Working from home is still a new style of working and some people around the work are happy and satisfied with this new working model while for some it comes with its own challenges. From difficulty accessing fast internet, incompetent laptops, computers, and lack of other necessary tools all these factors make it tough for people to remain active and productive during work from home. However, adopting a few simple steps can make things easygoing. So, here in this blog, we will provide you with some quick tricks and tips to improve the work from home productivity of you and your employees.

Some of the challenges faced by the employees that hinder working work from home productivity

It has been observed in the studies that around 90% of the employees who work from home face the connectivity issue as one of the major challenges, while for some sharing big files becomes an issue. Several other challenges are also faced by them which need to be worked on in order to improve work from home productivity. Some of them include:

• Having a reliable internet connection
  One of the main challenges that a remote or work-from-home employee faces are connectivity issues. Although everyone nowadays has internet availability, for office work a strong and reliable internet is needed. Having a poor internet connection or out-of-date technology can become a nightmare for any employee. If any of the employees faces a connectivity issue it can affect the productivity of the whole team. 
• Unplugging from work
  The second and most important issue from the point of view of employees is not being able to define the boundary between work and personal life. Living and working in one space can sometimes blur the lines between office work and personal & private life. This can make it difficult for the employees to relax and unplug from work once the day is over and a healthy work-life balance can become a challenge.
• Distractions at home from family and friends
  Even the most dedicated and disciplined employees can get distracted from household chores or family issues while working from home, especially those living with family or roommates who frequently face these issues. A pile of work or calling by any family member can turn his 20 min break into two hours unintentionally and this can become a major challenge to his productivity and can cause a delay in his work.
• Communication and Collaboration with teammates
  Remote teams generally rely on non-verbal communication which can many times create some kind of misunderstanding between the team members if things are not communicated clearly. Along with this communication and collaboration between teammates can also be affected by several reasons be it connectivity issues or the absence of one of the team members due to personal reasons. This inconvenience in communication can affect the working of the whole team.
• Constant feelings of loneliness
  The employees working from home can feel a lack of social interactions which can cause them to feel more isolated and lonelier as compared to others. It can badly affect their mental as well as physical well-being and can affect their performance also. This, therefore, is also the main reason why some of them do not want to work from home and wish to work in a traditional office environment or hybrid working model.
• Difficulties due to different time zones
  Although the remote or work from home working model has removed the location barrier and has allowed companies to hire candidates from anywhere in the world and access the worldwide talent pool. But, sometimes employees working in multiple time zones can find it difficult to connect with each other. Their coordination may also get affected if the colleagues do not speak and understand the same language or do not have a common language of communication.

Top 10 Tips to Improve work from home productivity

After setting up their personal office space at home, everyone wants to give their best in terms of productivity. Here are a few tips that would help you improve work from home productivity and achieve maximum efficiency in your work from home setting. 

• Set up a designated work space or desk
• Keep the official home workspace clean and hygienic
• Schedule your day first thing in the morning
• Stick to a routine
• Connect and Collaborate with your teammates
• Take a break, go for a walk
• Limit distractions
• Keep a track of your time
• Try using productivity tools
• Set house rules for the people around

Follow these simple and easy tips to improve work from home productivity and get things going smoothly.

