Working from home has so many great benefits. You can save time on your commute and work in your favorite sweat pants from your lounge. Though, there’s a downside to working from home remotely. Due to a lot of distractions and minimal supervision, people often struggle with productivity when working remotely.
Companies have started adopting new ways of working. Work from home culture is booming like never before. It is expected that most companies will continue to work remotely even after the COVID-19 pandemic is over. It’s high time we embrace the transition and adopt the contemporary work tactics as well.
If you have been facing challenges while working remotely, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Here are 5 secrets to success when working from home remotely.
1. Getting Comfortable
Comfort comes in many forms, from the clothes you wear to the way you set up your desk, to the strength of your coffee in the morning. One cannot be productive unless he’s comfortable doing what he does.
You might have read many tips about working from home. Some may even tell you to dress up as if you were going to work even if you’re working remotely. We’d like to advise otherwise.
We’d say ask yourself what makes you comfortable. If dressing up early in the morning is your style, do it. Though, for many, rolling out of bed and working in pajamas is the best thing about working remotely.
Of course, this isn’t the case for everyone, but don’t feel guilty if you do forget to shave or decide to forgo the suit for some sweatpants. Just find what makes you feel comfortable as it will surely help you be productive.
It’s time you gave those stand-up desks a shot. Stand-up desks are prescribed to people who work longer hours. Sitting in a sedentary position for hours might cause severe health problems in the long run. Stand-up desks eliminate lower back pain and make you feel more mobile and energized.
According to many health professionals, standing just a few hours a day is good for your health and can help you live longer. If you do switch to stand-up desks, make sure you get an anti-fatigue standing mat and buy some comfortable shoes to work in. If you’ve decided to change the way you used to work, why not go all in.
2. Work-Life Balance
One of the biggest challenges of working from home is creating a barrier between work and regular life. If you can, try to commandeer a room as your dedicated office.
If you don’t happen to have a spare room at home, at least cordon-off a work zone that you don’t use for personal activities. When you’ve accomplished your daily tasks, give yourself a break from your work zone and go somewhere else.
While it’s tempting to flick on the TV for some background noise or catch up on the latest episode of your favorite show on Netflix, don’t do it. Television is one of many distractions you may come across when working from home. Instead, queue up some music (if it helps you focus on work). Avoid lyrical tunes, rather listen to the instrumentals. If you prefer a more conversational environment, try listening to a podcast.
3. Tools that Boost Productivity
With more companies adopting cloud technology, it’s getting much easier to take your work with you, wherever you go. There are many tools out there that help you stay productive when working from home remotely. While the right tools help immensely, maintaining a regular daily schedule also boosts productivity and keeps you on track. WeekPlan can help you out with that.
WeekPlan is a great to-do that helps you keep all your tasks and projects organized. The tool helps in prioritizing the tasks to help you identify the HITs (High-Intensity Tasks) to align your focus in the right direction.
Not only this, but WeekPlan also helps team managers in clearly illustrating the OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) to help teams know their current standing, where they’re headed and where they are supposed to go.
Time tracking is critically important when working from home. WeekPlan has a built-in timer that works on the ‘Pomodoro Principle’. It breaks your work hours into time slots.
After every 25 minutes of focused work time, there’s a 5-minute break added to avoid possible burnouts. This is a smart feature to help you stay productive – eliminating exhaustion and fatigue.
4. Outside World Is Not That Bad
Work from home is a blessing for many, especially introverts and the people who don’t like to go out more. Though, it can be a nightmare for the ones who are social. Work from home involves minimal human interaction. It’s not just your supervisor or team manager who’s gone, there are no smoking buddies, coffee friends or office gossip corners.
In some scenarios, companies call-in employees to attend occasional collaboration meetings physically where you may be asked to come to the office for a couple of days during the week. Albeit that might not be possible if you’re dedicatedly working from home.
In that case, you’ll need to find a way to get in some face-time so you don’t go insane. Sometimes, just going to a coffee shop for a few hours or meeting a friend for lunch can be enough. We know some of you just love staying home. But, when you’re working from home all the time, you might need to go out sometimes, for the sake of your sanity. Humans are labeled social animals for a reason.
5. Working from Home Isn’t a Vacation
People are always putting air quotes around working from home, insinuating that work from home days are more like days off. They often expect that because you work at home, you can skive-off for a day to play golf, go shopping and play video games. However, back here in the real world, working from home actually means getting stuff done.
There are tasks you have to mark done, deliverables you have to achieve and collaboration meetings to show your progress. Having a clearly demarcated workspace helps with this, as does setting a work schedule. WeekPlan can get your work schedule sorted, it will be you who’s putting the efforts to get the work done.
Wrap Up
Work from home has its perks, though, it’s not always sunshine and rainbows when working remotely. Work is work, be it done remotely or from a workplace. Challenges are inevitable as working from home can be a hard transition for many, especially the ones who are used to the old school work tactics. In this article, we prescribed 5 secrets to success when working from home remotely. Try them, and let us know in the comments if they worked out for you.
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