How to Stay Productive While Working from Home
The idea of working at home isn’t new. According to GetVoIP, the remote workforce has increased by 140% over the last 15 years, 43% of US employees work remotely from time to time, and 79% of employees claim they would be more loyal to a business if it offers more flexibility.
With the spread of COVID-19, many businesses have switched to working remotely, so the number of newly remote workers has increased. What is more is that many experts believe remote working will become the new normal, which means employees and companies need to adjust to working from home.
Since a significant decrease in productivity is one of the most common challenges the remote workforce face, it’s important to understand how to stay productive while working from home. In this article, you will find reasons why staying productive at home is a must as well as 8 effective ways on how to do it.
Let’s dive in!
Why Stay Productive at Home?
At first blush, working from home gives you flexibility. However, social media, children, and other people are just a few distractions remote workers have and these things affect your productivity negatively.
Whether you’re managing a remote team or working remotely from home, here are some reasons why you should stay productive and make the most of your workday.
- Get your work done: No matter what your job position is, whether you’re a manager, software developer, or social media specialist, you have your KPIs and you can’t afford to miss your deadlines. Being productive means completing your tasks faster without sacrificing the quality of your work.
- Save time and energy: It’s no secret that productivity and time management go hand in hand. Once you’ve improved your time management skills, you become productive which means you do your work faster and therefore you get extra time and energy to spend on other tasks, hobbies, or personal life.
- Improve job satisfaction: When you work productively, you achieve your goals and get a promotion faster. Thus, you improve job satisfaction and it seems to be a closed circle. Moreover, studies show that remote workers are happier and richer than office workers, so chances are that you can improve your job satisfaction if you’re productive while working from home.
- Earn more money: When you’re productive, you work smarter and therefore complete your tasks faster. Not only can you get promoted, but you can also have time and energy to get side gigs and increase your income.
- Keep a work-life balance: When it takes extra hours, days, or weeks to complete your job duty, it’s more likely you lose a balance between work and life. If you stay productive while working from home, you manage your time wisely and therefore you have time and effort to enjoy your personal life.
Now that you know the importance of being productive while working from home, check out the following 8 ways on how to increase your productivity and get more things done without losing your focus and concentration.
Ready? Let’s get started!
8 Ways on How to Stay Productive While Working From Home
1. Start Your Day the Right Way
When it comes to boosting your productivity, starting your day the right way is the most important thing. It’s scientifically proven that the tone you set for yourself in the morning sets the tone for the rest of your day. If you start your day the right way, you can keep a focus on your workflow and complete your tasks faster.
To make the most out of your morning, check out whether you have bad habits that can affect your mood, health, and productivity. It’s important to get rid of these habits before you start implementing good ones.
Here are several morning routines that help to increase your productivity:
- Wake up early
- Meditate
- Drink water
- Do physical activity
- Eat healthy food
Remember that there’s no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to starting your day the right way. If something works well for one person, it doesn’t mean it can work for others. Thus, it’s important to experiment with your morning routine and find out what helps you set the tone for a productive day.
2. Plan Your Workflow and Set Tasks
Believe it or not, planning is a key to productivity. The process takes several minutes, but it helps to save hours of wasted time when you switch between several tasks without working on them productively. When you plan your set of tasks for the day, you take control of your workflow as it helps to keep a focus on the most important and urgent tasks.
When mapping out your workflow, you need to prioritize your work and creating a to-do list is one of the most effective ways to do that. Moreover, you can make this process easier if you use a to-do list template that saves time and serves as a motivational tool.
3. Organize a Home Workplace
For most remote employees, the idea of working from bed seems to be attractive. Although it can be lucrative to work in your cozy pajamas, most remote workers agree on the fact that it leads to low productivity. Why?
Not only do you have mental associations between your bedroom and sleep that affect your organization and concentration, but it is also to separate work from your regular life. The solution? Organize a home workplace that keeps you focused.
