How to stay productive by working remotely
Hello, my name is Bagas Marsya, I am currently undergoing probation at one of the fintech companies in Indonesia, CICIL. I’ve been running probation from May and ending in August. and in the process of writing this article I have not passed the probation yet because it will be announced on August 29, wish me the best!
As a background, I have worked as a product designer since 2018 and I often work remotely, both full-time and part-time/freelance work. And currently due to the Covid situation, many companies are implementing remote working as a solution to minimize the spread of covid, including my current office, CICIL.
After reading several journals and chatting with friends, I heard a lot that working remotely has several drawbacks, namely, lack of motivation to work, feeling bored, having no friends to chat with, some even say it doesn’t feel like working in general.
After researching in detail I found that the main problem in the above case is the lack of productivity of a person when working remotely and here I will share how to stay productive while working remotely.
Table of Contents :
- Maintain Consistent Working Hours
- Eat & Sleep Well
- Set a morning & evening routine
- Take a few break
- Leverage Social Media
- Interact With the Team
1. Maintain Consistent Working Hours
How often do you lose track of time while working from home? Almost every day, right? When your mind is completely focused on work, you may be unaware of the passage of time.
However, this is an unhealthy practice. Being a workaholic is good, but only during working hours only. You should try not to overdo it. A good work-life balance is a very important factor when working from home. Your personal life is just as important as your professional life.
You should always make a routine of your workdays and working hours, and it has to be prepared so that you can follow it with ease. You may have days when you need to complete a large amount of work. In that case, you can either request an extension from your manager or extend your work timings for that day.
But doing this daily can be harmful as working overtime can stress you out, both physically and mentally. Like they say,” All work and no play makes Bagas a dull boy”- do not let yourself become a Bagas. Working tirelessly every day past your work hours to meet deadlines and depriving yourself of social life is detrimental. Flexible work hours are what we all need.
2. Eat & Sleep Well
One of the perks of working from home is free access to the kitchen. As soon as it is time for breaks, you choose to grab snacks. However, this practice does not benefit you in any way in the long run.
Being on a healthy diet is essential when you are a working person. Therefore, you must eat food that helps you function better instead of draining your energy.
When you’re at the office, you tend to make healthier choices. Eating in the cafeteria or bringing a lunch box makes it easier to make a conscious decision to eat better. However, at home, indulging yourself becomes the norm.
- As a result, you should keep yourself in check and be on a good diet. Eat energizing meals for lunch- iron (leafy green vegetables), protein (fish, meat, eggs), and complex carbohydrates (legumes & whole grains)
- Include fruits, nuts & berries together with some juice in your diet.
- Set daily reminders to drink at least 7–8 glasses of water.
Also, one of the most crucial activities which go unnoticed while working from home is your sleep pattern. It might take a toss when you work from home.
Your sleep time often gets compromised between work and Netflix Time. But maintaining a proper sleep schedule is imperative if you aim to deliver the best results. It keeps your head clear.
Save your binge-watching plans for the weekend. And get started with your healthy routine.
- Go to bed at a definite time
- Try to get a minimum of 6 hours of sleep
- Follow it every day until it becomes a habit
Additionally, when working from home, resist the temptation to oversleep and start your day early. When you have a demanding work schedule, it’s common to have a poor sleep schedule. Try to take short naps if that is the case.
So, all you need is the right food to keep your energy high and good sleep to rejuvenate your body and mind.
3. Set a morning and evening routine
If you are a night owl, it surely becomes highly exhausting to wake up early for work. Sleeping for less than 6 hours can make you feel tired and irritated.Sleep deprivation leads to a loss of concentration. So, what is it that will help you solve this?
Working on your sleep schedule, of course, that’s the first. A night of good and sound sleep is your utmost need. Also, the next best alternative to use for better concentration is Meditation.
Yoga and meditation in the early morning have always proved to be constructive. It strengthens focus, improves self-awareness, and reduces stress levels.
