Negosentro.com | 14 Easy To-Follow Tips on How to Effectively Work from Home | Are you considering to start working from home? Or are you one of those corporate employees who started working at the comforts of their home since the pandemic started or has decided to start their freelance journey even before the global health pandemic occurred? Whichever among these is you, you might have probably encountered some concerns while working from home and is looking for ways on how to work productively during your agreed working hours with your employer.
Freelancing of Remote Jobs has been an emerging trend or remote employees who work from their home office or any place that they are comfortable rendering their online services. The following tips will help individual contractors, team leaders or even managers maximize their newly found freedom of doing their job. Freelance jobs have a long list of benefits to increase one’s performance, work-life balance, and business continuity.
This was once a luxury but is now a mainstay among small up to large scale businesses. Working from home was proven that it can be as productive as working in a traditional office set up, or even better but can cause many concerns if not managed well.
Here are some tricks that will sustain your productivity even you’re in your PJs.
#1 Create a permanent office space
This is your initial step once you decide to enter into an online freelancing career, which will play a significant role in how you will get things done once you land on your first client.
It could be any empty or spare bedroom that you can easily convert into a headquarters. If you’re pressed for space, you can look for a desk for a space for your computer and office supplies.
Regardless of space or your location, it is recommended to establish a neighborhood of your home where you’ll work, and plan to work in this space every single day. Also, making certain that your workspace is quiet so you’ll specialize in the task at hand.
#2 Invest in good quality office equipment
Invest in gadgets or equipment that you will need to efficiently render your job. Fixing a workspace may require a little investment that is similar to starting a replacement business where you’ll also need to purchase technology, like a computer, tablet, or remote telephone system to try to do your job each day.
A high-performing router will prevent from many technology hassles. Since performing from home often requires quite chat messages, you will need a router that will keep up with the demands of your work. You have to take note that a router from several years ago could be susceptible to common network issues.
#3 Look for comfortable office furnishings
You will be sitting and working on this space for most of the days in a week, you have to consider the comfort, functionality, and sturdiness of the items you are going to purchase aside from the available space you have at home.
#4 Define your working hours
Now that you simply have your office or work area found out, it’s time to urge right down to business. If you’re getting to make performing from home an everyday commitment, then set specific business or work hours.
The beauty of performing from the house is that you simply are often flexible in setting your working hours. For instance, if you’re most efficient within the morning, or if you would like to urge the youngsters to high school, then you’ll want to line your work hours from 7 a.m. until 3 pm.
#5 Keep Away from the Work Creeps
A career that allows you to work from home is often invasive in your personal life. This is most likely to happen because if you’re always home and near your work, then your work creeps into your home life. The danger is absolutely real, but it is up to you if you are letting it affect your personal space.
And this goes back to setting work hours. By setting specific work hours and sticking to them, you’ll increase performance and develop a healthy work schedule.
#6 Figure out your high productivity hours
Every individual is most efficient at different times of the day. Some individuals are morning people, they are most efficient and focused during the morning hours. For others, their most efficient time within the workday is that during the evening. You must discover your most efficient working schedule and build it around your peak productivity periods.
#7 Check and make updates on your to-do list every morning
When you work from home and you don’t have a boss keeping an eye on your tasks, it is usually a challenge to stay track of the list of things you have to work on throughout your workday. It’s easy to lose sight of priorities, tasks, and deadlines.
This easy to follow technique is effective and fulfilling. You can start your day by reviewing your list of priorities for the day. Once you make your task list, stick with it. It’s tempting to only leap into your email, but with a touch extra focus, you’ll move the needle while performing from home. Set goals and deadlines for every task. After you complete each task, cross it off the list.
#8 Use a task planner
A planner will be your best buddy in logging all the delegated tasks and activities to you that will serve as your reminder of what needs immediate action. By using a planner and get in the habit of using it to write down or take notes to keep track of deadlines and meetings, you can attack projects or tasks one bite at a time.
#9 The living room is not an ideal workplace
Television is the number 1 culprit that sucks up your focus from the purpose of working remotely. By avoiding television and other digital distractions, you can focus on your tasks and getting them done on time. However if used just for the background noise, it’s probably okay.
#10 Develop a daily morning routine
Another enjoyable perk of performing from the house is not having to urge up, leap out of the house, and commute to an office.
However, performing from home doesn’t mean you get to skip your morning routine altogether. Since you’ll likely be cooped up indoors, take a quick walk around the block to require within the fresh air.
A morning routine like getting up early, take a shower, make your coffee and breakfast, and prepare your lunch, a bit like you’ve got to go away the house will help you with your productivity.
#11 Regular stretching and exercise does matter
Exercise naturally boosts our happy hormones, endorphins which contribute to your daily productivity rate. Regularly stretching helps you maintain great posture. At a minimum, stretch throughout the day so you don’t get sore or hinder your quality of life. You can also leave yourself motivational sticky notes by your bed so that they are the primary thing you see and skim within the morning. We recommend exercising within the morning once you have fewer objections and an extended payoff throughout the day.
#12 Opt for healthy meals and snacks
If you’re a fanatical snacker, then make it some extent to form yourself a healthy lunch, even as you’d if you had to travel into an office. Another work from home reality is that we’ve full access to the kitchen. So, when it’s time for lunch or a snack break, we are immediately drawn to the standard snacks, like chips, cookies, or leftover pizza. When we work in typical office set-up, we are at the mercy of whatever is out there within the cafeteria or whatever lunch we brought from home.
However, research has shown that eating fruits and vegetables features a direct link on overall productivity levels. You’ll also avoid buying unhealthy snacks altogether. With extra planning, you’ll purchase more nutritional snacks on Amazon instead of buying on impulse.
#13 Take quick breaks
Although we’ve focused most of this text on the way to stay productive while performing from home, sometimes the other can happen. We expect that by performing from home, we’ll be ready to get more done because there’ll be fewer distractions. Therefore, sometimes we find yourself over-committing and dealing an excessive amount of work which also kills productivity.
Taking breaks might sound counterproductive, research has shown that taking breaks can actually increase one’s productivity and creativity levels. If you don’t have a work-life balance, then you won’t last too long performing at home. You can easily avoid this by working short, five-minute breaks into your daily schedule, or maybe make them a neighborhood of your rewards system.
#14 Give yourself a reward
It may seem simple, employing a basic rewards system will assist you to get things done and also feel fulfilled. This is often a simple thanks to assisting you to get things done — even the items you’ve got been procrastinating or adjourning. For instance, take a five-minute break to travel for a stroll through your neighborhood, grab a healthy snack, taking your dog to the park down the road.
Work from home set-up is now common among companies. It maintains continuity of business that is important for every institution. It does not only diversify where employees work, but it also withstands the unexpected and continuous changes in the market. With the availability of a remote workforce, business owners can limit any disaster effects that will benefit the company’s continued operations.
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AUTHOR
Homerun Nievera is the founder and group publisher of Negosentro.com and WorldExecutivesDigest.com. He has interests in several tech and digital businesses as director and chief strategist.
Homerun is a digital evangelist and digital transformation expert in the Philippines, a certified content marketer and lifelong learning advocate. Homerun is the “He Said” in the popular Facebook Page He Said, She Said. Email at ask@homernievera.com.
