Post pandemic, work from home has become a norm in everyone’s life. Not having to commute to work and being able to work in a comfortable home environment has made almost all the employee’s life much easier. However, remote work may become a little bit too comfortable for some to deliver the best of their performance to their assigned work goals and tasks in everyday life. The downside of it is the numerous distractions and temptations all over the surrounding which could become hard to ignore and can hinder your daily productivity.
Here are 10 work from home ideas to overcome these distractions with a proper routine and give the best of your abilities to your work life.
1. Always Stay Connected
There are tons of lines of work in remote jobs and opportunities. Some might require you to attend regular video conferences or independent jobs that don’t really require you to attend virtual meetings every day. But still, one should get engaged in regular meets with their work colleagues or stay connected to their managers on a daily basis.
Not every conversation has to be work-related. You can call your colleagues and ask them about their lives and share about yours, basically, having conversations that you might miss due to working from home. This will also help you understand how effective your virtual work communication abilities are actually.
2. Stick to the Schedule Like You Would As An In-Office Employee
You have got to treat your work with the same amount of sincerity as if you are working in an office. With working from home, the accountability compared to an office life may not be that serious. There are no consistent start and end timings, there are also home responsibilities, and juggling these two, especially when your workload is quite heavy, can soon feel like an unbearable task.
Create a schedule in such a way that you get to do every task to get off to the start-off a good day, such as waking up an hour early to take a bath and have a good breakfast, have enough time to exercise a bit, or take a morning walk.
3. Stay Alone During Important Tasks and Meetings
Solitude can be quite productive if used correctly. If your home environment has people around you most of the time, then take up the quiet place in the house during the important times so you cannot let the presence of others distract you. Most people enjoy having family members around them while they are working, but it is equally important to create a space for yourself during work.
4. Invest in a Comfortable Chair or Workstation
Virtual work-life asks you to invest a good amount of time of the day around your workstation, so it makes sense to have the comfort of the right equipment to improve your productivity even further.
Whether you are working on your kitchen table or in your dining hall, it is always a good recommendation to get a comfortable ergonomic chair that will help you concentrate on your work and not on your back pains or if you are unable to sit for hours, maybe a standing desk could result in productive hours while you are working.
It is also important not to clutter your workspace with unnecessary things, keep what is necessary. A clean workspace results in de-cluttered mind space.
5. Track Your Time
If you’re still learning to manage your time at home and still be productive at work, learn to use the right tools made specifically for virtual work. Track your hours through tracking software available online. The right tool will help you define your hours, not only during work time but also where you spend the rest of the hours of the day. There might be useless tasks where you end up spending more time than required, but when you track them with the tracking tools, you might realize how much time they are taking from your working hours.
6. Keep Changing Your Work Environment
In-office work requires you to do your job from your cubicle or desk. That is not a reality anymore, with work from home jobs, one can easily switch up to their comfort zones in order to get the most productive hours of the day. It is always a good idea to change the place or room in your house every one week or two. The idea behind this is that it will keep things interesting around you to deliver the work more productively. In other cases, if you have a small working space, you can even try to set up things differently and it would result in the same.
7. Focus On The Key Tasks First
According to Syed Balkhi, Founder of WPBeginner, getting the important tasks out of the way earlier in the day can give the best results in terms of productivity throughout the day. Most people feel more energetic in the early hours of the day and to get on with the tough tasks earlier would only be productive but it will make you feel more satisfied with yourself. You can keep the less important tasks for the other hours of the day with a more casual frame of mind.
8. Give Yourself a Break!
Whether it was office life or home life, work burnouts can happen anywhere. Have yourself working in 40-50 minute increments and take a break afterward to cool yourself down. You have the luxury to do that at home anyways. Step outside or take a walk. Do some stretches or exercise. Call your friends or have a conversation with someone at home if you feel isolated from work. Working from home can burn you in your comfort zone, so prioritize taking regular short breaks and rest.
9. Mind Your Diet
One of the important things you can do is to have your meals away from your workspace. Don’t overeat just because you’re at your home with a fridge full of snacks and food. Take note of your eating habits and eat your meals at the right time. But that doesn’t mean you should skip your meals for work. A healthy and timely diet can help you be more energetic and productive.
10. Self-Care
Lastly, but absolutely essential is to practice self-care. In the times of the Covid-19 pandemic, it is particularly easy to feel stressed with the ongoing situation and how it affects our personal lives. Try to stay in tune with your energy levels and moods. If you feel sick or just tired, take a nap. Don’t disregard the signals your body is sending you, it can eventually lead to burnout and overstress. If nothing, have some plants around your workspace. It might sound silly, but it can help lift up your moods at times.
Time to Improve Your In-House Productivity
In addition to keeping your normal habits of waking up at a proper time, having your meals on time, and ending your working hours, use the extra time to lighten yourself up and do things that lift your moods by using the above-mentioned working from home ideas and tips. Even a few hours invested in reading, exercising or some other activity can help you clock in and out of your work stress mentally.
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