10 Productivity Tips For Working From Home (WFH) – Practical To Follow

It’s been more than 5 years, I am working from home (WFH) now. After the birth of my daughter, I was blessed to get this opportunity to WFH and at the same time spend time with my daughter. I truly feel blessed for this and so my friends, find me lucky in that case.

But now, in this lockdown time, almost all of the IT companies are allowing their employees to work from home and get the business going. But you know, now the same friends are asking me how I manage it, my work and family at the same time. They really look frustrated and asking me some tricks to share and I totally understand their condition.

10 Productivity Tips For Working From Home (WFH):

I am not an expert, but, here are some of the productivity tips for working from home, that I am following for years and found it useful for staying motivated and organized.

1. Stay Dressed:

I have observed it from myself that, while working from home we are into our comfort zone and like to be in pajamas or other homely wear and sometimes work from bed also which is not a good practice at all.

So my first and most important tip is to stay dressed while working at home. When you are properly dressed and get ready in your workspace, it makes you mentally prepared for work, and definitely makes you be more productive.

You can keep your work clothes separately to be used in office hours and can change later in the evening.

2. Set Working Hours:

The second tip is that you should set your working hours. It will really draw a line between working time and non-working time. You will be mentally prepared for work during working hours and doing personal work during nonworking hours. This will help you to organize your time and work in a better way.

You can do some of your personal works while working like checking your personal email accounts, paying bills, checking WhatsApp messages because these are the things that almost everyone does in office as well.  So it is not a big deal. But you should try to keep it minimal so that we can be more focused on work.

3. Prepare To-Do List:

This one habit has really changed my life for good. Having an agenda on paper on what needs to be done in a day gives a clear idea of your day.

So, the very first thing you can do is, write down all the tasks, personal and office related, that need to be completed in a day. Then set a proper priority for all the listed tasks and start with the most important and high priority tasks.

Believe me, even if you can complete some of the prioritized tasks, it will give you a sense of accomplishment.

4. Invest in Quality Technology:

One thing is of the utmost importance when you work from home, The Internet. If you do not have a good internet service provider and bandwidth, your WFH experience can turn in to hell.

Working from home often requires you to be online all the time, so your manager or co-workers can reach out to you easily. If you have poor internet connection or low speed then there are chances that you won’t be able to communicate with your peers seamlessly. It may also give the impression that you are not serious enough about your work.

Moreover, the poor internet is really irritating and hamper our productivity. So if you are WFH for a long time or quite often in the future, invest in good internet service. try to have a backup connection to avoid frustration.

A high-performance router will save you from many technology hassles. Spend on good quality headphones for meetings. If you are into development or any similar profession then opt for a good mouse for your laptop, as it really eases your work.

5. Have Dedicated Workspace:

Earlier I used to get my laptop and sit anywhere to work, on the couch, on a dining table or even on the bed. But then I realized I am not getting that sense of work or feel of a home either. I was not able to draw a line between your personal and professional space.

So my second tip here is, have organized and dedicated workspace for your work from home. No matter what is the size of the workspace whether it is very big or very small with just a single desk /table, it is important to have a dedicated workspace where you can organize and manage your work comfortably, where all the working materials required are available for your working.

Also, it is important to keep a balance between your personal life and professional life while working from home. So that when you are done with your work, you can leave that place, shut down your light and go back to your personal life. Use your workspace only for working and once done, you should leave this place.

6. Avoid Multitasking:

While WFH, we get tempted or forced to get involved in multiple tasks, often mixed with personal and professional ones at a time. But believe me, this really doesn’t help. As we are not able to focus on any of the tasks properly and have a probability of doing more mistakes in it.

Multitasking is even more difficult when you are WFH because there are many distracting factors that can shift your attention from your work. So it is advisable to focus on a single task at one time to be more productive. You can complete other tasks one by one.

7. Take Breaks

Taking a short break from work always helps. It not only increases productivity but also keeps you focused at work. You can do something like walking outside, sitting in the balcony, and having evening tea or even doing meditation for some time. It will definitely help to refresh and recharge yourself.

8. Keep Moving:

WFH can be more tiresome or lethargic due to a lack of physical movements. People in the office get an opportunity to walk due to one reason or the other. Sometimes it is while going to the canteen and sometimes while going to take water or sometimes while going to a meeting room or while going to the colleague’s desk.

But at home, you do not get such an environment and this makes you feel lazy or even sleepy.  It is better to have some walk between the work to have a little exercise of your body. Also if possible make arrangements to work while standing.

9. Schedule Me Time:

If we keep on working and working without taking care of ourselves, our productivity would reduce to a great extent. It is therefore important to have some time dedicated to us so that we can do some of the things that make us happy.

It may be anything like playing, watching TV, reading books, spending time with family or any other things. We should do these things which bring joy to us and freshen ourselves which in turn increases productivity while working.

10. Stay Connected With Colleagues:

Working from home might help you focus on your work in the short term, but it can also make you feel lonely or isolated from the office. So for this, I will suggest, connect with people often, even if you don’t have a specific work-related question.

Instant messaging and video conferencing tools can make it easy to check in with coworkers and remind you how your work is contributing to the big picture. In your company, there may be many alternatives for audio and video conferencing and you must be using them on a daily basis. But if you are not limited by choice then I find Skype, Zoom pretty much easy to use.

Conclusion:

So these are my tried and tested tips that I am following and found out really helpful. Do let me know if you have some better or other tips that you are using.

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