The current trend for switching to home working has given millions of people the chance to experience a completely different way of carrying out their jobs. This is great news for most of them, but not everyone has found it easy to maintain their productivity levels at home.
Anyone who is struggling to work to the same level as before can use the following tips to boost their productivity.
Take Advantage of the Latest Technology
There are some terrific tools that can help you to work remotely as efficiently as you did in the office. Some of these include Jira, Zoom and Google Calendar. They can be used to help you in a variety of ways, from staying in touch with the rest of the team to sharing documents and planning your day.
Before you get started, it is worth discussing with your colleagues what tools you are all going to use. This will ensure that you all adopt the same approach and work in an integrated, compatible way.
If you have an older PC then you might need to upgrade it to be able to use all of these modern tools. Equally, if your home internet connection is slow then now is the perfect time to try and get a faster speed.
Get Enough Exercise
A lack of exercise can see your energy levels drop and your performance fall sharply. Some home workers find that their motivation levels drop when they take a more relaxed attitude and move around less and less each passing day.
Getting a good amount of daily exercise will help to keep you feeling fit and fresh. This can be done with a bout of yoga in the morning, a walk at lunch-time or any other type of exercise that you can fit into your day. The fact that you work from home should make it easier to get some exercise, rather than more difficult.
A very simple and highly effective idea is to use a standing desk in your home office. This has been proven to help people to lose weight and stay fitter while working with a computer. It also keeps you more engaged with your tasks and has been shown to give productivity levels a boost over time. This is why you should think about looking for standing desk.
Know When to Take a Break
Knowing when to take a break is one of the key issues for any remote worker. It is easy to get caught up in a task that captures all of your attention, making you forget that this is time for lunch or the end of the working day. Keep doing this and you will eventually end up with a long working day that has no fixed limits that stop it from taking over your life.
This is bad news for your work-life balance, of course. Concentrating on your work to the detriment of your friends, family and hobbies will lead to burn-out or boredom sooner or later. On the other hand, taking breaks at the right times will keep your life interesting and well balanced in this respect.
It is also worth remembering that our productivity levels fall when we spend too long working each day. Once we reach 50 hours in a week, our productivity drops off dramatically. Working fewer hours but doing it more efficiently is the key factor.
If you add these different elements to your working day, you will find that working from home is more enjoyable and also easier to do. You should be looking to increase your productivity when working remotely, and these methods will all help you to do so without any fuss.
