Maximise your study output: How to Successfully Work from Home
Working From Home might be nothing new, but here’s how to maximise your efficiency and save your mental health!
Working from home always brings to mind sleeping in late, lounging in pyjamas, and those much-beloved afternoon siestas after that dreary meeting with your boss or lecturer. However, this certainly was not the emotion when the Singapore government enacted the ‘circuit-breaker lockdown’ on 3rd April 2020. Working from home became a nationwide experiment, and while the younger children cheered, the rest of the population broke into cold sweats.
It has been close to a year and a half since that day, and while restrictions have relaxed, heightened alert and resurgence of new strains mean that many our activities, from work to university lectures, have remained remote. For those of us who had expected things to go back to normal by now, the question remains, ”How do I successfully work (or study) from home?”
Communicate proactively
One of the biggest potential costs of working from home is that your professor can’t walk over to check your tutorials or you can’t just pop your head up to chat with your workmates. Now, it’s just you, your dining table or desk, and that little clock.
In this one-person workplace, it is essential to overcommunicate to keep people up to date, and to ensure that you are being held accountable — not just on what you can and are expected to do, but also regarding what you can’t feasibly deliver.
Our Tip
All you need to do is to follow these three C’s, and you’ll be an expert at remote communication: Clear, Consistent, and Concise. In other words, stick to the facts; contact and communicate with others regularly; and be short and sweet, (but don’t skip the context)!
Clarify expectations and needs
“Eh, what’s this ah?” was probably what I heard the most when I was permitted to return to the office during my internship in early 2021 (aside from the punctual yell of “Lunchtime!” from my boss at exactly 12pm every day). Clarification is a lot easier in person because you can get that instantaneous response.
But when working from home, it is critical that you clarify everything about your assigned projects and tasks, including ever-varying deadlines, any new updates, and most importantly feedback. This builds trust and ensures that you are on the same page. More importantly, this should give you more confidence that you’re on the right path!
Our Tip
Take it upon yourself to make a checklist of what equipment you need to properly do your job, such as an extra monitor or a standing desk! Many organisations should have an allocated budget for home office equipment, and this will take the load off of having to reorient yourself with the limited technologies that you have at home.
Dedicate a space for work
One of the difficult things about working from home is the lack of physical separation between ‘home’ and ‘work’; creating a dedicated space to work will let you know it’s time to work.
Our Tip
Setting aside a space simply for work can stimulate the brain to differentiate and set boundaries in work-life balance. Check out these tips by Jim Kwik!
Set Ground Rules
If you live with other people who have a tendency to disrespect boundaries (i.e. walking in to ask you something while you’re having a career-defining meeting), having a door that you can close can really help. A closed or locked door, or a ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign, may be necessary to cue the people you live with that you’re working (that includes studying or having a meeting), and need some time to focus.
You can also go outside to rent a nice Study/Work Pod, or camp out at a cafe, but if you’re working from home, you need your privacy! This is actually really important because constant disruptions can end up affecting your work.
Our Tip
Set clear expectations with the people you live with, like what happens when you are in meetings simultaneously. Who needs to use the quiet room? Who should go and buy lunch? WHO’S GOT THE MACBOOK CHARGER? That last one comes from personal experience. Really, I could go on forever.
Maintain regular working hours
It’s easy to have regular working hours when you’re in the office. You split time up into ‘Before Lunch’ and ‘After Lunch’, or if you’re like me, ‘After Dinner’ too. At home, meal times and breaks are one big blur of snacks and coffee.
Our Tip
Make a schedule! You can get free templates off websites like HUB or create it from scratch on Canva. Just make sure the schedule clearly outlines your working time at home and ensures that you keep on task.
Working from home can actually result in you working more hours than usual. While your managers will appreciate your new work ethic, that just isn’t healthy. Stop saying “Just one more email,” and start using your phone alarm to let you know when your working day is over. This will provide you with more structure, and it’ll be easier to maintain a healthy work-life balance!
Schedule Proper Breaks (Lunch, Rest)
Am I actually encouraging you to stop working so much? Yes, I am. You are not a robot — schedule proper breaks where you do NOT work or think about working at all. If you aren’t sure which method will work best, don’t panic! Here’s a list of the most effective scheduling techniques; use what you need:
1.Pomodoro Method
The Pomodoro Method is very useful for tackling tasks that you just don’t want to do. It instils a sense of urgency to make as much progress as possible within a limited time. Taking 5 minute breaks throughout the day can also aid in reducing burnout at the end of the day.
Break your workday down into 25 minute chunks separated by 5 minute breaks. After four Pomodoros, you take a longer break of about 15 to 20 minutes. You can extend the 25 minutes chunk to 50 minutes, but make sure that you extend each break to 10 minutes as well!
Our Tip
Having some trouble committing to the timings? Try a Pomodoro Timer! iPhone can try out Focus Keeper — Time Management and for Android try Pomodoro Timer Lite. If you prefer working ‘with people’, or with music, check out these Pomodoro study playlists and ‘Study With Me’ videos on Youtube. 25 minutes starts… now!
2. Flowtime Method
Created by Zoë Read-Bivens, the Flowtime Method, is a technique that involves a flow state from time to time. Unlike Pomodoro, Flowtime does not constrain you to breaks, instead it requires more self-control.
Write down one task that you plan to do during a focus session; this is the one hard rule. After you note down the time, start working until you feel like you need a breather, and write down the end time before taking a rest.
While Read-Bivens suggests taking a 5 minute break for a 25 minute task, and 8 minutes for 25–50 minutes of work, the break times she suggests aren’t rules. Adjust break and work times accordingly. As she says, “Refreshed work is orders of magnitude better than fatigued work.”
Other apps such as RescueTime, or Forest can also help keep track of your screen time and time spent working!
Remember to socialize and interact
Remote work can often be socially isolating. Your social interactions with colleagues and classmates may be extremely limited which can be detrimental to your mental health.
Our Tip
Humans are social beings; we need to talk to people. Try to phase in some small talk into meetings, such as having a few minutes for everyone to share about their life and what’s going on outside of work. This helps to build rapport and strengthen bonds among the team, which can aid productivity. stepping out of your comfort zone can be a little tricky, but you can get started with a simple “how are you doing?”.
Explore learning opportunities
When you’re not in an office with your fellow employees, you might miss out on training and skills development courses that the company offers. In addition to top-down training, you can request online or in-person courses, training, and coaching as required. Learning opportunities are aplenty, especially when you have the internet at your fingertips. You can consider freelancing, or learning new skills — if you know that you can cope with it on top of work, of course.
One of the most important skills to learn during this time is, well, digital skills. Check out McGraw-Hill SimNet, which teaches Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint skills. The app also includes ‘assessment’ modes where you can achieve micro-credentials!
CareerContact’s Digital Skills Fundamentals Course also provides exposure to digital skills through solving enterprise problems curated with local SMEs. In a short 16 hours, you can learn how to optimise user experience, and get a headstart on marketing and presenting your very own digital product! Check out our other digital skills courses specifically engineered towards techie-beginners to break into the world of digital basics.
Check in with yourself
Still feeling a little stressed? That’s perfectly okay: find out what works best for you. Support in working remotely does exist, whether on your Skype tab or in your home. Use these tips as directions on where to go next.
CareerContact is an ed-tech platform designed to bridge the gap between school and work. We help students develop digital skills and connect them with SMEs in Southeast Asia. Feel free to reach out to us at info@careercontact.org or join us at CareerContact.app.
