For many years, the business world has been wrestling with the logistics surrounding the adoption of remote work and implementation of flexible work hours. Never did we foresee that a global pandemic would have us scrambling to uncover the answers to these questions, practically overnight. Without a clear roadmap to follow, many companies, individuals, and teams are struggling to navigate this dramatic change in circumstances.
Daunting as the task at hand may be, the present situation provides a unique opportunity to find solutions to these age-old challenges. The key lies in creating functional systems and establishing a clear structure to your work week that facilitates productivity, while putting guard rails in place to protect your personal time and space.
Whether you are a work-from-home veteran or you’ve abruptly found yourself thrust into the world of telecommuting, you can use these tips to stay productive during this period, and develop skills that will benefit you for years to come:
Designate a Specific Workspace
One of the best things you can do to ensure your own productivity is to designate a specific workspace in your home — a place where, once you sit down, you just know it’s time to get to work. When possible, avoid your everyday living quarters, such as the kitchen, living room or bedroom. It’s best if those spaces can remain dedicated to relaxation during your time-off.
You will need to outfit your space with a strong internet connection, a clear work surface, a professional backdrop for video conference calls, and a good filing system for organizing work projects. Designating three separate folders or bins to divvy up the work — “to-do;” “in-progress;” “complete” — could do the trick, and make quick cleanup a breeze.
Structure The Workday
Just because you can work anytime, doesn’t mean you should. In fact, when you’re working from home, it’s more important than ever to set the parameters for your workday. Creating a clear structure to the day — with a specific start time, lunchtime, and end time — will help ensure that you don’t allow work to bleed into your personal time.
As a general rule for ensuring your own productivity, consider subdividing and balancing your day between three distinct types of activity: quiet time to work on deep-thinking projects, meetings, and response time to colleagues/clients.
Simulate Your Daily Commute
If you have trouble transitioning between work and home, try simulating your daily commute. In times of change, relying on something familiar can be incredibly grounding.
When you wake-up: get dressed and go about your normal morning routine. No need to don a suit and tie — business casual is fine. Now, travel thermos in hand, replace your traditional drive, bus or train ride with a quick walk around the block. Having left your home, you get to arrive back “at work,” heading straight to your workstation, ready for a productive day.
When work is over, pack up your things, and take another trip around the block, arriving back at home where you can change into your loungewear and enjoy a relaxing evening. Sure, it’s a lot of walking around the block; but the signal it sends to your brain, and to others, works!
Create clear boundaries between work and home life
The quality of our time off has a direct impact on the quality of our work. But when life dictates that you live and work in the same place, it can be hard to find a place to relax. Just as you have designated a specific workspace, designate two to three areas in your house as purely “home” spaces. This will ensure that you always have a calm oasis for rest and relaxation. As a general rule then, you must do your best to avoid working in those spots.
Use “found” time to your advantage
Every weekday, the average person spends anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours on a roundtrip commute. Working from home, that’s a huge chunk of time back in your pocket. Use that time mindfully. Don’t simply extend the workday or obsessively tend to extra housework. Instead, seize that time for the work-life balance activities you don't usually have time for: health, wellness, and family time. Establishing healthy habits now will provide you with a structure and routine that you can continue implementing when you (eventually) return to the office — safe-guarding your productivity for years to come.
As a final take-away, remember: productively working from home is as much about getting the work done as ensuring we have a serene place to kick back and relax when the work is done. In other words, it’s equally essential that we develop strong systems to organize our time and space as it is to establish routine self-care practices to combat isolation and burn-out. Working from home necessitates that we organize both our work and our personal lives to maximize productivity and efficiency in everything we do. In the spirit of helping each other through this, share your best practices in the comments below!