How To Work From Home Productively
When you are looking to gain productivity while working from home, consider confining your office space to a specified area in it. This way, you will be able to avoid having your home life intruding on your office productivity to boost your ability to concentrate throughout the day. Try to specify a space that you can designate as your workstation in order to avoid the distractions that can come with placing yourself in front of the TV or using the kitchen table. You want to try to isolate yourself and situate yourself somewhere quiet for maximum concentration. If you don’t have a separate space that you can dedicate to your home office, try to find the area of your home that gets the least amount of foot traffic.
Block out the noise from your neighbors barking dog and the sounds of voices or vehicles from the street. The best way to do this is by investing in a quality pair of noise-canceling headphones or noise-canceling earbuds. Research shows that sounds of either soft music or soothing nature sounds can boost concentration levels and minimize stress and anxiety. Therefore, try to install a third-party extension on your browser or use a music service to find background noise you can play through your headphones.
Stick to the same place every day. This way, you keep your mind from wandering. This can keep you focused and on-take for maximum productivity. Try to establish specific boundaries that you should be sticking to. This can keep you from constantly being reminded of the temptations that surround you in your home environment. Designate time to complete various tasks that you normally do in your home for another time so you aren’t tempted to do them during your allotted work time.
Treat your home office as if you are not at home. Tell everyone and anyone who enters your home to avoid your area. That way, you don’t have to worry about any interruptions that you wouldn’t have at a work office. Always stick to a strict work schedule and clock-out when you normally would if you were at the office to avoid piling too much on your plate.
Once your workday is finished, you will want to put away all of your work equipment and electronic devices according to here. Whether you’re a web designer or in finance you should treat your work equipment like a carpenter would treat his/her woodworking tools after building something.
By keeping all of your work equipment away after work hours, you will be able to keep them ‘out of sight, and out of mind.’ This can help you treat after work hours like you would when you would normally get home from work to recharge your batteries and relax. Always discourage people from walking in on you and intruding. Treat it as you would an office. You wouldn’t have friends and family constantly walking in on your office, would you? A lot of times, friends and family think it’s perfectly acceptable when you are working from home. Tell them that it’s not and make plans to see and speak to them after work hours.
Set up a camera and microphone or headset so you can effectively communicate with the rest of your company’s staff and other team members. Your company should embrace technology and be willing to nurture staff who are working remotely, read this blog from TrackTime24. Ensure that you have your company’s telecommuting devices properly set up including Zoom. This will ensure that you are ready and able to take on calls when needed. If you begin to feel isolated and lonely, you can always set up video calls with colleagues or friends who are also in the same situation as yourself. You can even make plans to meet up and help each other learn to cope with working from home.