Employers say that allowing their staff to work from home has led to an increase in productivity; however, employees struggle with managing themselves. The comfort of working from home makes it very easy to drop the ball on work responsibilities. Without other workers to hold them accountable, employees find that they are not so productive when working remotely. If you find yourself struggling while working at home, try following these self management tips.
Also read:How to Work Fewer Hours When Working at Home
1. Learn how to adapt to changes
Not everyone working from home is mentally prepared for it. If you have worked in an office for some years before your remote working transition, you may have be having difficulty adapting to the change. Setting up your home office like your office space will help with the transition.
Another self management tip is to work within your previous official hours. If you used to begin work at 9 am and closed at 5 pm, it is better to set your work hours within that bracket. Having worked within the bracket for several hours, your peak productivity period should be within those hours.
2. Create a list of your daily tasks
One of the best self management tips is making plans. Creating a daily task list is one way to ensure you plan your time around tasks and activities. Once you have a good idea of what you’ll be doing for the day, you can focus on prioritizing.
The list can also be used as your performance indicator to judge how productive you were during the day. Any day you fail to complete all the tasks on your list, you already know that you came up short.
3. Set Deadlines
Perhaps one of the more common reasons individuals prefer working from home is the flexibility it offers. However, it is quite easy to push the limits on flexibility, especially when you develop a mentality of “I can do it whenever I like, so I’ll do it later.” This mentality leads to constant procrastination of tasks until the deadlines become urgent.
If this is you, then now is the time to take a step back. If not, you may continue to have this problem unless you place a limit on your flexibility. Therefore, when you receive a task, try setting a deadline for yourself for when you expect to complete it.
4. Shut off distractions
Whether working from home or working from the office, let’s face it, distractions are everywhere. While you can rein in the distractions at the office, the same might not be so at home, especially when surrounded by family and friends. It may also be the TV or the aroma from your kitchen serving as distractors.
Finding a way to shut off these distractors may be the key to maintaining your productivity level. You can create a home office that is far from the kitchen or living room. You should also have a dialogue with your friends and family about setting boundaries.
5. Take Breaks
No one expects you to be in front of your PC all the time – that’s not what self management is. If you were working from a physical office, it is likely that you would take breaks in between work. You can adopt this approach when working from home.
If you don’t take breaks and work for long stretches, your pace and productivity will drop gradually until it becomes zero. Besides, working with inadequate breaks sets you up for stress and burnout. So, it is very important to take enough breaks. You may want to employ one of the better self management tips: the Pomodoro Technique. This encourages working for a 25-minute stretch and taking a 5-minute break after each 25-minute working stretch.
Conclusion
Learning all these self management tips above is only half of the journey. Making them a part of your daily routine is key to attaining peak performance levels and optimized personal growth.