Productivity is tricky to manage in the best of times, but when you’re working from home in a completely new work environment, it can be tempting to just turn on the TV and forget your work because it’s so challenging to work in your new space. However, you can increase productivity and get your work done, even more efficiently than at the office, if you take the time to plan your day and your space carefully.
Adapt to Your New Surroundings
Your surroundings may be one of the most challenging parts about doing work from home. Instead of your nice quiet office space, you have children and dogs in the background during conference calls, phone calls, or simply making noise. You may have to change the hours you work and work while the children are asleep so that you can focus. You may have to implement a quiet zone where they are not allowed to disturb you. You may have to adjust your space multiple times to find a zone that works the best for you.
Sift Through the Noise
When you have a space that you can focus in, it’s important to hone that focus on what’s most important. The average office employee gets over 100 emails every day. Not all of those emails are important. In order to be productive while working from home, you must prioritize the things that need to get accomplished. Your work should not dominate your time at home, which can be easy to do. You must focus on the most important things so that you have time to be with your family and destress from work.
Take Breaks
Destressing from work means that you should take breaks from your work. Sitting for long periods of time can be damaging to your health, your focus, and your work. You may be able to push through and write a response to every email you get, but if you don’t give yourself breaks, you could burn yourself out. Taking a quick five-minute break in-between twenty minutes of work will help your brain reset. Breaks will help increase your productivity.
Working at home can be challenging, but if you structure your day right, you can manage your time effectively and even increase your productivity. It will be difficult as it will be vastly different from your normal routine, but you can still succeed.