How to work from home and be productive?

We live in turbulent times, but along with the new coronavirus, pandemic came to a lot of challenges.
How to best avoid mistakes and distractions if you work from home?
Home office becomes inevitable for a part of employees and for some this is a new and not so comfortable experience.

For some, it may look good at first sight as it means more time with your family and less time in traffic. However, it requires significant self-discipline, therefore self-awareness, and focuses to be able to be as productive as you possible at work. 
And for sure you want to do this if you worked hard until now to find and do what you enjoy.
Here are some pieces of advice that we have selected and which we consider to be at use for the ones that are not used to spend their time working at home.

• Create a daily routine and stick to it

The way you dress, a clear set schedule, and a firm work plan will help you concentrate on your work tasks. It is useful if you start each day at the same hours, you take regular breaks, even outside the house. 

Use a To-do list, review it, and update it as you go. Review priorities and reward yourself for the hard tasks you finish. Especially the ones you tend to procrastinate, once that task is done, your day will go much smoother.

• Use or build a separate and dedicated workspace

This may make you break your work routines.
Establishing your home workspace so you can feel comfortable taking conference or video calls and stay professional.
Also, this will help by setting you in the right mindset for work.

• Communicate with your family and set boundaries to help you manage working tasks

Explain to your family about your working plans and ask them t give you a little bit of space
It may be easier said than done, especially if you have young children at home, but not impossible.
If you set clear boundaries and explain that having quiet time could mean better productivity and little time spend working.

This can be difficult but if you communicate clearly, thanking them for understanding and spending your break with the loved ones, can be awesome too.

When you are flexible and do not depend on fixed working hours, you can even take advantage and work during the hours when the little ones sleep or when they are out of the house. Of course, if you are allowed to do so by type of work you do.

• Avoid distractions

At home you have many more distractions, that is clear! You have TV, Social Media, and access to the kitchen.

You need to avoid them as much as possible so you can focus on your work. 

Getting things done with such distractions may not be easy. You can use them during your short break as long as you are conscious about time.

• Keep communication going with your office 

The hardest part of it for the ones that love the social component of offices, is to get used to working alone. You need to keep communication at its best. 

Call daily your colleagues and make sure you network as much as possible. It is one of those times when, more than ever, team communication skills can show up.

You can see how well your co-workers do and they are managing to work from home. Maybe they can share more tips with you, on what is working for them.

It is important also to keep close with your managers and make sure that you are working in the right direction. Also, showing interest and reliability when you are away can bring you more advantages later on. Business continuity is critical to keep.

Keep close with your customers too, it is the case.

Working from home can be managed to our advantage. We can make from this period a productive one. Just make sure you plan some proper arrangements to help you stay more focused.

Of course, do not forget the critical setups like good Wi-Fi connection, a reliable computer, and needed setups for the systems and applications that you need to use.

Good Luck!