Bad habits are easily formed and Working from home is no longer an occasional or temporary arrangement after the widespread adoption by millions of businesses across the globe. Remote work is a trend here to stay!
Businesses of all sizes have been forced to change the way they work due to the pandemic as the only solution to enable businesses to continue operating was to ask the workforce to work from home.
People seem to have embraced the new working from home, being free from the daily commute to enjoy the ‘flexibility’ that remote working offers. But at the same time find it difficult to adjust to such a huge change in their working life. That blur between work and home life can cause bad habits and decreased productivity. How do you work from home and keep productive? How can you increase personal productivity?
Increase Productivity when Working From Home
Key questions to ask yourself to know if your productivity has decreased since working from home.
Are you meeting your deadlines? Are you struggling to draw a line between work and home life? Have you developed bad habits?
Get Up, Get Dressed and Plan for Work: Nobody can see you so why bother getting dressed? Who knows if you start late? You need to prepare yourself for work “mode” feel like it’s time to work.
Form good habits like prioritising tasks, creating a to-do lists or follow checklists and identifying daily / weekly goals.
Avoid Multitasking: Trying to work on two things at the same time is never as effective as focusing on a single task really well. This is also the same when trying to multitask with home/family life jobs and work tasks.
Our brains are not designed to multitask as research has shown with American Psychological Association.
Embrace technology that can improve productivity: Use productivity tools, business management software tools and cloud based services for planning workflow, task management, collaboration, communication to keep you connected to the team and more productive while working remotely.
Social Media & Phone Notifications: Phones have become an important part of life and communication with friends and family. It feels like it’s actually part of our body and most of us have an addiction to checking them every few minutes for messages or news from friends and family. This bad habit can be a huge distraction during working hours.
Stop checking your phone or turn off social media notifications as it is distracting you from important tasks and reduces your productivity. Think of only checking during your tea or lunch breaks like you would in an office environment.
Fresh Air and Breaks: We all spend far too much time in front of screens. We all need regular breaks and fresh air to give our brains and eyes a rest.
There is numerous health risk when we spend too much time in front of the computer screen so think about a walk around the block or lunch in that garden. Think about looking at time management methodologies like the pomodoro technique to help.
Eliminate Distractions: Turn distractions like the TV off, but if this is difficult, think about noise-cancelling earphones as that is the go-to answer for all the checkify team members.
We all need human interaction, so ensure you have great communication channels with team members. Not just about work, remember to catch up on personal levels during your break times and lunch like you would in the office. Don’t feel isolated as this can cause mental health issues.
Having children to care for at the same time as needing to work can be challenging. They don’t always understand establishing set routines and taking advantage of nap times, playtime and with older children make them aware of your dedicated work area and time scales.
Banish Bad habits when Working from Home
Embrace the benefits that working from home offers but don’t let yourself get into bad habits that hinder your productivity.
Address your bad habits and set yourself a routine for work mode.
Working from home can still mean you are a highly productive team member.