How can you create a successful schedule when working from home?

One thing I've always found helpful wether it be working from home or working out of office, is planning your daily/weekly schedule well. Couple of benefits that comes with this.. 1) It gives you an opportunity to be prepared for the work before hand and plan your day accordingly 2) Helps in identifying tasks that are urgent and important. 3) You can map out how many breaks or how long your breaks can be during your work just to keep your focus sharp. 4) You've set your own deadline to finish that task at a particular time. This means no scope for distraction The better prepared you are, the better results you see in your work.

"Priority Matrix" is a sorting and organizing tool for your tasks to optimize your time management when working from home. You must assess all tasks on two factor; Urgency and Importance. Then sort them into four groups, ?? Urgent -Important (DO it Now) ?? Urgent - Not Important (Schedule it) ?? Not Urgent - Important (Delegate) ?? Not Urgent - Not Important (Eliminate) The first two must be done by yourself then the third category can be done through asking someone to do it for you or use a service to get it done. This keeps you focused and organzied during carrying your tasks while working from home.

The power of Routine and breaks are very efficient when you are working from home. Build your work from home routine; - Fix starting time - Fix finishing time - set the launch time - spread your all breaks - Set alram and reminders - Create time slots for daily tasks This routine and its break keeps you focused and motivated while working from home.

Your “Calendar” is an excellent time management tool, you can review your day, week or month in seconds and it supports you in adhering to your To Do list and scheduling recurring daily routine. "Calendars" Tips & tricks are: 1) Use your email calendar as your primary Calendar. 2) Add all appointments, meetings, reminders to it. 3) Add national holidays, annual leave and vacations. 4) Add work and personal related tasks, so you can take control of your time around the clock. 5) Preset time slots like emails review, weekly planning, daily or weekly reporting, .. etc should be set. 6) Calendars should be the first thing to review in the morning before your emails.

Blocking your time is a great way to manage your time. It makes you dedicate your time to one specific thing. It signals to everyone what you are working on. It gives you accountability to achieve what you set for yourself. Pro tip: When you block time, don't just do it randomly. Take your task or whatever you want to do, properly evaluate it for a few minutes and estimate how much time you would need ie. 15-30-60 minutes or whatever blocks of time work for you. Once you do it, and if that is just enough, then you did great! If the time was not enough, block another time slot and make a mental note for next time. If the time was too much, take 5 minutes for a walk around the office/home and reward yourself!

The biggest challenge I faced during working from home in COVID pandemic was being isolated. I was optimizing my calendar, managing my time and achieving excellent work-life balance. But I was lacking interaction with others, so I created few things to solve it. - Virtual coffee - Online launch hour - Shared my calendar with team - encouraged others to use cameras This created for me the human interaction I needed to keep me motivated.