Maintaining productivity while working from home can be a challenge for many. This is especially true if you’re not used to remote work and don’t have the experience of tackling some specific WFH issues like the lack of set-in-stone schedule or social media distractions.
In this article we aim to give you a crash course on how to best handle working from home.
The pro tips below are going to focus on your efficiency and getting things done without burning out.
- Schedule your work sessions.
The thing with remote work is that it’s nothing but deadlines. You decide how to pace yourself. There are no car/bus rides to work, but there is also no one to tell you it’s time to go home. While that may seem like a breath of fresh air at first, a tight schedule is a good thing.
Why?
To put it simply: if you set up a schedule, you work faster. If you don’t have a schedule while working from home, you’re likely to spread the workload on your day in a thin layer, kind of like butter on bread.
This leaves you with less free time and fewer results.
- Get distracted on your own terms.
When you work from home, there is no one to scold you for watching cat videos instead of finally rendering that 3D model. On the other hand, there are plenty of people who peek over your digital fence just to say hi, share a memo, or engage in small talk.
Make sure you disable the unimportant notifications. Let your significant others know when you’re working. Don’t let social media interrupt your work flow.
- Know when to stop.
You don’t stay at the office until midnight every week just because you feel like it. There are laws that prohibit employers from exhausting their employees like that.
And yet we all tend to break the rule by staying up late to work some more.
This way you disrupt your sleeping schedule and cause other unpleasant surprises for your body.
Here we go back to the first tip: your schedule is going to prevent you from overworking.
- “If you want to be smart – run.”
Physical activity benefits your body and mind. Finishing tasks faster, coming up with creative ideas, and feeling better in general will make you more productive working remotely.
Our advice: exercise. Take walks. Do fitness. Dance. Hike. Anything but sitting still all day killing your spine and blood vessels.
- High quality rest only.
Working from home while rested is much more fulfilling than working on your last legs. Strangely, even the scheduled and regular rest can leave you feeling tired – mentally, physically, or both.
In most cases this means you don’t relax during your free time.
Don’t think about work. Don’t look at work. Don’t call renovating your apartment, taking children to the doctor, scrolling social media, or buying groceries “rest”. We’ve all been there. It’s not worth the fallout.
- Communicate with colleagues.
Remote work is a lonely business only if you let it become one. Communicating with others helps you exchange experiences and (frankly) stay sane.
It doesn’t matter if you work for a large company or freelancing, you can always find someone to talk to about your job.
Attend the team building Zoom calls with your colleagues. Find the internet spaces catering to your occupation. Ask for and provide advice. Stay in the flow.
- Set up your personal work space.
Multiple studies have proven we need personal space to stay productive, at home or at work. This is a chief reason why open-plan offices failed.
But your personal space for remote work has the additional requirement of it being a work space. Make sure the environment helps you accomplish work tasks comfortably and on time.
The common mistake here is mixing work and entertainment, especially getting distracted by the features of your own laptop or PC. In many cases, using a different browser and using tools to showcase time spent on entertainment websites can help you keep the strong urge to watch cat videos in check.
Love What You Do
The main ingredient to productivity is passion. If the job makes you experience joy and fulfilment, you will always strive for productivity, whether you work from home or at the office.
Senstone Inc. is here to help you capture ideas and boost your workflow. Visit our homepage to learn more.
