Due to the current circumstances regarding the Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), many businesses have now switched to remote working. For many businesses, this may be the first time introducing full remote working throughout the whole business, but being able to trust your employers and allow them to have more control can lead to huge benefits for your business. For some employees, this may be the first time working from home for a long period of time, and some will need support to stay as productive as they would be in the office. We’ve put some tips together that can hopefully help you stay productive when working from home.
Getting started
When you are working from the office, the morning commute can sometimes wake you up (especially the walk in the rain from the train station) and get you ready to start working when you get to your desk. When working from home, the transition from getting your head off the pillow and into some work can be difficult. A good way to combat this is to wake up early, get showered, get dressed and make yourself a coffee, then when the time comes to start working, you’re ready to get going with no distractions.
Choose a dedicated workspace
Just because you’re not working at an office doesn’t mean you can’t, well, have an office. Rather than sitting yourself in your room or on the couch, dedicate a specific space in your home that is where you’re going to work from. This will help with your mindset, that when you sit in that dedicated space you know that it’s time to start working.
Structure your day
When working from home, you’re your own boss. Without the meetings during the day or the chats with your colleagues, it is easy to lose focus. Using a work management system to outline what tasks you need to complete during the day, can help keep you on track and stop you from losing focus on what needs to be done.
A work management system we use here at Dynamic is called Asana. You can set clear tasks out for the day between your team, and tick them off as you go along.
Stay connected with your colleagues
Working from home can be good in the short term to focus on your own work, but in the long term, it can make you feel cut off from the larger operation of the business as a whole. At Dynamic, we use Microsoft teams to stay connected during the day with instant messaging, and the technology to host video conferences with the team.
Take clear breaks throughout the day
It can be easy to get distracted when working from home, that you avoid taking breaks throughout the day. Don’t feel the need to overcompensate on your work, stop you from taking 5 minutes away from your workspace.
On the other hand, it can be difficult to stay concentrated when working from home, so if you set times where you take a short 5-minute break, it may help to boost your productivity in between taking these breaks.
Listen to music or podcasts
Whilst you’re working it’s good to have some background noise on to help your concentration or motivate yourself whilst you’re working. Listening to motivational music can help increase your productivity and increase the amount of work you can get through. Also, we have found that listening to podcasts can help you to relax and concentrate on the work you’re doing. But this is just a matter of opinion, and you may find something different to help you with your work.
Set a specific finishing time
Working from home can give you a more of a work-life balance, but it is sometimes easy to get caught up with your work and lose track of your day. Setting a time to finish can help you make sure you maintain productivity throughout the day, at the same time it will stop you from overworking when the working day should be over.
Tips from social media
What tips do you have?
If you have any other tips that you think could help others out, leave a comment below or get in touch on social media.