The past few months have made us realised that we don’t need a boss sitting at a stone’s throw from our desk to be productive. According to a recent study, employees are more productive when they work from home. Of course, when you work for long hours with fewer breaks and no sick leaves, productivity has to increase. Well, working from home isn’t as easy as it sounds. Though the idea of working in your PJs on your sofa with music on may sound interesting, right up until your neighborhood kids start playing. Working from home needs a lot of patience, practice, and diligence.
Here we list 5 habits everyone needs to master while working from home to increase productivity:
Have an early start
Start your day as early as possible and make a to-do list. Wind up your morning routine that may comprise of having a healthy breakfast, going for a walk, or reading the newspaper. Make sure your morning routine includes some meditation and self-development tasks. Spend a good 20 minutes to decide on the tasks you need to complete today. This will help you to have a clear insight into your day. Figure out the hours you are more focused and energetic and assign the high-value work of the day during those hours.
Set priorities
Once you are aware of your schedule for the day. Make sure you follow it, no matter what. If you are assigned a new task in the middle of the day, designate a time for it and work accordingly. There will be times when you will find yourself side-tracked, don’t let that impact your productivity and energy. In such situations, take a 10 minutes break, update your to-do list and resume with a fresh mind. If you believe the constant messages and e-mails from your colleagues and clients work as a distraction, then politely inform them that you will be available to reply to the late afternoon if it’s not on priority.
We all know technology is something that works as a major distraction. You may use the same technology to minimise your distractions by taking the help of certain apps that block apps and websites from your devices for the time you set. This will help you to stay focus.
Make Work-Life Balance Your Priority
If you ever thought working from home may give you those ‘extra’ hours of me-time, which you would spend doing yoga, painting, reading, and whatnot. But after spending months in the lockdown, you must have realised that working remotely or working from home is not as fancy as it sounds. In fact, you end up spending your entire day replying to endless work e-mails and calls and losing your sanity. And when you finally take a 15 minutes break to refresh yourself, you end up working long hours. It is very essential to have a work-life balance. You cannot deny the fact that with each passing day, the boundaries between your personal and professional life are blurring. It’s high time you take those boundaries seriously.
You may enroll yourself for a painting or drawing class, or set a date with your best friend or partner that you cannot miss at any chance. Make sure you take at least a day off once a week. On your off-day avoid check work e-mails or attending calls.
Work on your distractions
You may even make a list of all things that distract you from focusing on work and work on them accordingly. If you feel social media are your distractions, use apps that block accounts for certain hours. If you feel your personal laptop is not efficient enough or hangs frequently not letting you work efficiently, you may consider either replacing your device with a new one or renting a laptop. There are numerous service providers that may help you get a laptop on rent in Mumbai, that too at nominal rentals.
You may even discuss with your organisation and ask them to help to set up a work from home set up. Share the list of equipment you may require such as a mouse, printer, keyboard, software, etc. Share the list and contact details of your nearby service providers that provide office equipment on a rental basis.
When you are working remotely or working from home it is difficult to keep a track of the day. For some days, you will be extra productive or on others, you will find it difficult to complete even a simple task. But that does not mean you are less productive. Take one day at a time. You are bound to make mistakes and face failure. But that should never hold you back from starting the next day with a fresh approach. List down your own tips and tricks and learn from your experiences what works the best for you.