During this devastating Covid-19 pandemic, the majority of people have stayed home and adopted work-from-home strategies to make both ends meet. Where most people have kind of gotten used to remote work, others have been finding themselves struggling with this new routine.
No matter if you’ve gotten used to remote work or not, it’s safe to say that remote work is here to stay. So, here I have some basic tips for you to boost your work-from-home productivity.
1. Physical activity:
It’s often said, “A sound body has a sound mind”. Living through the years of my life, I have come to know this quote is indeed true. Aside from having a healthy and fruitful diet, what could be the best way to keep your body fit and healthy? It’s Physical activity. When you work from home, you save a lot of your precious time by not having to commute on a daily basis. You can use that saved time in something useful — probably some workout? Whether you’re taking a walk in the park or a stroll in the street, physical activities do help you in achieving the desired levels of physical fitness and mind consciousness.
2. Focus block:
It’s a super-duper idea to set up some custom work hours for you in which you merely focus on getting things done. However, if you tried to build a solid focus block in your traditional in-office work routine, a colleague of yours will eventually slice through it and ask you to provide an opinion on their new expensive watch. But that’s not the case when it comes to remote work — you can build a solid focus block for yourself, and get things going.
3. Set up meetings:
Whenever you need to get in touch with someone to query some business stuff, don’t call them right away. Instead, schedule and set up an online meeting. Randomly calling someone out of the place isn’t an ideal solution to getting your questions answered. The person you’re trying to talk to, won’t be in the perfect shape to answer the question in the most optimal of the ways. Inform them about the meeting beforehand, let them know about the questions that are going to be asked. You can use tools like Zoom or Microsoft Teams to schedule and manage meetings.
4. Status updates:
Yes, there are no colleagues to buzz around and disturb you while you’re working from home. But your phone is still there, ringing and buzzing every few minutes and distracting you from achieving your goal. That’s why you always have to update your social media status to let people know if you’re available or not. If you’re using Slack for business communication, update your status to “Away” whenever you’re trying to get something done. Similarly, if your company uses WhatsApp for business communication, update your WhatsApp status to “Away” whenever you’re sporting your brain to finish off something.
5. Avoid distractions:
Your spouse, your kids, or even your pet is enough to diverge attention from what you’re doing — don’t let that happen! Get in a silent and comfortable space where people won’t be able to hit you up every 5 minutes. Moreover, turn off your phone’s notifications for unimportant applications so they don’t send useless notifications distracting you from your goal.
