How to Boost Your Productivity during Lockdown and Work Better from Home
2020 has just ended, and we all need to go back to work now. There are many reasons to be excited and optimistic about work in 2021. Nevertheless, making this new year a productive one is especially challenging with the persisting lockdown measures. Time-management, tracking tasks, creating and transforming space for work and focus, and keeping keeping motivation are the key ways to boost your productivity during work from home. Below we have gathered suggestions and tools that will help you tailor the best answer for the “how to be more productive?” question for yourself, — ranging from timetables and Kanban boards to our choice of the best productivity apps and Noise-Cancellation Headphones.
Improve Your Time-Management and Keep a Healthy Work-Life Balance
Make a Time Table and Stick to It
In order to improve productivity, it is recommended that home-workers decide a daily timetable and just stick to it, just as in office. Although we don’t need to punch our cards at home, it is still essential to set an exact time for starting work and ending the professional day. As the temptation to continue indefinitely will be even stronger when staying home, whether for work or entertainment, keeping timetables can help us manage our days in a more balanced way especially while working from home.
If you are struggling with keeping track of your time try the great apps we have chosen for you at the bottom of the page. A very effective way for time management and focused work is the Pomodoro Technique®, where you basically divide your work to 25-minute Pomodoro’s followed by short 5-minute breaks. See below an introductory video from Francesco Cirillo, the creator of the technique:
Create To-Do Lists with Categories for Your Work-Life Balance
During work from home, it is wise to manage the tasks, rather than organize the time. A task schedule meticulous to the minute, however, is unnecessary and impractical, because we cannot expect every task to be completed accurately on time. Rather, setting a categorized to-do list would be a better idea. The tasks should be sorted according to the importance of the tasks or our own wishes. After a task is completed, just simply tick the list and focus on the next task.
If you haven’t tried this on a regular basis before, you will certainly find reviewing your to-do list to find very fulfilling. This technique avoids the temptations of your brain to dramatize a chaotic scene of a fight between your many choirs, tasks and deadlines. Feel free to skip to the very end for our recommended apps for keeping track of your to-dos.
One great technique that can help you organize and keep track of tasks Kanban. Just as it has worked perfectly for Toyota’s production lines since 1940s, this proven task-management style could work very well for both your work-related deliverables and the choirs & to-dos of your personal life. With experience, we can assure that the simplistic “To-Do”, “In Progress” and “Done” funnel (which is customizable), certainly does bring efficiency and improves productivity. Here is a great resource for understanding Kanban and working it for yourself:
Keep Your Focus and Motivation
It seems that it is difficult to concentrate on tasks while working from home, because there are too many things we can (or should ) do at home. Besides staying focused when working, creating a working atmosphere would help us avoid these distractions. Just as a regular workday, the way to achieving a perfect work-from-home day lays in how we start the day and where we work.
Yes, Please Do Get Dressed for Work!
Getting dressed every morning for work can will help you get rid of drowsiness and enter your professional mood. It certainly doesn’t need to be your regular business-casual attire, but, please do swap your pair of hoodie-sweatpants from the other day to something that feels comfy, however, close to professional. You may opt to choosing an organic garment such as cotton so as to ensure that you feel the best throughout the day.
Have a Dedicated Work-Space
Imagine and plan one section of your living space like a small working environment. Your working space should be separated from your personal living place. If there isn’t the condition to set up an independent working room, working at the dining table is acceptable. Even when you are able to make a makeshift arrangement, however, it is important that the space is occupied with only work related items, such as computers, notebooks or pens and markers. Finally, working on bed would is perhaps the worst idea for productivity.
Once you have sorted your work space, it is now time to disconnect yourself from the distractions around you. External distractions are unavoidable while working from home, be it our partner or dog (or perhaps that refrigerator with the habit to speak to itself every once in a while), the ones we share the space with will have their own bumps and routines and background noise is, therefore, is most likely inevitable.
In many cases, Noise-Cancelling Headphones might be the magic pill to avoid interruptions. Here are 3 of our favorite budget noise-cancelling headphones.
1- Bose NC-700
Keep Your Positivity and Motivation
It is crucial that you keep motivation and a positive attitude during work from home. What could be more encouraging than making and developing new hobbies or habits? Below are our favorite two apps:
- Forest
2. Habitica
Bonus! Down Dog Yoga — Why not start with yoga? Down Dog Yoga is free for students and teaching staff until July 2021!
Our Selection of the Best Apps to Boost Your Productivity
— Best App for Time Management:
— Best Apps for Task Management and To-Dos
— Best Collaborative Kanban
— Best App for Mind-Maps and Collaborative Creative Thinking
Writers of BossatHome are Hikmet, Ruijie, Patricia and Krystof, from University of Potsdam. For further updates, follow our Instagram!
