Working from home has now become a millennial thing. Due to the advent of Covid-19 in our lives, there has been a major shift in the working culture. And coronavirus forced us all to stay at our homes while keeping our livelihood going through working from home.
If you’re new to working from home, then you might need to bring some changes in your habits and routine. At the same time, it’s a great luxury to work at your comfort place and with utmost flexibility. But this luxury might turn into stressful work if not managed properly.
Distractions are present at every step as you work from home, and they can’t also be avoided.
So, here we bring about the best tips for working from home, which will help you to get your basics right.
Also Read: What is Hybrid Learning: A Brief Overview | Homework Joy
Best Tips for Working from Home to Stay Productive
Let’s look at some of the best tips to keep you going during work from home and stay productive throughout your day.
Get Dressed for Your Work Day
Pyjamas have become everyone’s favourite outfit nowadays. And of course, being at home brings you the pleasure to stay in your comfort attire the whole day, and we have forgotten to wear jeans.
Yes, you heard that right. Nobody wants to step out of their comfort zone, but you should get ready for the work as you always do. Donning sleepwear the whole day won’t help you increase your productivity, and you might stay lethargic the whole day.
Yes, you might think that it’s unnecessary to get dressed while working from home. But an act of changing clothes will give you a signal to focus on your work and get more attentive. It’s how our brains are designed to work.
Doing minimal things like taking a shower and getting dressed will make your mind alert throughout the day. In addition, looking presentable during video calls or meetings is the personality you will showcase to your boss and colleagues. Therefore, it’s a total win-win situation here.
Choose a Proper Room for Office Work
You can sit at any place in your home and start your office work. And suddenly a movie or an ad start playing on tv. It will create a distraction from your work, and you might not be able to concentrate on your work.
Therefore, having a silent space for yourself is necessary where you won’t be disturbed.
Working in an office tends to be more productive because it gives you work vibes. So you need to create work vibes at home where your thought process widens and increases your efficiency. Hence, you can try these things to achieve that:
- Choose a peaceful corner of your home, possibly with good lighting
- Set up a comfortable chair where you can sit for long hours without getting neck or back pain.
- Place a desk in front of your chair and strictly avoid working in your bed.
- Keep the necessary stationery material like a pen, paper, water bottle at your reach.
Install Good Quality Technology
Though we love working from home at our own pace, a poor computer system or lack of a good network can be very frustrating. In addition, it affects disruption between your work meetings which might lead you to an embarrassing situation.
And obviously, it will affect your work pace, and your impression would go wrong if you keep missing your meetings due to poor technology.
So good connectivity is essential for working from home, but it’s also necessary to do proper research before making a decision. Look for the plans provided by the internet providers, get recommendations from fellow users etc.
The same goes for a good working system to improve your working capacity. So invest your money in a genuine brand within your price range model. Also, make sure that it consists of the latest version of the processor so that your system runs fast.
Eat Right and Sleep Right
Working from home has the advantage of free access to the kitchen whenever you want. As soon as you get a break, your footsteps follow to the kitchen. And this is harmful to your health.
Eating the right food is essential, especially when working from home, as eating right would help your brain function properly. Although you have access to the cafeteria in the office, still you get restricted there.
Whereas at home, you are on your own. And also, unhealthy food will lead to tiredness and unnecessary weight gain.
As most of the time, it’s not hunger, but we need something to munch on. So eat leafy vegetables and include nuts, berries, fruits in your diet whenever you feel hungry. Also, drink water when you need to go to the kitchen to find something to eat.
Sleep is also necessary while juggling between house chores, office work and binge-watching favourite tv shows. One should resist the temptation to sleep for more than 8 hours. Having short naps will make you feel more energetic but do not oversleep.
Have a Routine
Since you don’t need to wake up early and juggle on the road or metro, you might be tempted to have late-night binge watch and chilling. But the result of it is insufficient sleep and lethargy feeling the whole day. Yeah, coffee or tea might cheer up your mood for once, but it’s not enough.
Waking up even one hour early in the morning will energize you to kickstart your day without sitting before the screens first thing in the morning. Get freshen up, wash your face and sit for meditation and breathing exercises in the morning.
Meditation is a great way to calm your mind and bring your thoughts into perspective. In addition, meditation has a lot of health benefits, so take some time out for yourself in the morning, and after that, you can start your daily work and use gadgets but obviously in limit.
Prepare a TO-DO list.
Before starting anything, one needs to have proper plan to execute it. Similarly, preparing a daily planner or to-do list helps in forming a task list and prioritize each task according to its importance.
Being at home doesn’t mean you just working from home and chill. There are hundreds of things you need to do with office work including managing house. Hence, create a systematic planner and keep writing it off after completing them. It will also give you a sense of accomplishment that you completed the necessary tasks of the day.
Regularly Exercise
Long hours of sitting and working from home can be harmful to your body. To increase your productivity at home, exercise is necessary as it increases blood flow to your brain. And this keeps your mind sharp and alert.
The concept of working from home gave rise to social isolation, which has affected people’s mental health. So exercising is the topmost priority to stay fit. Start from 15 minutes a day, then increase it to 30 minutes and later 1 hour.
You will feel happy from the inside, and your body will thank you for it too.
Take Few Breaks in Between
When you are at the office, it is common to think about breaks, and you get a stipulated amount of time for a break. But at home, things are different. The work time gets tangled with the breaks, and that’s why setting up a precise time for a break is necessary.
In breaks, do what you like. For instance, take a stroll in the park or dance, paint, draw, etc., whatever makes you happy and stress relief.
Yes, but do not waste your time on social media and instead do some breathing exercises and meditation. It is the utmost priority to take care of your body and listen to it when working from home.
Limit Social Media Usage
We all have one common thing, which we consider our guilty pleasure, i.e., social media. The first thing we see when we wake up is our phone notifications. And even before you know it, you start scrolling all your social media apps.
And even the night before you sleep, your last activity is to look at your phone to see your notifications and apps. It is considered one of the topmost distractions from work. And in between work also, your mind gets distracted whenever a notification pops up.
But it’s hard when you get addicted to your cell phones. The solution for it is to restrain yourself from using your phone. So various mobile apps have been formed wherein you can set the time for using social media apps, and whenever you reach that time limit, that particular app gets locked, and you can use it after 24 hours.
It’s a great way and feasible as this app can be downloaded free of cost. Moreover, it can be an eye-opener for many how much time we spend on social media as it’s just a waste of time. In this time, wherein we use social media, we can discover our interests, take out time for ourselves, read a book, etc.
At last, we can only suggest and provide you tips to limit social media, but only you have to take a step forward to change it and how you want to move further in life.
Interact with your Colleagues
Working at home is great but also leads to social isolation. In the office, you can interact with other colleagues and sort your differences out and also debate healthily regarding various company issues.
But at home, there are lots of miscommunication, and negativity emerges. So just talk it out with your colleagues because they might be mentally stressed. And also, share your thoughts about working from home situations. This would make everyone feel that they are not alone in this.