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How to stay productive during work at home

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Although most employees were forced to work from home during 2020 due to an adverse global bother, this has bizarrely and irrevocably changed the approach to business coordination.

Both companies and employees have experienced benefits of not having to travel to the office daily, and some have gotten rid of workplaces and utterly switched the remote. According to Bloomberg’s study, in the post-pandemic world, nearly ⅕ of total work days will be from home. So, if you still can’t accustom to the new reality and struggle with staying productive at home – here are a few tips that may help.

12 essentials on how to perform better while at-home

Track your time

Knowing how much time we usually spend on our activities is crucial for efficient work planning, no matter if you’re an in-office employee or you work remotely. Luckily, there are plenty of tools on the market that can help you do it accurately, e.g. TimeCamp, an automatic timer app, that seamlessly fills your timesheets with time entries and activities. All to save you precious hours and ensure fair pay at the end of the month.

Start the work at the same time every day

For most people, the most productive time is from 10:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m, so even if you’re an early bird or a sleepyhead – try to adhere to these timeframes. Otherwise, it’ll be quite difficult to sync with colleagues and ally with the workflow. Decide on a morning wake-up time and stick to it. This habit will structure your entire day and prevent indistinct bounds between job and rest time.

Set up a full-fledged workplace

The chance to work without getting out of bed seems tempting yet is a poor idea – after a few weeks, you will get a bunch of petty consequences, like migraines and back pain.

Decide on the part of a flat or house where you can work and equip it properly. Good lighting, widescreen, fresh air in the room, a humidifier – every small detail matters dramatically for productivity in the long-term perspective.

Agree with family on the routine

One of the reasons why it’s hard to concentrate at home is family members. Agree with your kids or a soul mate about the order of the weekdays. Clearly fix time to spend together, say, a dinner or a walk in the afternoon, and avoid home chores during the rest of the workday.

Plan an agenda the day before

One of the secrets of how to avoid procrastination and get back to businesses quickly is having the “big picture” for the day in front of your eyes. Settle into a habit of spending 15 minutes at the end of each day to note plans for the next one.

Compile a To-Do list smartly – place individual affairs in order of importance, estimate time for each case, and try to keep within the specified span. If the task is about to be completed in N minutes – chances it will be finished during that exact time increase significantly.

Try to arrange & follow up straight away

Remote is a challenge for teamwork, especially at the opening stages of a project, when there’s an extra need in mutual decision-making. Joint calls and video conferences are not only time-consuming – but extremely wearisome, as well. Therefore, try to always end the online meeting with a short summary and agreement on further steps, otherwise, it will be difficult to move forward with tasks.

Avoid general meetings

It may seem that deciding on something simultaneously is an effective approach, but in reality “multi-purpose” online meetings turn into hours of unstructured brainstorming with ambiguous outcomes. Task-related calls shall always be substantive – with a clear agenda and settled time. Try also to avoid micromanagement, because it inevitably leads to increased bureaucracy and, as a result – fatigue and overall team ineffectiveness.

Use collaborative tools

Software may be useful to organize and ease one’s routine. You probably don’t need to be told what Confluence is and what are the advantages of using Jira and Trello. To expand one’s toolbox – pay attention to a digital whiteboard and other unified workspaces, online brainstorming tools, and mind map makers, Calendly, and others.

Ask for feedback

Many employees report burnout because of isolated work from home. They don’t feel greatly engaged with projects and are not sure about whether their performance does bring a difference. To prevent or counteract early burnout symptoms, refer to your team lead, project, or HR manager with a request for regular feedback. This will not only reduce the level of uncertainty but will also help you identify points for career growth and development.

Chat with colleagues

Believe it or not, even inveterate introverts can’t perform successfully in complete isolation and silence. Good relationships with colleagues help to feel satisfied and confident at work, but first, you need to work on that. If you manage the team, launch a tradition to organize corporate events. There are many assisting tools for remote team building at one’s service: virtual icebreakers, online BINGO, quizzes, puzzles, and even quests.

Don’t multitask

Scientists argue against multitasking – they claim that a continuous distraction by irrelevant stimuli (questions, chat messages, emails, etc.) results in employees losing focus on important tasks and resourcefulness. Set up a time for every job and while performing it – try not to respond to external “jolts”.

Take 10 minutes for breaks

No matter how intense your desire to finish tasks quickly is, working with no rest will result in a burnout like a shot. Strenuous brainwork requires pauses, so think back to your school schedule and take 10-minute breaks every 45 minutes or an hour.

A definite and recurring daily routine is probably the key to productive work from home. Sports also help a lot – yoga, exercise, or jogging in the park will help you relieve mental stress and recharge.

 

Kossi Adzo is the editor and author of Startup.info. He is software engineer. Innovation, Businesses and companies are his passion. He filled several patents in IT & Communication technologies. He manages the technical operations at Startup.info.

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