It’s been almost two years since the Covid-19 pandemic changed the way millions of us live – working from home, rather than in the office. For many businesses, remote working hadn’t previously been on their radar. Now it’s an essential, to keep businesses operating and to keep people safer. But it’s not only businesses who’ve had to get used to the new work-from-home order. Many workers have never done it before either, and it can be a very different experience. Let’s take a look at some strategies that workers can adopt so that they can maintain productivity when working remotely.
A Quiet Environment
Most people find it hard to focus if there’s noise all the time. Perhaps the most important first step for people adjusting to the work-from-home shift is to find a suitable place to work in. People with experience of remote working may already have a desk in a quiet spot, located as far as possible away from the busiest areas of the home. If space is limited, finding a place where you can ignore the hustle and bustle can be a bit of a challenge, but it will be one of the most important things you can do to keep distractions and interruptions to a minimum and maintain your productivity level.
Avoid Clutter
One of the problems that arises with home working is the desk itself. It could be the kitchen table or a desk that is also used by other members of the household. It might be cluttered with other people’s papers, or empty coffee mugs and soda cans that get left on a table used for eating or during food preparation. Some people have a workstation in the office that’s overflowing with bits and pieces, but most of us do better without papers and stuff everywhere. A dedicated work desk is best, if it’s a practical option.
Let Nature Give You a Helping Hand
It’s the way it works in the office, but you’d never normally spend your day at home in the same spot for hours on end. Try to make the environment as work-friendly as possible. Something as simple as having a natural light source can make all the difference. Setting up near a window in a quiet corner of the home is ideal. A bit of the natural world can also improve the feel of your work area. A pot plant or a few fresh flowers in a vase can make all the difference. Some people find working from home more stressful, so anything you can do to make your workspace a more pleasant place to be will help.
Don’t Skimp on Breaks
Many jobs involve an ebb and flow of work and deadlines, and sometimes the pressure is on and all the deadlines seem to be converging. It’s important to set your priorities to get through it. Remember that you’re not a machine and you need to take breaks to refresh yourself. Working remotely means that you might also have to be switching from work to dealing with things related to your domestic life, on top of general multi-tasking. To be productive, you need to focus on one thing at a time. This is easier to do if you can clear your head. Proper breaks, where you can turn your back on work for ten or fifteen minutes, to unwind and refocus, will be helpful.
Have a To-Do List
With remote working, it’s not surprising that the lines between work and things that need attention in the home can become blurred. A simple to-do list can help here. Our recommendation is that you compile a list of work tasks that need to be accomplished each day. You should put the tasks that are most time-consuming first, as well as the most urgent, with things that can probably be done tomorrow at the bottom of the list. This is partly about managing your own expectations when working from home. If you don’t do this effectively, you can feel that there is an endless queue of tasks, and the sense of pressure never really goes away.
Do you need help with technology for your workforce to work remotely? Call Quikteks today at (973) 882-4644.