"With great freedom comes great responsibility"
When any work is done away from traditional corporate offices, it is remote working. You would think without the professional setup of formal office space, it is easy to slip into habits that drain productivity. But the statistics speak otherwise.
While most companies and managers have reported an increased productivity trend, it does not necessarily mean everyone is feeling at their productive best. With the pandemic fatigue setting in, repetitive chores, additional family and home responsibilities, and other issues, one might feel their productivity slipping at their remote work from home office.
So, what is productivity? A person can work efficiently and successfully in the assigned time. There are many things to enhance your productivity at your remote work from home office and it starts with determining what drains your productivity.
Productivity stealers
- Social Media: It is an expected suspect and yet an average person spends 118 minutes on social media. From mindless scrolling to pursuing links that are irrelevant but eat into the essential time of the day, social media sites end up being productivity’s waterloo.
- Multi-tasking: Our brains are wired to pay attention to one task at a time. While it may seem multi-tasking helps, research has proved that it doesn't. Multi-taskers end up shutting between tasks and none of them gets done efficiently.
- Emails: Checking your emails often can cut off precious time of the day. Continually refreshing your mail to not miss important ones is counterproductive.
- Poor Self-discipline: Inconsistent self-discipline could be the one greatest cause of low productivity. Bad sleep habits, zero control over social media scrolling, extended lunch hours, and other unhealthy work habits can be attributed to low self-discipline.
To attain impressive efficiency levels, just identifying productivity stealers is not enough. To improve dedication to work and to achieve results, here are some productivity dos and don'ts that you can practice at your remote work from home office.
Productivity do’s
- Create a To-Do lists: Starting the day with a list of things that need to get tackled and according to their priority helps to structure the day and streamline time for each task. Those who create, and follow their to-do lists get more work done, achieve better results, and miss their deadlines rarely. Create to-do lists to smatly improve your productivity.
- Use Google Calendar: While you may prefer to jot down your meetings and tasks using traditional stationery, Google Calendar can simplify your life. Use the platform to create different calendars for a variety of work aspects, receive daily tasks in your inbox, use it to schedule your calls and appointments, and more.
- Tackle The Tough: Start the day by tackling the hardest task first. Striking off the most intimidating task first will motivate you to conquer the rest of the tasks easily.
Productivity don’ts
- Saying ‘Yes’ To Everything: If you are accepting more tasks than you can handle, you are bringing down not just your productivity, but also that of the entire team and the organization. Say yes to only those tasks that you can do well and deliver on time.
- Redundant Meetings: Issues that can be resolved over emails and phones must be done so to accelerate productivity. Being part of unnecessary meetings gnaws away at the precious minutes of the day. Keep meetings under 30 mins, share the agenda beforehand, and set clear expectations about what you hope to achieve through the meeting.
- Not Outsourcing: Highly productive people aim to reduce the tasks on their plate by delegating less necessary tasks to others. Outsourcing tasks to experts in the field opens up time for personal and professional growth.
- No Set Deadlines: Setting deadlines brings a sense of urgency and accountability. Working without deadlines can prove to be detrimental to your productivity. Humans are result-oriented. The adrenaline rush of an approaching deadline and meeting it offers a massive confidence boost, thus improving productivity.
Tools to improve productivity
Using productivity apps and tools can help you capitalize on your time and potential. Here is a list of the most popular ones.
- Notion: Notion is a digital workspace that can assist people in creating their project systems, taking notes, and setting reminders.
- Todoist: It is a virtual to-do list tool that helps the user to create automatic schedules for repetitive tasks.
- Trello: Looking to keep a tab on your projects? Team members can update individual and project progress through Trello.
- Vaultt: This tool helps connect the caregiver and the family members securely. You can use it to share medical documents and track tasks related to caregiving.
- Evernote: This is one of the most popular apps for note-taking and sharing across different devices. Voice notes, pictures, online content, and more can be shared through this app.
Mental health tips for high productivity at your remote work from home office
Since the pandemic started, our minds had to adapt to situations that had never been experienced before. Try these mental health suggestions to increase productivity and get through challenging situations.
- Exercise: It works. Exercising releases endorphins, the feel-good hormones, and can help you stay buoyant through tough times.
- Eat Healthily: What you eat has a huge impact on how you feel. Consume healthy food and avoid junk food and binge eating.
- Positive Thinking: Deciding to speak positively about others, thinking only positive thoughts, and stopping a downward spiral of negative thoughts can help you attain better mental hygiene.
The habit of setting goals, assigning deadlines to them, and accomplishing those goals can help you feel more productive and positive. When we add value to the lives of those around us, we feel valuable ourselves. By helping each other, our organizations, we all can move forward and focus on what matters.
