Tips on Working From Home

For a while I’ve worked from home off and on. Even while not working from home. I do end up sending 10 – 20 hours outside the office anyway. Over the years I’ve learned some productivity tips I try to adhere to in order for me to function efficiently and at the end of the day ‘enjoy me working from home’

Give the COVID-19 situation, a lot of folks are starting to work from home and thought to share what has helped me successful when working from home. Especially now that it not just adults, but all kids are at home too, that certainly becomes a lethal combination of unproductivity

Have a designated ‘office’ place

I’ve personally always had a home office. Wherever I have lived over since past 10 years I make it a point to have a separate, isolated room for my home office – WITH A LOCK AND KEY (for the sanity of the kids and mine).

If you don’t have an isolated room as your office, designate a place as your office space at home. Make it look like an office, remove all distractions from there

The dining table is the last option..

Have a schedule for the day

Most of us hate to do lists, because the minute we start working it goes out the window. Or towards end of the day you figure out your still stuck at task 1 or 2 !

I’ve learned over years to ‘prepare a schedule’. It says I’ll work on xyz for 9 – 10 AM let’s say. I then know who much time I have to finish this. If I over run time, I can easily bump off the item from the bottom of the list.

Prioritize your day

In the schedule what goes first? The thing that’s more important. Remember the 80 / 20 rule (Pareto principle). For me mostly the 20% activities which will generate 80% value are the ones I don’t enjoy doing..

I therefore know, if I don't have a prioritised list, I'm definitely going to loose track of what's most important and running late trying toi finish it off at the end of the day. So, make sure you know what they are and force yourself to do those first

Limit the applications opened

Distractinos are the single biggest killer. There is no such thing as multi-task. CPUs are designed to multi-task, not the human brain. We can focus only one one thing.

I make it a point to open applications only that I am actively working on. Sometimes I do have stuff overflowing from a previous day, I place all of them in a separate desktop view (in windows) and have only the absolutely needed applications opened.

Anything that is not needed anymore should be closed. Some people don;t close them because they wouldn;t be able to find it again. Filing your documents is a separate excercise for a later time. I have an SLA of my own, each piece of information I should be able to find within 30 seconds. HAve a good way to organize them (more in a later post).

Communication applications separate

Emails, teams, slack and all sorts of IMs ARE A DISTRACTION. You don’t have to respond to every new message right at once. Once you open an email, bluurb, notification, your chain of thought is broken. And once your out of the zone,it takes time to get back in.

I keep all communication applications in a separate desktop view, and work in a separate one. Every 30 minutes or so I open this and go through them. It's hard to get into this discpline, we are programmed to be reactive for some reason. Try to discipline yourself and not do that.

Take timed breaks

Every 30 minutes / 1 hour take a break. Walk out of your office space, can have something to drink / eat if you want. The idea is give yourself a quick break. For 30 minutes you are focused on one thing only. Help your brain detach for a short while.

Put a timer so your back from your wandering expedition and forget you were working! Working from home still means 'working'.

When time’s up – SWITCH OFF

One of the hardest part of WFH is to switch off from work. If your working from home does not mean you end up working constantly. The way some people set it up, they never feel they left the office. In my case I have a home office, so for me it's veary easy to 'sense' when I'm not working.

Constatnly being in 'partial' work mode is not productive, this behavior will create diminishing returns. Your brain will not have enough peace time, making you prone to make poorer decisions which will manifest in rework.

Leaving them home at least once a day helps

With COVID-19 too, I’d like to just step outside for a 5 min walk id nothing else. Stuck in once place does not bring about a good feeling.

Feel free to add any other tips you might want to share.

So stay safe and be productive!