How to be Productive working from home 🏡?
1. Time-Boxing:
Time-boxing will improve your life. At the core it’s simple: assign a fixed period of time to a task, schedule it and stick to it. It works because it touches on so many aspects of behavior: single-tasking and focus to achieve more and feel less stressed, prioritizing work to observe deadlines, frequent feelings of accomplishment, and being transparent so people can see what you’re doing and help. The key to this is time-boxing into a shared calendar and taking commutes, meetings, and other commitments into account.
2. Say no:
Stop trying to please everyone! It’s much easier said than done, we know, but by overloading yourself with work, not only do you risk being unable to complete tasks and meet deadlines — the quality of ALL of your work is affected. Sometimes it’s best to politely decline so that you can focus on the most important work. If you do it right, colleagues will understand and respect you for it.
3. Control your devices:
Don’t let them control you. We check our phones between 150–221 times a day, depending on which study you’re reading. Even having your phone in sight, without touching it, has been shown to reduce performance in tests, according to a study at the University of Southern Maine. Clear your desk of distracting devices and see how much more you get done, with fewer distractions.
4. To-do lists:
To-do lists are fundamental. They aren’t a complete solution to time management but they are essential. Think of a typical day: we’re rushing around from meeting to email to work conversation to the conference call, picking up countless tasks along the way. We need to log these tasks somewhere and then ensure that we action them when we finally get a moment of calm. For a lot of people, the next steps are to prioritize them and then schedule them. But it starts with to-do lists.
5. 2-minute rule:
If a task can be done in less than 2 minutes, don’t write it down or put it into a system or discuss it or think about it… just do it. Of course, if you have a more important, more urgent job at that same moment, that one will win. But in general, we often procrastinate or feel overwhelmed when sometimes it’s better to just get on with some small tasks, build momentum, clear the clutter and gain a degree of control.
6. Choose when to check email:
Every time we get a ping indicating a new email, comment, or notification of any sort, our brains get a dopamine hit. Dopamine is the neurotransmitter responsible for feelings of reward and pleasure, and it can get addictive. This is why it’s so easy to succumb to constantly checking your emails, as each new message, however mundane, releases dopamine, at the cost of productivity. Combat this by scheduling set times to check emails, and allocate other times to producing your best work.
7. Organise your workspace:
And keep it organized. Spending several minutes excavating the detritus on your desk as you frantically try to find a document is not a good use of your time. Keeping an orderly workspace will make you more efficient and calm and exude an aura of control. A self-imposed clean desk policy is a good place to start.
8. Start earlier:
Not easy, but simple and effective. From Richard Branson to Michelle Obama, high performers are often also early risers. Whether it’s to fit in a morning workout or an extra hour of distraction-free work, getting up early means you literally get a head start in the day on almost everyone else.
9. Delegate:
Only do the work that only you can, and delegate the rest wherever possible. Try outsourcing to others who have the relevant skills and can do it faster and better than you. Trust your colleagues to do things, rather than micro-managing every task. This will empower them, and free you up to do what you do best.
10. Be true to yourself:
Know your ideal working environment and try to create it wherever possible. Knowledge is power, and the more we have on ourselves, the easier we can create conditions for maximum productivity and success. Know your mood too. If you feel in the mood to write, go with that flow — you may write twice as quickly and three times as well.
