During the COVID19 pandemic, working from home has become a necessary life change for many employees. This new working setup comes with its own unique set of challenges. For instance, you’ll have to deal with several distractions such as your home chores, and for many the people you live with. If you’re having trouble improving your productivity while working from home, read on for some tips that can help you learn basic time management skills:
Set Work Boundaries
It can be difficult for employees to distinguish work time from personal time. Typically, people associate home with winding down after a hard day’s work. But it can be difficult to give yourself a break if your home is your office.
Hence, you need to set clear boundaries between your personal and professional life. This will help you differentiate when you should be working and when you should be relaxing.
A great way to do this is to determine your office hours. This is especially useful if your company allows you to work anytime you want. Setting specific blocks of time for your job will prime you to focus only on work. If any non-work-related tasks pop up, you’ll know to set them aside and take care of them after your shift.
Another thing you can do is to set up a separate workspace at home. If you live in a big house or apartment, you can convert an extra room into a home office. But if your living space is more limited, you can make do with a small dedicated work desk instead.
Schedule Regular Breaks
Some employees feel that the best way to get things done is to work non-stop for hours on end. However, this strategy tends to backfire. Overworking leaves them with less energy for the next day and working non-stop over longer periods can cause people to burn out completely.
That’s because people have limited amounts of energy and focus on any given day. And the longer you work, the more exhausted you become and the harder it is to concentrate.
Indeed, the key to productivity is to schedule short breaks throughout the day. Some companies have even found that their most productive employees work an average of 52 minutes with 17-minute breaks in between.
So, remind yourself to step away from your desk every now and then to refresh your mind and body. An effective strategy you can use is the Pomodoro technique. Its general premise is to work in 25-minute blocks, with a five-minute break between each one. After completing four 25-minute blocks, you can reward yourself with a 15-minute break.
Do an Hourly Check-In
The secret to being a successful work-from-home employee is learning how to self-manage. After all, there won’t be anybody looking over your shoulder to check if you’re on track to hit your deadlines. It’s up to you to hold yourself accountable and motivate yourself to get your tasks done on time.
To make sure you don’t stray from your work tasks.It’s a good idea to check in with your schedule regularly by setting some digital reminders.
Whenever your reminder alarm goes off, take a moment to step back from whatever you’re doing. Then, ask yourself: will this task I’m currently working on make the real impact today? If it is, you’re on the right track and should finish that task. If not, you’ll need to pivot and identify the most important task on your to-do list.
It’s never too late to start incorporating these tips into your routine. Before you know it, you’ll master the art of staying productive while working from home.
At Priority Management, we provide in-house and online courses to help you manage your time, increase productivity, and create more time for what you love.