With the COVID-19 pandemic spreading throughout the world and the United States in recent weeks, the number of confirmed cases has been dramatically increasing. One of the best ways to prevent the spread of this disease and ensure the healthcare system isn’t overwhelmed is to stay at home and practice social distancing. For a lot of employers, that means allowing and empowering their employees to work remotely for the foreseeable future, if possible. Thankfully, available technology is making it easier than ever to stay connected and complete their work with little to no disruption. Though not all employees prefer to work remotely, there is a growing number of workers that are enjoying the flexibility and benefits of working from home and remaining productive while doing it. Here’s a few of the top ways to stay productive when working remotely.
One of the best ways to ensure you’re productive while working remotely is to create a daily routine and stick to it. You may not have to account for as much time to get ready for work, packing a lunch or snacks, or your commute like you usually did when you were heading into the office on a daily basis, but establishing a consistent daily routine is key. Maintaining your routine throughout the week to get ready for each day will help get you in the work and productivity mindset.
A helpful way to make sure you stay on task and work through your projects is to create a strategy for the full week as well as a list of tasks to complete each day. Setting a weekly goal right away on Monday morning, as well as the steps needed to achieve that goal each day will help you stay on track and align with what you need to accomplish.
It’s important to take breaks throughout the day to maximize productivity. This is true whether you’re working from home or in the office. Make sure you get up and move around for a few minutes each hour, and schedule time to have lunch or go for a morning/afternoon walk to refuel and get your blood flowing.
With a few hours added back into your day that you’re not spending commuting to and from the office, it can be tempting to dedicate that time to working. Depending on business needs, this can be a good idea, but you want to make sure that you are setting a time where you are shutting off from work for the day. Now is a great time to allocate that extra time to additional exercise, time with your family, or a new hobby.
Though you are working remotely, there’s plenty of tools available to make sure you stay connected to your team and collaborators. With video and teleconferencing technology, your meetings and calls don’t need to stop now that you’re working remotely. Additionally, there’s plenty of tools out there to track to-do lists, project workflow, and encourage continued collaboration among your team members.
Our lives may be changing for the foreseeable future which is causing disruptions to many employees and businesses ways of working. Though this may require some getting used to at first, there’s plenty of ways to make sure you and your employees are remaining productive during this time. Setting new routines, tracking progress on your weekly and daily tasks, taking breaks throughout the day and shutting down at the appropriate time, as well as utilizing tools available to collaborate and connect are just a few ways to remain productive while working remotely.