functionality, your site’s look and feel could change, or the new update could simply be incompatible. 

These updates need to be carried out to ensure the safety of your website and generally should be done on a testing site first. To protect your site from updates gone wrong, you should always carry out regular backups and automatic backups before each plugin update.

Your site is vulnerable to hacking

Due to the sheer number of people using WordPress as their content management system (it powers over 35% of all websites across the globe), the platform is the frequent target of hackers and spammers. 

You may feel like your site is safe and will not be a target for hackers because as it doesn’t contain sensitive information, but hacks can happen for any of the following reasons:

• To spread malware
• Using your site to attack another site
• Spamming the internet with inappropriate links
• Just for fun

In order to work, hackers have to find flaws in a system and exploit them to get around security controls. So if you have a weak passwords, don’t update plugins regularly, have weak security on your site, your site could be at risk.

By backing up your site regularly, you can restore your site to its former pre-broken state before the hack took place. 

Your hosting company may have server outages

No hosting company is perfect. In fact, you may have experienced your website ‘going down’ from time to time. This downtime (or server outage) can happen for a variety of reasons, including viruses and cyber hacking, traffic overload, hardware failure and more.

While you can’t control your hosting company’s server, you can protect your site if something happens. Many times, when server outages happen, your hosting company will be able to recover the lost files. 

However, on some occasions, they will have to revert back to a version of your site that’s a few days old. This could mean you’d lose vital changes to your site such as sales records and new member registrations. The only way to recover these would be through your personal UpdraftPlus site backup.

How to backup your WordPress site with UpdraftPlus

The easiest and quickest way to backup your website is by using a WordPress backup plugin. UpdraftPlus is the world’s most trusted WordPress backup and restore plugin and is simple and easy to set-up.

How to install UpdraftPlus

Installing UpdraftPlus takes just a minute or two and is as simple as adding any other plugin. To install, follow these steps:

1. In your WordPress dashboard go to Plugins > Add New.

2. Type UpdraftPlus into the search bar.

3. Find the UpdraftPlus WordPress Backup Plugin and press Install Now and then Activate.

How to use UpdraftPlus

Once installed, UpdraftPlus makes setting up your first WordPress backup easy. Simply follow these steps:

1. Select Settings > UpdraftPlus Backups in your WordPress menu. This will open your UpdraftPlus settings page.

2. Select the Settings tab at the top.

Here you can schedule how often UpdraftPlus creates a new backup. You can pick whichever schedule suits you and your site. For example, if you regularly update your site with new pages and posts, then a more frequent backup may be required. 

You can also adjust how many of these backups should be stored at one time. Any new backups will then override the old ones.

3. Select where you would like your backups to be stored.

Scroll down the page and you can choose where you’d like your files to be stored. UpdraftPlus can integrate with numerous remote storage options, so pick the one that suits you best. 

4. Once selected, each storage option will have its own set of instructions. Simply follow these and press the blue Save Changes button at the bottom of the page.

If you’d like to backup to more than one location or want to customise your backups further, you can do so by upgrading to UpdraftPremium. Or purchase the add-on, Multiple Storage Destinations.

Now that you’ve set up your storage location and how often you’d like to backup your site, UpdraftPlus will automatically carry out your first site backup without you having to do a thing.

How to restore your WordPress site from a backup

Now that your site is regularly backed up, you’re safe in the knowledge that you can recover and restore it if something goes wrong. So when the worst does happen, how do you restore your site with UpdraftPlus?

1. Go to Settings > UpdraftPlus Backups in your WordPress menu. This again will open your UpdraftPlus settings page

2. Scroll down the page until you reach the Existing Backups section

3. Find the backup you want to restore and press the blue Restore button

4. You’ll then be presented with a popup which will ask you which elements of your database you want to restore. Select the ones that apply and press Restore

When your restore is complete, a message will pop up telling you the restore has been successful.

Roundup 

If you’re looking to keep your site safe from hacking, updates gone wrong and server crashes, then using a WordPress backup plugin is a must. As the world’s most trusted WordPress backup and restore plugin, UpdraftPlus allows you to do just this for free.

By investing in UpdraftPlus Premium, you also get the following added features:

• The ability to clone your site so you can carry out updates in a testing environment
• Schedule backups at specific times of the day to take advantage of when fewer people are on your site
• Multiple storage destinations for extra safety
• Detailed reports of your backups
• Password protection for your UpdraftPlus backups to keep other administrators out
• Automatic backups before updating WordPress core, themes and plugins

Get the best security for your website with the full UpdraftPlus package 

 

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