Working From Home Tips
1. Create a schedule
The first tip for improving your time management whilst working from home is to create a schedule that you can follow. Whether it is a daily, weekly or monthly schedule, having something that organises the work that you need to complete will allow you to focus and keep track of what work you need to do.
If you're someone who has a lot of work to do, this will allow you to keep things organised and hopefully be a little less overwhelmed.
2. Remove as many distractions as possible
The next tip to follow is to reduce the number of distractions that are around you. By creating a workplace that is focused on productivity and reducing the amount of 'noise' around it will help to keep you focused on your work.
How to Stay Focused & Avoid Distractions >
Put your phone away or turn on your 'do not disturb' feature, switch off the tv and keep your surroundings free from mess and clutter. All of these things will keep you from being distracted and focused on what's important.
3. Get the right amount of sleep
Ensuring you get the right amount of sleep is not only important to keeping on top of your work and managing your time but also to your overall health. It's easy to fall into bad habits of staying up late whilst being home all the time, we know how tempting that extra episode of the Netflix series you're binge-watching is but knowing when to turn the tv off or put your phone down and sleep is so important to how you feel the next day.
So, whether you need six, seven or eight hours of sleep per night, ensure you're getting the amount that you need so that you can be fresh and raring to go the next morning and throughout the day.
4. Prioritise your work
With so much work to do at times, it's hard to keep on top of it all. So, to make sure you are being as productive as possible, it's important to prioritise. Try getting the harder tasks out of the way first so that later on when you feel a little less productive, your work is less demanding.
Another good tip is to assess whether all meetings are absolutely necessary. Video meetings have become a lot more popular with more people working from home but just like an in-person meeting, not all of them are necessary. Decide which meetings require your time and which can be sorted out with an email. This simple tip may give you a couple more hours each day or week to get more important work done.
5. Take regular breaks
Just like working in the office, working from home can sometimes become a little draining, especially if you live on your own or if you are self-isolating. So to stop feelings of fatigue or burnout, set yourself some regular breaks where you can get up, stretch and move around. Studies have shown that walking away from your work for a short period of time can actually improve productivity, so be sure to give it a try.
