Working from home has many benefits, but for some, it can be a taxing experience both mentally and physically. There are a ton of distractions floating around at home, and whether it be your family, pets, entertainment, or general surroundings, there are a ton of things that can throw you off course while working from home. This means that you need to make a more concerted effort to improve your productivity to avoid the many distractions surrounding your new workspace.
In this article, we will talk about some of the best ways you can improve your productivity while working from home and how these can actually be a positive investment for your time and efficiency.
Create a Positive Workspace
Creating a positive workspace is something that is fairly inherent to a traditional workspace because it’s provided for you. Your office is purposefully designed to promote good working habits for you and your co-workers, so you don’t have to put any thought into making it efficient. Yes, you might make some personal touches here and there, but mainly the office is created for you.
At home, this is entirely different, and it’s inherently a very informal and relaxed place that you now have to set up for work every day. The first step to improving this is updating your physical setting, Changing your scenery and ensuring that you are working in a positive, productive space is incredibly helpful for your mindfulness at work and helps you fulfill your goal achievement as well.
This will look different for everyone, but some big things that help are getting a real desk and chair, moving your entertainment station away from your workspace, and adding some plants to your work setting.
Besides changing your scenery, creating a positive workspace is also about developing positive routines that structure your day. When working from home it can be dangerously easy to develop harmful routines that define your day. When you simply roll out of bed and start your day from the couch, it can set the tone for the rest of your day that will decrease your productivity.
Instead of this, try going for a morning walk, making sure you eat breakfast every morning and consistently leaving your phone in a different room.
Introduce Time Saving Apps
Time-saving apps, or task management apps, are incredibly helpful when looking to increase your efficiency at work and establish a better flow to your day. Not only do these apps help increase productivity, but they also allow you to prioritize the vital elements of your workflow. Being able to effectively prioritize tasks is critical for your productivity and these apps help ensure that you are focusing on the right items at the right time.
Some common examples of task management/product management apps are ClickUp, monday.com, and chisel.
Creating this priority list in advance is really helpful because it allows you to create a regular structure for your day and gives you a clear idea of what needs to get done and the timeframe that it needs to finish by.
Another reason introducing task management is important is because it helps bunch your tasks together. This is another way to increase productivity and makes completing each bunch of tasks easier than completing them individually.
Basically, you group similar tasks together and think of them as buckets rather than individual assignments. This way you’re able to complete entire buckets of tasks in small sprints instead of individual tasks back to back. This might not seem like a big difference, but mentally it’s incredibly helpful to take large steps towards project completion throughout the day.
In general, these apps take a little amount of effort to implement but can have big implications for your individual efficiency at work. They are definitely a worthwhile investment of your time.
Maintain Your Routines
People are creatures of habit and maintaining routines helps keep your brain in sync. It also helps structure your day in positive ways and creates some familiarity with how you work.
Keeping routines is critical not only for your productivity at work but also for your general sanity. Routines are super helpful for structuring our lives and without them, we can feel very lost. It’s easy to fall into patterns of behavior while working from home that doesn’t establish solid routines or create easy transitions throughout the workday.
For this reason, keeping your routines is incredibly important for structuring your day. If you can’t maintain the routines you had before, this is a great time to create new routines and establish a healthy daily lifestyle.
Schedule Regular Breaks
This tip is similar to creating a routine, but regularly scheduling breaks can help improve your productivity and motivation greatly. These don’t have to be long breaks, and will ideally be around 5-15 minute gaps where you let yourself relax, grab a snack, and take a quick break from your tasks
During your short breaks, it can also be really helpful to do some physical exertion. Exercising, even as little as a brisk walk is super helpful for your mindset and makes you much more efficient at work. Things as little as stretching, walking, or using a standing desk are super helpful for creating a positive working environment and keeping you focused during the workday.
Use Collaboration Tools to Make Meetings Easier
Online whiteboards are tools that help people working from home establish instant collaboration with their teams, something that is incredibly difficult with a separated workspace.
Among their other advantages, online whiteboards help you create a collaborative workspace where your team can plan projects, organize a business model, or jam out a brainstorming session.
This means your workspace becomes more connected and you’re able to communicate more efficiently with your team. You can meet easier, communicate more often, and deliver more informed solutions. Along with task management tools, online whiteboards should be high up on the list of tools that you should seek to implement with your team.
Conclusion
Working in a remote workspace is a varied experience for many people. Some people love it, and some yearn for a more traditional work environment. Regardless of how you feel about it, it’s important that you take steps to make your work-from-home environment just as productive as any other workspace, and hopefully, these tips helped you do just that. If you liked this article, make sure to stay tuned to Fresco for future posts.