Here are some ideas that you can incorporate into your morning routine:
- Wake up one hour before your working hour
- Freshen up
- Have some tea/coffee
- Lay a mat on the floor
- Sit on it and fold your legs
- Keep your backbone straight
- Close your eyes
- Meditate for 5–10 minutes
Tada! It’s done. Now you can kickstart your day off with a clear mind. Likewise, meditation is a wonderful thing to end your day with. After a long day of work, both your body and mind are tired, and you crave some relief at the moment.
The clock strikes 5 pm- assuming that you get off work. And it is a time-out!
- Be clear of your work desk
- Drink some water
- Wash your face
- Sit on the yoga mat
- Meditate for 5 minutes
And you are good to go!
4. Take A Few Break
Working like a robot for 8 hours straight reduces productivity. You can devote all of your time to work, but if there are no recesses and breaks, you will be unable to deliver the best results.
Because if you don’t give your mind and body a break, your energy will be depleted. In the end, you will be physically and mentally exhausted. When you are in the office, it is really common to yearn for breaks for your mind to relax. But at home, the structure is different.
Your work-time can often get tangled with your break-time for the routine gets messy while working remotely. This is why you should set a precise time for breaks. Do not drain your brain muscle by constantly sitting in one place for work. The stress can get hold of you anywhere.
Just move around and keep yourself active throughout the day.
Take breaks at definite intervals, walk around, play with your pet or maybe listen to some music. It is purely scientific. Your prefrontal cortex (the thinking part of the brain) needs breaks to avoid decision fatigue and maximize production capacity, along with amplifying your creativity.
- Add a proper break-time schedule to your planner
- Specify how much time duration is assigned to each break
- When the clock strikes the specified time, stop with your work instantly
So, pay attention to how you spend your time and take those brief breaks to refresh and renew yourself. You can even launch a timer on your device’s screen in a way that would lock you out of your computer during breaks.
5. Leverage Social Media
Admit it or not, there is one common thing all of us can consider as our guilty pleasure- Social media. Social media can be highly addictive and time-consuming if not handled with care, be it interaction with friends, commenting, or reading news and articles.
It is regarded as one of the top-level distractions from work. In between work, if you cannot help but check your cell phone, every time a new notification pops up, a moment of interruption appears.
What can you possibly do to prevent this?!? You can either have self-control (which is difficult to achieve) or find another way to achieve it.
Many new mobile apps have been introduced recently to get rid of such distractions. These applications show users how much time they spend on each social media app. Furthermore, some apps also help you set a fixed duration for each socializing app. Once your limited time usage is over, you are locked out of that app for the next 24 hours.
If you exhaust your time limit at night itself, those apps would be disabled for you to use in the daytime. Hence, It is the most feasible solution.
- Install the time-revealing & time-setting apps
- Observe how much time you spend on each social media app
- Decide on a specific amount of time you want to dedicate to each app in a day
- Develop some self-control and log into those apps only during breaks or post-work schedules
In short, social media can be rendered as a boon and a curse.
6. Interact With The Team
Remote Working can get pretty lonely, especially if you are in isolation. Even in the presence of your family members, it is no better as there is no interrelation of your work with them. In a home setting, everyone works differently, from your teammates to your managers. Therefore, sharing information and getting everyone on the same page is often difficult.
You all might have different work schedules, which might give rise to some bumps on the road. Thus, you need to talk it out with your manager about how it works. Like how often you are supposed to check-in or convey your messages and progress to one another.
The good part is that several tools have been created to address this problem. Several chat channels and FaceTime applications enable you to connect to your teammates, conduct group meetings, and stay updated.
It is not, however, required that you always talk about work. Ordinary conversation is fine if it helps to lessen the social isolation that comes with working from home.
Video call is a great way to stay connected and to have some fun at the same time. If you are an introvert and are not fond of socializing, take part in a few interactive sessions to be familiar with the team. This helps you to avoid any kind of awkwardness that may initiate among the teammates in the future when you start going to the office. You have to be more proactive about nurturing professional relationships.
Those are the tips that I usually do when I work remotely, all aspects can affect our productivity level, both internally (self) and externally (other people, environment, and coworkers). Fortunately at CICIL I don’t have to worry about external aspects that can interfere with my productivity, because CICIL already has a workflow that is very effective when working remotely, besides that CICIL also has an agenda for bonding between employees through HR activities.
Thank for Reading :)
