New technology has certainly made life simpler and if people work from home one of the facets of this easier life is the growing popularity. The only problem with working from home is that we are surrounded by distractions, and the fact that we are not at home but at work is often a challenge to get into the mindset. When we work in a corporate environment, it’s hard enough to separate work from home, but when you’re trying to be productive in your home office, switching our brains from home to work mode is much harder. Here are some tips on how to maximize your work from home productivity so that you can achieve an optimal balance between work and life.
1. Set Up A Proper Work Place
Ideally, you should set up a single-purpose room in your home to serve as your home office so you can be at your most productive work from home. If for this reason, you can not have a whole room, at least seek to set up a desk in a quiet area of your home where you can have everything you need within easy reach and, most importantly, you will not find yourself in the center of high-traffic areas where your family members and pets are constantly running around you.
2. Set Up Your Desk
A determining factor in how efficiently you can work is the way you set up your desk. You’ll need a variety of desk accessories, such as paper trays, upright file holders, and even a filing cabinet that can either fit under your desk or be put within easy reach. To avoid getting up regularly to grab the things you need, you must have everything near at hand. Desktop organizers are a great way to keep everything you need within your grasp so that as soon as you need them you can grab pens, note pads, stationery supplies, and files.
3. Have Everything Ready
There’s nothing worse than having to take down notes or scribble messages quickly just to find that you don’t have working pens at your disposal and all your pencils are too blunt to write legibly. A sharpener with an electric pencil maybe your best friend. With small talk, you can interrupt a caller while sharpening your pencils quickly, and then taking the notes you need. You will need to have different size writing sheets, so you can take messages or comprehensive notes, depending on what needs to be done.
4. Comfort Is Important
Working from home means shorter hours in a perfect world but this is only true if you can manage your time really well. More often than not people who work from home spend behind their home office desks more than the usual 8 hours a day. You’ll find yourself working for 10 to 12 hours or even longer some days. You need to be relaxed if you have to work those long hours. Get a laptop stand so you can set up your laptop to eye level. This will stop you from hunching over your keyboard, which is the main cause of pain in the shoulder and neck. An ergonomic office chair is also a must for those who work there every day for endless hours. An ergonomic chair in your office will support your spine, correct your posture while sitting, be adjustable, and have armrests.
5. Set Regular Hours
Most people assume that working from home means sleeping until noon, and breaks whenever they want. Right yeah. If you’re not setting yourself regular working hours, you’ll find your level of productivity dropping dramatically, and then you’ll need to pull several all-nights just to meet your deadlines. Place practical working hours, and stick with them. Be practical and don’t let those hours extend beyond the hours you would usually be working if you were to extend to an office. It’s fine to put on the odd occasion in a few extra hours to finish a project but stay focused on regular hours so overtime isn’t the norm to you.
6. Get Ready For Work
Another common myth for homeworkers is that they should sit with a cup of coffee at their desk in the morning and work in their pajamas. While your comfort is important, being in sleepwear can affect your productivity, because you are not ready to work mentally. Even if you wear workout pants and a t-shirt, make every morning an effort to get yourself ready. Clean your hair, wash your face, and look a bit presentable at the very least. On top of that, the simple “getting ready for work” ritual will put you in the right mindset to start your productive day.
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