• Set up a designated work space or desk
  Many times it is observed that people working from their homes tend to not get from their beds and would just roll over and grab the laptop from the bedside and start working from the bed. This is not technically a bad idea, who won’t want to enjoy the comfort of their bed and blanket if given the choice? However, doing this may get you to feel lazy and would affect your overall productivity.
  The best and foremost solution for improving your work from home productivity is to set up a designated workspace or desk and manage to get up every day and work from the workstation itself instead of the bed. This would help you to slide into workflow easily and would maintain your work discipline.
  To set up a workstation at home, invest in a small table and a comfortable office chair. This investment would surely prove to be a boon for you.
• Keep the official home workspace clean and hygienic
  Working from home is just not about setting up the work desk, you need to keep it clean and clutter-free as well. It is important to wake up a bit early in the morning and clean up the working space before starting the shift. The clean and hygienic desk would help you maintain healthy work habits and would give you a sense of peace by keeping all your distractions aside while working.
• Schedule your day first thing in the morning
  One basic rule to improve work from home productivity is to adhere to a routine. Start your day by scheduling your day and prioritizing the important work and being consistent throughout the day. Take enough time before starting to work to get up, make your bed, freshen up, and eat a healthy breakfast before sitting up at the desk for work. Similarly, schedule your tasks to be completed before the day goes off so that you have enough time for yourself at the end of the day. You can even share your schedule with your teammates so that they can be aware of your availability and it becomes easy for them to contact you for meetings and calls.
• Get out of your PJs and get dressed up
  Although working from home means no one can see you, that doesn’t mean that you would just wake up and get to work in your PJs. It is a psychological fact that it feels hard to be productive in your pajamas and you might feel like a perk and you might start procrastinating the work. It is better to take a shower and put on not formal but fresh clothes to prepare your mind for work. This habit will clearly draw a line in your head between work and the lazy hours of the day.
• Connect and Collaborate with your teammates
  Working from home can become lonely and you might get stuck with the constant feeling of being left alone. So, it is better to get connected with your teammates through conference calls and virtual meetings. This would have two major benefits: first it would help your mind understand that the working hours are still ongoing and you would not have the feeling of procrastinating the tasks and other it would help you overcome the stress or boredom of the work.
  You can discuss the tasks for the day, acknowledge the progress of the project, and can plan the day with your team. The meetings can be scheduled according to your and your colleague’s timings or can have common timings at the start of the day or during the mid-day soon after lunch when laziness is stepping right at the door. This would also give you a sense of refreshment as you can always have a little water-cooler conversation even in virtual mode.
• Take a break, go for a walk
  It is often observed that people tend not to go outside for days while working from home. Their day starts from bed to the work desk and then again to the bed in the loop. Moreover, the break taken in between for refreshment purposes tends to be mostly spent on mobile phones scrolling different apps. This sedentary lifestyle affects the physical as well as mental health of the person which eventually affects his productivity.
  Instead of this, make a habit of taking small breaks in between and going for a walk around your neighborhood or up and down your apartment building stairs. This will keep you physically fit and will freshen up your mind as well as will help you improve work from home productivity.
• Limit distractions
  One of the biggest challenges faced during working from home is finding ways to limit distractions around us. It is very likely to get interrupted from work during the working hour which can eventually result in the delay of the given tasks.
  You can try to limit your tendency to check your mobile phone each time a notification pops up or scroll the social media apps very frequently. Try turning the notifications off or putting the devices in ‘do not disturb ‘ mode during peak productive hours. This will help you maintain your productivity and improve your efficiency.
• Keep track of your time
  One of the main issues people face during work from home is that they struggle with time management, they spend all their day on the laptop yet most of their tasks remain incomplete at the end of the day.
  To overcome this, you can try working in shorter intervals without any interruptions and setting up goals for each interval, so at the end of the working loop, some percent of your task gets completed. This way at the end of the day your tasks would also get completed and you won’t even have to stretch the day finishing them.
• Try using productivity tools
  It is easy to manage and perform all the tasks and improve work from home productivity using different productivity apps that are both easy to use and make tasks easily manageable. There is a wide variety of productivity tools available in the market including communication and collaboration tools, project management tools, etc. 
• Set house rules for the people around
  The most basic thing while working from home is getting constantly disturbed and distracted by family members. They tend to come in the room while you are on a work call or something and can disturb your flow, so better set house rules for them. Ask them not to come to the room during working hours or if any urgent work comes in hand, make sure they approach in the same way as you would do in your professional life. In the long term, this will facilitate your move to set up a productive working environment from home without any distractions.

To sum up

These tricks and tips might not work in the same manner for everyone. But it would definitely help you improve work from home productivity in many ways. Adopting these can help you maximize your efficiency and maintain workflow which will directly improve your work productivity.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the benefits of working from home?

The benefits of working from home include: 

• Flexible Schedule
• Less commute time
• Better Work-Life Balance
• Saves Cost and Energy

How do you measure and improve work from home productivity?

There are several techniques to improve working from home productivity, but the ideal strategy is to track your input time and output data. If the input time is not optimal for the output, there might be gaps in your working style. If not, you should try to improve the number. Since there is no upper boundary to what output you can get so you can better try to focus on your productive hours. 

What are some of the tools and applications that can help to improve work from home productivity?

There are a number of tools and applications that can help you to improve work from home productivity, however, the time tracking application can help you most in improving it. It can help you track your time so you can invest in the right direction to achieve your goals.