Use These Five Tips to Be More Productive from Home

Many workplaces have taken to fighting the pandemic by adjusting their workplace strategies to enable both in-person and remote work. This change occurs as many companies realize that remote work is indeed a viable option, even in industries that have traditionally been opposed to the concept. With remote work so commonplace, it’s only prudent to include it in the onboarding process. Let’s go over some ways you can encourage your employees to build a more productive home office situation.

Peace and Quiet

The home office can be a noisy environment, and it can be quite distracting for someone who has never worked remotely before. New remote employees should try to find a location in a quiet part of the home, far away from any other distractions. Space might be limited, but it’s well worth finding a workspace that allows you to focus and get as much work done as possible.

Clutter-Free

Many remote employees also find themselves using the same workspace as the rest of their family, effectively creating what could be affectionately referred to as “the community desk.” This makes for a cluttered workspace, so be sure to do your best to keep your workspace as clutter-free and clean as possible. This will help you stay focused.

Nature Is Surprisingly Effective

You wouldn’t believe how much a little bit of nature and natural light can improve your productivity and mood for the day. If you can, set up your home workspace to be in view of a window with a nice look at the outside world. If this isn’t possible, you can also try adding some plants or other vegetation to the workspace. You might be surprised by how much this can improve someone’s mental health, as well as increase the comfort of your home office.

Breaks Take On a New Meaning

Working from home inevitably means that the lines between work and home life will start to blur, so to avoid letting this further develop into burnout and overwhelm, we recommend that you take regular breaks—and by breaks, we mean actually stepping away from your computer for at least 10 or 15 minutes at a time.

Speaking Of To-Do Lists

Working remotely can make it difficult to stay on task, but a daily task list or to-do list can help you stick to your schedule. Be sure to start with your more time-intensive tasks and work your way through the other, less time-intensive tasks. It can be easy to feel pressured by the weight of your tasks, but lining up what must be done and assigning priorities to them makes this somewhat less stressful.

If you want to give your employees the technology they need to successfully work remotely, reach out to Horne & Benik at (603) 499-4400.