Before they faced the Covid-19 pandemic, employees had used to come to the office. This year, the new reality made people work from home across the world. The office routine (in the traditional sense) like brainstorming sessions, conference calls, weekly meetings, and even friendly conversations with colleagues while having coffee sank into the Lethe. Business owners as well as their staff had to find ways to modify their office activities to their virtual variations. It seems everybody succeeded in transitioning to remote work.
However, there is one point left, i.e. how to maximize efficiency and productivity of remote work? There are 5 strategies to consider for understanding you stay productive while working remotely. Let’s take a look.
Select the Appropriate Tools
Using the right tools for remote work can truly bring productivity to the next level. The essential requirement for remote workforce efficiency is considered the optimization of processes across employees. It is a key thing that every team member is at the same stage and any update is informed without delay. To guarantee a stable workflow, it is a must to have the right tools that both stay within the company’s budget and optimize productivity while working from home.
The set of must-have tools for your team involve time management apps, PM tools, video conferencing apps, chatting tools, and file storage tools.
Always Share Calendars within Teams
It is a true challenge to gather all the remote workers for a Zoom call or try to get people together for a meeting to participate physically. They send emails to evaluate availability, and if the meeting requires more than five people, it is a problem to find a time that perfectly fits for everyone. Implementing shared calendars makes it simple to plan the above-mentioned events.
Employees can see who is free and when, schedule calls, and be sure that everyone will be informed. No one misses the event or comes unprepared.
Keep Balance in Everything
A significant minus of remote work is that both business owners and employees blurred the lines between work and life. Ok, the work environment changed, but burnout happens more and more frequently. This happens just because some managers make people be involved 24/7 and the reason for that is they are “not in the office.”
To increase efficiency, it is essential that people are made to feel like they experience a nice balance regarding “work-life” and “physical-mental.” The last one means you accentuate your health, more outdoor activities, and care about your eyesight (read more about the main types of lenses, if you have problems with that).
Get Rid of Distractions
Being distracted by your family members and pets can kill the productivity of remote work. This leads to frustration which can be stressful. Just recollect how you felt when you were saying something during a conference call from home and suddenly your overly loving cat jumped onto your laptop and blocked the monitor (or even poured your coffee on the keyboard).
So, it is important to set the rules for your family and pets to stay out of your home office, especially when you are on calls. Here, a compromise should be spending time with the nearest and dearest during breaks. This way, nobody will feel offended, right?
Design a “Remote” Office at Home
Agree that it is truly tempting to work from your cozy couch or even a super comfy bed. However, this minimizes your work efficiency. You should try to work exclusively from a desk. This will help to stay focused on your work, but not rest. It would be ideal to purchase a comfy chair and a “like at the office” desk. Arrange other workplace components like excellent Wi-Fi and humidifier.
When you follow that strategy, your brain starts associate desks with work, couches with playing with your cat, and so on. As a result, productivity will not suffer because your brain doesn’t mix things!