Here are some tips and tricks we think will help you while you work from home.
1. Make an early start
Making an early start can help with your productivity and time management allowing you to get a head start on the day’s work. When you think about the time you wake up, get ready for work and travel to your office you can start working at the time you would normally begin travelling. Having an extra hour or so can be huge in letting you plan out your day, talk with colleges and gather what you need to complete your objectives for the day.
2. Pretend that you’re going to the office
By getting yourself into the mindset that you are going to the office you will be in a productive and work-oriented mindset. As you travel to your office you will often find that you are thinking about what needs to be done in the day. You will have a clear picture of everything that needs to be done and how you will do them, this will also help you avoid distractions like social media and TV.
3. Structure your day like you do when you’re in the office
Plan out what you are working on and what you expect to achieve, this will help you when you come to a point where you finish one thing and need to move onto another. Having any form of the plan will help your productivity and can give you a clear vision of how long you should spend on any given task.
4. Chose a dedicated workspace
It’s important to make sure that there is a divide between home life and work-life even when you work from home. If you have an office space in your house, try to keep all work-related things there. The last thing you want is to be sat at home and lose the divide between work and home life. Even just having a section on the dining room table set up just for work can help keep everything separate.
5. Make it hard for yourself to become distracted
Keep your phone away from yourself unless you need to make calls and ensure that you stay away from social media unless your job calls for it. Procrastination can halt anything and everything that you were doing or planning on doing. You can spend hours getting sucked into social media without realising it. Keeping your phone in a draw or out of your reach will encourage you to work.
6. Commit to doing more
By giving yourself a lot of work to do you will end up being able to focus on one thing at a time to finish all of your goals. Having a larger list of things you want to achieve can cause a bit of stress but can also keep your mind clear on what needs to be achieved even if some of the things on your list are unachievable.
7. Take a clear break
Remember to take plenty of brakes where you shut yourself off from work to reduce stress and help your productivity and mental health. Taking even just 5 minutes to get a cup of tea, get a snack or get some fresh air can help your mentality and work ethic.
8. Interact with other humans
This may seem like a hard thing to do when your working from home but even just picking up the phone and talking with colleges about your work on projects you will end up feeling at least a little better. Introverts will find working from home to be ideal but even introverts crave human interaction and just experiencing some form of interaction will improve your mindset.
9. Pre-prepare meals
Spend some time at night preparing your meals for the next day to save time during your working hours and keeping your mind on the straight and narrow. The last thing you want to do at dinner time is spending large amounts of time cooking a full meal. Preparing a nutritious and filling meal the night before will help save time during your workday and will keep your mind focused on work rather than what needs to be done to cook and clean at each meal.
10. Set a definitive finishing time
Make sure that you have a set time that you will stop working. This can help prevent burnout and improve your mental health. Having a set time when you finish will help divide work and home life.
11. Have some background noise
Some people work and think better with something on in the background. Not only does background noise help workflow but can also improve your mood during long periods of silence and social isolation. Not everyone will find background noise helpful and may prefer silence but even just having the TV on in the background with people speaking can help your mentality as you will feel less isolated.
