Working from home has now become a new normal for every one of us. Many companies follow optional or mandatory work-from-home policies to view a pandemic caused by the novel Coronavirus. It means many of us to come across an unprecedented challenge, such as first-time working from home and flexible working hours.
Are you one of those people?
If so, you may wonder how you’re planning on staying productive while working remotely – particularly if you’ve got young kids at home and have to balance their education and care simultaneously.
The silver line here is it is possible. Many full-time remote workers, freelancers have been doing it for a long time. Wondering how to work from home yet maintain an adequate productivity level? Here are a few strategies to follow for improved productivity while working from home:
#1 Set-up a Convenient Workspace
It can be easy & fun to move from one spot to another spot all-around your home and get distracted by counter clutter, home duties, and not being in the mood to work. It is why establishing a dedicated space of work is essential for your efficient productivity.
Consider which sort of atmosphere you function best in when building your workspace. Would you need absolute anonymity, background noise, or quick access for coffee refills to the kitchen?
#2 Get Habituated with the Routine
Establishing a routine will help you achieve a transition from an ‘at home’ to a ‘let’s do some work’ mentality.
This might include getting washed & dressed up as if you were going to the workplace – you may think that working in your PJs is the fun of working from home, but dressing up, changing from old clothes to new ones would set a unique mood for you to feel workplace and would improve efficiency.
It can also be brewing the first coffee of the day, and sitting down with your to-do list will help you get into the working mode.
#3 Establish Strict Working Hours at Home
The greatest obstacle in enhancing your job during work from home is allocating work hours. And the next step in preserving flexibility is to set working hours strictly apart, with frequent breaks in between.
Say you are working in an 8-hour shift, and then assign 3 hours, 3 hours, and 2 hours with 10-15 minute breaks in between. Allocating working hours will help you ensure routine, efficient, and always quality-centric delivery of the work at hand.
#4 Develop Your Skills Constantly
Hearing people who regularly work in the office claim they can’t imagine working from home because there are so many distractions, is normal. Well, now’s the right opportunity to check your concentration power.
Using beneficial task management tools to meet the requisites, and helps to keep track of the job. Your team may already use business software like these, but if they don’t or want to coordinate yourself, the way ahead is to use a task management tool.
#5 Go Out Everyday
It recommends that you go out regularly for a walk while doing a consecutively longer work from the home regime. Such a practice will ensure your outflow of efficiency and encourage the flow of your creative energy.
It helps promote fresh ideas for innovative individuals and those long sitting behind a desk and encourages excitement & desire to work inside. You need to make sure it shouldn’t be too distracting but should fit in your flow.
One thing you should do while listening to music while working is keeping the volume low but audible.
#6 Socialize and Communicate Regularly
When the entire office suddenly starts working from home, you’re missing out on a lot of the casual social interactions you’re used to having during the day that helps you feel less lonely.
Speak to your co-workers through Slack, calls, email, Zoom, or whatever your company uses to communicate. If you’re regularly telling your colleagues about their weekends, keep it up. If you would generally comment on a particular subject with them, reach out.
Those small interactions will go a long way in helping you feel less lonely at home.
The office will always be part of our daily lives; practically, we’ll probably spend less time on it.
So it will take effort for businesses to build a digital culture that suits the workplace culture, so employees who spend most of their time at home don’t get lonely, and yet fit in.
Working from home is perfect as long as you can keep track of it. You’ll set up a working home office and remain successful if you follow the advice mentioned above.
