- Make a to-do list before signing off
- Wake up earlier than your normal time
- Time your tasks according to your Laundry timer
- Assign deadlines to accelerate your productivity
- Find the perfect music for the tasks at hand
- Keep your work desk clean
- Snooze your social media notifications
- Take breaks
- Communicate properly
- Strategize your work according to your productivity timing
- Create a schedule
- Top 5 best apps for productivity for Android
- Top 5 best apps for productivity for ios
With work from home becoming the new normal, it makes one think if remote working is the new norm and how does job search work in this reality?
But for people who are already working, here is the ultimate guide to make work from home effective.
Do read till the end to discover the best productivity apps (for Android and ios users) that can make your work easy and efficient.
Make a to-do list before signing off
It is best to create a to-do list right before you sign out for the day.
This helps to have clarity on what to do the next day, without having to give up on precious time.
Also, being aware of the first task of the day prior helps to get more done with much more attention and improve work productivity.
Wake up earlier than your normal time
This may sound cruel, but it helps especially during work from home situations.
Waking up earlier than usual not only buys you more time to get your work done for the day but it also helps get more work done than usual.
Take for example, both A and B’s usual office timings are from 10 in the morning.
A wakes up at 8 am whereas B wakes up at 6. Even if B sits down to work by 7:30 am after completing his chores, he is still ahead in terms of work than A.
The best thing to start early in the morning is the peace that prevails in the house. You can get maximum work done without any distraction while everyone else sleeps.
Also, once in the flow it is hard to get distracted, you won’t feel guilty and avoid rushing through breakfast with your family.
Time your tasks according to your laundry timer
Have you ever realized how much time is wasted in completing a task when you don’t time it?
Practicing to time your tasks according to your laundry time can help you push your productivity limits as you work from home.
Take for example, Mr X is a writer by profession and his laundry takes around 1 and a half hour to complete. So, what he can do is sub-assign deadlines based on it.
What this means is he can decide to complete up to a particular point in his piece before he has to go change the load in his washing machine or by the end of the complete cycle.
This way he will be able to ensure less wasting of time and producing maximum work.
Assign deadlines to accelerate your productivity
The best way to ensure work productivity without getting distracted is to self-assign deadlines.
If you have standups daily to communicate the tasks you are working on, add the time by when you will submit the work as well.
This will help you to remember to stay focused and produce the work on time as well.
Once in the flow of work, you can finish tasks that arrive at your station much easily and in less time without getting distracted.
Find the perfect music for the tasks at hand
Did you ever notice how a little music can help you smooth sail through your work?
It can get boring all alone in the house with nowhere else to go, light music can help break the eerie silence and also help you to focus on work.
Take for example, a writer needs to focus a lot and have a clear mind when penning a piece together.
A soothing instrumental music piece can help a lot in keeping the nerves calm and before you know, you have made it to the finishing line of your piece!
All you need to do is find the music of your preference and best suited while you work and create a playlist and PLAY!
Keep your work desk clean
As children we were always asked to keep our study tables clean because it helped us remain focused.
Similarly, did you notice how everyday your workstation was clean and cleared when you reached the office?
It shouldn’t be any different with your workstation at home. A clear desk lets you focus better and increase work productivity.
Snooze your social media notifications
In the 21st century social media has become a blessing and a curse at the same time.
Therefore to make sure that it remains a blessing and not hamper your work productivity, put notifications on a snooze on your cell phone.
Do not log in to your social media apps from even your laptop.
Trust me, a 5 second peak into these pages ends up with us wasting an hour if not more.
Instead, you can use it as a reward. After completing a designated task in the given period, when you are taking a break.
Block Apps, AppLock, AppBlock are a few apps that can help Android users amongst many others.
While ios users can control their screen time and total down time from their phone’s settings option. Here's how you can control you limit your screen time.
Take breaks
Have you felt a sharp pain in your back when you have been sitting through a meeting for long hours?
You must have heard doctors advising everyone to get up from their seats at the end of every hour.
Taking breaks is a must for both the mind and physical health.
It is important to get up and away from the screen to stop from straining your eyes too much and also move around to stretch your muscles.
After all, to produce efficient work you need to have a healthy mind and body.
So, reward yourself with a break at the end of every hour after you achieve your sub-assigned targets.
Communicate properly
A major problem with remote working nowadays is Communication. However, the solution to the problem is also communication.
Take for example, you are not being able to reach out to your team members on their phone or there is something that needs immediate attention.
It is important to communicate for you to produce efficient work.
You can communicate through apps like Slack, Microsoft Teams, Gmail, Zoom, any app that your company might use to help the case.
These apps have the option of voice calls and video chats if you think you can communicate better over either of these two options than emails and chats.
Strategize your work according to your productivity timing
The best thing about working from home is that you can decide on what to do and when to do it based on your productive hours.
If your productive hours are early in the morning, assign the hard tasks for those hours to ensure efficient work.
The ones requiring less attention could be designated later in the day.
Create a schedule
Remember how our parents used to hang up a time table infront of our study table before exams?
It used to help us remain focused and transition to the next subject easily, we took breaks accordingly and knew exactly when to get back at the table.
The catch being, we never had to waste a thought on unnecessary things.
This hack works wonders even today.
Creating a schedule helps to keep everything in order without having to waste time pondering over what to do next.
Suppose, you work best early in the morning, you can create a schedule to do your tasks at hand at that time and schedule meetings and calls post lunch hours when your productivity is not that great.
This way you will be able to complete tasks easily without having to feel guilty or distracted.
To help in work productivity during work from home here are top 5 best apps for productivity for Android and ios users.
Top 5 best apps for productivity for Android
Top 5 best apps for productivity for ios
Hopefully, with these tips and tricks your work from home days will be more productive with efficient work.
However, apart from working from home it is also important to keep yourself positive during these tough times.
All the best!
