For most people, the chance to work from home is a dream come true that has been known to influence the career choices of most recruits especially millennials.
It is also a chance to escape office life for one or two days in a week and to use the time spent commuting and put it to good use. A lot of people see it as a way to get back in shape and fall in love again with their career. Generally, it is awesome.
However, most people end up realizing it is only an illusion because of the low productivity level they experience especially at the beginning. However, here are some tips to help you stay effective while working from home.
Find a workspace
Having a designated workspace at home is essential for a lot of reasons. One of those is that it serves as a source of motivation to help you stay focused. That way, once you are in that zone, your mind knows it’s time for business. Also, it helps you feel more at home and spread out your work materials and not intrude in places meant for distracting activities.
Make effective use of “do not disturb”
You will be surprised how much a simple “quick question” can detail your day. Focus is paramount and if you use one of those team chat programmes like Zoom or Hipchat, don’t be scared to use the “do not disturb” feature to let your team members know you are working.
But if you don’t have such programme or if your company’s isn’t set up yet because they haven’t got around to setting one or because you are undergoing workplace recovery after a data loss, you can manually let your coworkers know you are unavailable. That is okay also.
Plan ahead
Don’t just go with the flow; that’s a mistake. Instead, plan your day and week ahead of time so you’ll see how everything can fit in, including your breaks and time for social interaction (which is necessary for efficiency). When you plan ahead, you’ll be able to see when your meetings are fixed and what time of the day you will get the most work done.
Set goals for yourself
Once your employer has agreed to let you work remotely, they’d definitely give you a list of things to accomplish within a stipulated time frame. If you aren’t careful, you will get carried away because of the flexibility. Setting goals for yourself will help you get focused and motivated. Best method is to prioritize your work and know which you can get done at a particular time of the day and those you should set aside for later.
Final words
More and more are working from home and many recruiters are throwing it in to attract top talents. So, if you already working remotely now, you should start getting used to it and working to stay on top of it as a lot of people will be joining in the trend soon.