When you’re working remotely it’s hard to stay focused on one task for long.
I’ve been a remote worker for close to a decade and so are many like me.
An estimated 3.9 million work from home. By 2025 remote workers were expected to be equal in number to regular office goers. However I’m of the opinion that Covid-19 is going to speed that up
Remote working is often a dream for most. The traditional office is full of toxic workers and other things that hamper productivity. That’s not to say that the home office environment is entirely free of distractions.
However remote working is frequently associated with improved job satisfaction and higher productivity
Here are the things that make my remote working space a productive one.
The first thing is having a schedule and a place to work and hard task masters throughout the work day help. A lot.
Remote working also needs that you have a sense of discipline in you and deliberately stay on track.
There are small changes you can make to see what works for you and what doesn’t.
Audit your day
Do a quick mental audit of the times during the day when you’re generally at your peak.
Perhaps you’re a night owl like me who gets his best ideas after dusk.
Others love the wee morning hours when even the birds haven’t started chirping yet.
Whatever be your pace, keep in mind that it doesn’t really matter. You can meet deadlines and do all other tasks by creating a schedule for your work.
To do this successfully look back at your week. When were the days on which you did the most?
What were the days that made you absolutely terrible?
What’s the difference between those days. These time-sucks are obviously the ones that need to be eliminated from your work path. That helps boost your productivity levels.
Take a step back and see what you’re really trying to achieve and if you’re able to achieve that with your current schedule.
Prioritize Tasks
The next step on the list is to assign priority to tasks. It seems simple enough. But, when you’re actually doing it may not seem that simple. Designate which tasks are most important to you and differentiate those from tasks that feel important rather than being important.
There are always things that are more valuable at helping you meet your goals. Never do low-value work that isn’t really helping you. Identify practical means to identify work that’s most important. Assign time-consuming but less important work to others. Your time is best spent working at tasks that pull the highest leverage.
The schedule will dynamically alter over the preceding few months. Make adjustments to form a good idea of doing what made you save time and energy.
Plan out your workspace
Next, take time the night before to decide what you’re going to do tomorrow and the next day.
Where are you planning on working?
Home, home-office, coffee shop etc.
Know where you can do most work and this help you plan out your day in the best possible manner and let you make changes to your day should you wish to.
Schedule uninterrupted deep work
There are times during the day when you’re in the zone.
What this simply means is some times during the day you’re at your productive best.
These schedules should be planned ahead for bouts of uninterrupted work where you can do a large number of things without being disturbed by anyone else.
Set expectations on what you wish and how much you wish to accomplish during that space and time.
Communicate in advance with your team what you can and cannot do.
Set personal appointments
As a human you’re bound to have personal goals over and above professional goals. The biggest drawback with working from home is that that often tends to blur these boundaries and make every single minute an excuse to work.
Office work is important and the key is to hold yourselves accountable.
But, you also need to spare time for other things.
Finally remember that working from home is continually evolving. Even companies are only slowly ada[ting to it.
There are opportunities to reduce office space and become flexible with where you staff is placed.