Working from home? Here are some tricks to stay efficient
The possibility of working remotely, at least occasionally, shows up on lists of perks offered by companies more and more commonly. It is the employers’ way of saying they trust that the people they hire are adult human beings, capable of structuring their time and taking responsibility for tasks entrusted in them. Both companies and remote workers agree that working from home has many benefits. It can increase productivity by eliminating distractions such as noisy work colleagues, kitchen gossip or poorly organized workplace. Most of telecommuters say they manage to get more things done in the same time frame, as opposed to working from office. Letting a team work remotely can also lead to decrease in operational costs, mainly real estate rent. The list of pros goes on.
But once you get a chance to work remotely you might be surprised how many productivity inhibitors live in your own house (or wherever else you choose to work from). At the beginning of last year I decided for a career change. At that point I was working as a manager in retail — a field that does not really allow for much flexibility regarding where you work from. I started to learn programming for a variety of reasons, but one of them was definitely introducing some elasticity to my work schedule and opening up for location independence. After completing a coding bootcamp I first worked as a freelancer and subsequently got hired as a full-time developer. In both of these roles I spent a significant amount of time working remotely and here are my tricks for keeping my efficiency at its highest.
Set a schedule
Although my working hours are flexible, I try to keep a relatively steady schedule, whether I work from home or go to the office. Even though I’m definitely not a morning person, I decided on roughly sticking to 8–16. Sometimes I have some errands to run in the afternoon and will start at 7, sometimes I won’t be able to force myself to get out of my bed before 9, but you get the idea. I do it for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I realized over time that mornings are when my concentration peaks. It means that it’s easier to get more brain-intensive tasks done then and push those that require more creativity to later in the day. Secondly, it prevents morning procrastination, when you ambitiously set your alarm to 6 am but then spend a couple of hours pointlessly scrolling, sipping coffee and doing online shopping, only to realize it’s nearly noon and you haven’t even started work. And last but not least, starting my day early leaves me with plenty of time which I can dedicate to my other hobbies and side projects in the evenings.
What works for me will not necessarily be true for you, so give yourself some time to figure out your body clock and preferences in order to adjust your schedule accordingly.
Use a timer
However silly it might sound, using a timer is by far my simplest and simultaneously most efficient productivity trick. I will break my project into smaller steps, estimate how long each of them should take and make a bunch of deals with myself throughout the day. I set a timer, usually for no longer than 45 minutes, and only focus on one task. (For someone who’s been told that multi-tasking is absolutely necessary in order to obtain maximum results it might be a revolutionary thought, but context-switching can be one of the biggest productivity destroyers of a work day.) I can take a 5-minute break when the time is up or when I’m done with the task, whichever happens first. I then set a timer for my break too and I believe this is the crucial part for this technique to work: you might find it hard to believe how quickly 5 minutes pass when you are on a break. I repeat the whole cycle 4–5 times before taking my lunch break.
Decide which distractions are acceptable
There are always some things which come up while you are on the clock. Your role here is to decide on a set of rules for yourself. For instance, I sometimes allow myself to extend a lunch break from my usual 30 minutes to an hour and in that time I might use social media, watch a short episode of a series or do some banking. I try not to make a habit of it, as I believe that a screen-free break is the most effective way to unwind if your work requires sitting at a computer most of the day, but yes, I will occasionally go for it. At the same time, I try not to start on any of these activities during my 5-minute breaks for one simple reason: they always end up taking more than five minutes.
Similarly, you might decide that it’s OK to take a break from work in order to set laundry, have a doctor’s appointment or do yoga — but not to go and get a haircut, bake a cake or reorganize your wardrobe. It’s up to you what you put on your list of acceptable distractions, but the logic is simple: the shorter your list, the sooner you’ll get your work done.
Set boundaries
If you are not alone where you work, you need to make sure that the people around you know when you are not to be disturbed and what the acceptable reasons for distracting you are. If you are clear about it and respect these rules yourself, so will the others.
I spoke with a friend of mine who has a toddler and occasionally works from home too. Whenever she works remotely, it’s her husband or a babysitter who takes care of the child. She said she struggled a lot at the beginning with keeping her productivity high, as she was getting disturbed with constant questions (lots of them well-meaning, like ‘would you like some tea?’, ‘are you going to join us for lunch?’ or ‘I’m going to a store, is there anything you need?’). The situation changed completely when she set clear rules and stuck to them. Now she gets more uninterrupted hours during which she can focus on her job. Her family also understands that this way she’s able to spend time with them sooner and respect the rules without issues.
Become the lord of your devices
Constant notifications can be a nightmare, no matter if you work in an office or from home. However, without your colleagues being your little law enforcement force, resisting checking your phone can be even bigger a challenge.
My solution, which works almost perfectly, is simple: I put my phone on silent (no vibrations!) and only allow myself to check it during breaks. On my computer, I only keep work-related apps open. Why almost? Because there are some apps that I use both for work and in my private life or for side gigs, like Slack. Then you need to outsmart yourself and turn notifications off for non-work-related channels. Slack lets you decide on schedules when you want to be pinged, so you don’t need to bother doing it every day, and you can find a similar option in many other applications too.
Working from wherever it best suits you might still be one of the greatest benefits you can get from your employer. It can definitely be beneficial for you, letting you adjust your schedule to your personal needs and responsibilities, ultimately leading to a better work-life balance.
It can be profitable for your company as well, but only if done right. Making sure you do your job and you do it at least as well as you would in the office — it takes this little not to lose what is still a privilege. Finding your way to stay efficient when working remotely can therefore have a really high return on investment — both for you and for your employer.
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