Are you working from home and are feeling guilty that you are not achieving enough? Here are the best ways to increase your productivity.
Working from home is becoming more popular, the recent reason for that is obvious. But your reason for remote working may not be as important as the effectiveness of the idea. While you work from home, there could be many reasons to lose focus and really feel at home or get distracted. There will always be temptations to spend a long hour making phone calls, watching TV, or playing a live-dealer roulette game. However, the following tips will help improve your productivity while you work from home.
- Get Organized
Understand that the only thing that has changed is the venue. Your job still remains the same. So, organize your activities the way you work in the office. Decide your resumption hour, your break, and your closing hour. It would help if you follow the office schedule, but if you feel a different schedule can make you even more productive, you can follow it. But don’t do things randomly. Wake up, dress up and resume to work the way you will in the office. Do not work in your underwear just because you are alone, or scatter all the file content on the table because nobody is watching. Do each task the same way you do it in the office, follow the same pattern and the same sequence.
- Get Everything You Need Ready
There are many remote working tools that can help you with your daily tasks. Think about them and get them ready. Things like WiFi, video conferencing software, and other technology can be greatly beneficial to remote workers. It will be ideal if they are available for use.
- Set Your Daily Target
At home, you are your own supervisor, so you can easily underperform or procrastinate. Therefore set a target for each day. You can even set the target on an hourly basis to know early in the day if you are on the right path. But setting a target is not enough. It would be best if you met the target. Hence you must also evaluate your performance regularly. If there is anywhere, you are not meeting up as planned you should find a way of managing it.
- Set Up a Working Space
You must make working from home look like working from the office by setting up a dedicated space for work. Don’t work from your bed or in front of your TV. Make your home office really look like the real office, at least in functionality.
- Let Your Neighbours Understand That You Are at Work
If you live with some other people, or even pets, let them understand that you are at work. Explain to your neighbour beforehand that you will appreciate them giving you space during your working hour. If you have pets that can distract you. Do all possible things to keep it away.
- Prepare Ahead For Each Day
You know how you prepare ahead for work when you normally go to the office. Do the same now. After each day’s work, plan for the next day. Decide the task for the following day, pick the clothing you will wear, and even prepare your meal ready.
- Get Up and Work
Many people benefit from morning energy. Therefore, it will be more productive if you get up early, prepare for work and start working immediately rather than postponing your business activities for the day to a later time. Procrastination can take away a lot of time. After losing valuable morning hours, you will likely be discouraged from continuing with the momentum you plan for the day. If you achieve great success early in the morning, you will be motivated for the rest of the day.
- Avoid Phone and Social Media Distraction
Many people spend a lot of productive time on social media, but it could worsen if you are working from home. Therefore, avoid it completely during your home working hour. There are many. You can log out of your social media accounts at the beginning of every workday and log in after you have completed the task for the day. Also, avoid all phone calls that are not business-related during your working hour. Otherwise, you could be easily tempted to spend a whole day on the phone.
- Avoid Home Distractions
As it’s important for you to avoid distraction from social media, so is it to avoid the TV, playing with pets, reading novels, chatting with neighbours, or cooking. Spend your remote working hours like office hours.
- Go on Break
Dedicate a specific time for a break. You can also decide to go on break after completing a particular task. But don’t sacrifice your break just because you are not in the office. As much as you need the break in the office, it would help if you equally had it when working from home.
- Set a Closing Time
Of course, you are home, but you need to officially close for work and then live like you are really at home. So, set a specific closing hour. Try to achieve your target for the day before the closing hour. However, irrespective of that, when it is time to knock off, then knock off so that you can relax and prepare for the following day. This will keep you fresh every day and make you productive.
- You May Work Outside Home
You must understand that working remotely does not necessarily mean you must be in your home. If there is too much distraction at home, you choose another venue away from your home. It could be a public place where you can enjoy Wi-Fi, serenity, or the kind of events that will motivate you to work.