A well-organized workplace helps to create a good work atmosphere and boost productivity. From choosing an ergonomic chair and desk lamp to keeping your work stuff in one place, there are many ways on how to create a home workplace and therefore pretend you’re actually working in the office. To learn more tips on how to make a perfect home office, check out this handy guide on workplace organization.
Working from home can be easy and simple when you find a designated workspace that is quiet, comfortable, away from distractions.
Finding the right tools like team communication, video conferencing, team messaging, file sharing and screen sharing are important to cultivate a successful work environment.
Make sure you invest in an external monitor, a good pair of headphones, and go with a wired connection.
Don’t forget to play some music to keep your background noises to a minimum and boost your overall mood.
4. Get Rid of Distractions
Working from home, it can be difficult to separate your work and personal life: children, relatives, household duties, social media, cell phones, and noise bombard remote workers from all sides. To boost productivity and keep a focus on your workflow, you need to get rid of these distractions, and here are several tips on how to do it:
- Establish work-life boundaries
- Declutter your office desk
- Turn off distracting sounds
- Block social media apps for a while
- Find a quiet place for the working process
5. Create a Remote Work Schedule
Without social interaction at home, most remote employees claim that they work longer hours. As a result, they lose a balance between work and life which means it takes time for them to get back to normal life after the workday. However, having a remote work schedule that works for you is a proven way to boost productivity and live a normal life.
The first step to planning your workday is analyzing your duties and tasks. No matter what your profession is, chances are that you have regular daily or weekly duties. At the same time, some projects may require an hour or more of uninterrupted time. When working on your schedule, create a time block for every task you have, schedule time breaks, and leave blocks for unexpected tasks or urgent calls.
6. Collaborate with Your Remote Team Members
The power of teamwork is undeniable. When a group of people work together on achieving the same goal, these workers become more productive and efficient. However, collaborating with your remote team members can be daunting and it’s important to create a collaborative team.
You might be shocked to know that in office space, 93 % of communication is non-verbal!!! When working from home, remote team members lack face-to-face interactions which leads to miscommunication. Thus, businesses should implement using project management and team collaboration tools like ProofHub that allow you to communicate with other team members, managers, and/or clients.
7. Make the Most out of Tools and Apps
With a variety of digital tools on the market, it’s easy for every specialist to find apps and tools that help to optimize the working process and complete tasks faster. It has been proven that digital tools play a positive role in boosting employee productivity. Thus, it’s important to find the right tools and start using them in your working process.
For example, if you’re a content strategist, you can use the following tools that help to save time:
- Ahrefs to check the backlink profile and the quality of websites
- Signalhire email checker to find editors’ emails and pitch them directly
- Grammarly to check drafts for style, spelling, and grammar
- Crello to create visual content for blog posts
8. Pay Attention to Your Health
“Health is wealth”, people say, and they are absolutely right. Being healthy is extremely important for every person, but it’s twice more important to be physically and mentally healthy for people who work from home. Why? Your overall well-being affects your life significantly, and it makes you more productive if you live a healthy lifestyle.
When working from home, it can be lucrative to eat junk food right from your bed. However, you’d better cultivate positive healthy habits to enhance your immune system and productivity. For example, you can do the following things:
- Sleep 7–8 hours
- Drink still water
- Eat healthy snacks (nuts, fruits, vegetables)
- Do home workouts
- Air your home workplace out
Conclusion
Living in the digital era, it’s no wonder that the remote workforce is growing. Since more and more people start working from their homes, it’s important to understand how to get rid of home distractions and keep a focus on your workflow as productivity matters. Although there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for productivity boost, the above-mentioned tips can help remote workers stay productive while working from home.
Have we left something off the list? Tell us what helps you stay productive in the comment section below.
Author Bio: Hugh Beaulac is a content strategist at MC2 Bid4Papers with over 7 years of digital marketing experience. Hugh also contributes to various blogs and shares his tips and tricks on digital marketing, freelancing, and business growth.
Thank you for reading this,before you go
Clap: if you enjoyed reading this article, so others can find it
Comment: if you have a question/suggestion you’d like to ask
Follow: ProofHub to read all the articles
