How to be more productive while working from home?
I am working in the e-commerce sector for the past 6 years with a US based company Anatta design.
Now in 2020 with the outbreak of Covid19 working remote is the necessity, because safety is our first priority.
But for people who haven’t done it before initially it seems very easy to them but after some time they start to notice that their productivity is going down. Because there are a lot of distractions while working from home.
I am doing it from past 6 years and over time with my experience I have tried some different techniques so that my productivity Is not affected.
I am giving you simple techniques that can improve your productivity.
1. Never Check Email or Slack Messages First in the Morning.
Most of the people when they wake up the first they do is pick up their phones and start checking their emails or messages from the work. It is worst thing we do to start our day. It seems normal thing, but its effect deep down our behaviour a lot.
What happens if we do so? instead of starting our morning with some exercise, healthy breakfast we start to plan our day or thinking about work. If any issue comes up from last day’s work then we pick our machine and start fixing that issue.
With that our mind will go to work mode instead of spending quality time with family. In the morning our body has not started functioning properly and we end up stressing our body.
If while checking the emails we found that we did something wrong yesterday or didn’t meet the goals then we try to fix that asap, without even starting our day.
One thing keep in mind if our morning is not good then it will effect our whole day not just with work but our personal life as well. Our whole day will be disturbed.
So never ever check your email after you wake up.
2. Exercise
The best way to start your day is to exercise, no matter how busy is our schedule, we can easily get 30–40 minutes for our body. I am not asking you to go to the Gym or any fitness classes just go Running, Walk, Cycling whatever you prefer. It will freshen up your morning with positively.
If you do exercise in the morning you will keep active, alert, productive, focused all the day. I have tried that and telling you with my own experience.
Your mind will work more actively with just spending little time on exercise in morning.
There are countless benefits of exercise if we start to count that it will be endless.
So do exercise daily and stay healthy, stay focused and stay productive.
3. Healthy Breakfast
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Some people skip their breakfast and start working or eat while working. This is the worst thing you can do. Skipping breakfast can be very harmful to our health. Some wise man said “ Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper ” .
So never ever skip your breakfast. It’ll keep your energy level up while working.
3. Get Dressed for work
This is the most common mistake we do while working from home that we don’t shower or wear fresh clothes before starting our work.
Most people think why do we shower if we’re not going to office but you know this will impact your productivity.
When you take bath the blood flow increases in your body and you feel energetic. Our laziness goes away and we feel fresh.
I am not saying that we need to wear formal clothes, you can wear casual comfortable clothes.
The only motive is to charge your body and prepare you for work.
4. Planning and Execution Your Day !
Now we’re ready to roll after some exercise, healthy breakfast and shower.
Before starting your work, check all your emails and list down all the priorities of the day. Divide your day into some blocks, set up your calendar and follow it very strictly.
If we spend 15–20 minutes to plan our day, then we know how much we can finish in a day and when can we end our day. If we don’t have any plan, then we don’t know when to stop working and when to start the next day.
One thing we need to keep in mind is that we’re not sitting in the office, we’re at home so I would say keep at least 1 hour for the family. You’re at home and it’s the best time to spend extra time with family.
Find a spot in your home where there is a minimum distraction and you can focus on work. Try to set up your office with a table, chair and proper lighting. Don’t start your day working from bed or a couch. It will make you lazy.
5. End your day
After working all day you need to end your day as soon as you can so that you can wake up early the next day.
While ending we need to post status message with very detail so that your team would have the status of work. If you not posting your work details then your senior might disturb you in the night which is not good for both of you.
Some folks end their day and after that they start to watch some movie or series which took all their night and next morning they feel sleepy. So as soon as you finish your work have dinner and take a short walk and sleep.
Resting your mind is very important for our productivity. If we’re not getting enough sleep then we start loosing focus the next day.
Some people start drinking alcohol as soon as they finish their work which is also not good. Next day either they have a hangover or they feel sleepy all day.
