How to be more productive when working remotely?

The Covid-19 pandemic changed our working habits. Surveys show that 62% of employees aged 22 to 65 say they work remotely at least occasionally. Even though the pandemic is nearly gone, 40% of companies will remain their work-from-home policy.

If you’re not already remotely, this may sound like an ultimate productivity booster and a game-changer for your work life but it can also turn into your worst nightmare if you don’t manage it correctly. Don’t get me wrong, but most people manage it quite badly and at the end of the day they’re ending up way less productive than they were working from the office or they’re dealing with some sort of depression. As a freelance software engineer working fully remotely for two years, today I’ll break down the most common challenges of remote working and give you some really simple productivity tips which will boost your productivity to the moon.

Common challenges of remote working

Time management

When working remotely or in other words from home, you’ve time to do whatever you want. You can save the commute time to sleep more, you can exercise regularly, you can spend more time with your significant other or you can hang out with your buddies during your lunch break at your favorite restaurant. These are indeed correct you can do all of these things, also more you enjoy less you see time pass. This is basically how you end up by running behind everything and making compromises that you don’t have to.

Procrastination

I know this is not only a remote worker problem but it’s more common in remote working than onsite working. Do you remember these times that you were working from a library or from a study space because the feeling of being surrounded by other students was keeping you motivated? The same works also for remote working, when you’re working from home it’s easier to procrastinate than do the work itself.

Work-life balance

Working from home can also be quite challenging to stop working, as you do not need to commute to go to bed or simply to go home, you can use this time to finish this one last thing that you want to do for tomorrow. You know what, these things just never end. Instead, it can be followed by a co-worker’s question or a client's e-mail.

Communication

Written communication can lead more easily to misunderstanding or the response time of your colleagues can be way longer than when you were literally in front of them.

Sedentary lifestyle

Do you remember the old times when you were taking public transportation to go to your work? Or the days that you’ve taken an Uber to head the work, and passed by your favorite coffee shop before starting your work day. Well, you do not need to commute at all to get to your work except if you’re living in a huge condo where you have to take a shuttle between your bed and your desk. As a remote worker, you can start right after you wake up and can pass literally your whole day at your desk.

Don’t get me wrong, I am working as a fully remote software engineer for two years now and you know what I really enjoy working remotely and I personally struggled with these problems in the past. I’ll give you the solutions that I used on me to these problems and help you to boost your productivity to the moon in no time.

How to be (more) productive when working remotely?

Remote working is not just a working schedule as regular 9 to 5 or 10 to 6, it’s more a lifestyle or a work habit. So, the principal solution to all these above problems it’s changing your lifestyle and habits. As for all habits, it won’t be done in one day but they will start to change significantly even in a day. Also keep in mind that there’s not a unique method that will work for everyone, instead, everyone has their own method.

Acceptance

The fact that you thought that you were not productive enough it’s not a bad thing, you do not need to be ashamed of it. The first thing you need to do is accept that you’re not productive enough for yourself. Do not compare yourself with others, focus on yourself. Remember, you want to be better than yourself, and that is all you need. Leave others to live their lives however they want.

Enjoy

First of all and most importantly you need to enjoy being home and working remotely. Remember that you’re adapting to a new lifestyle that you’ve wanted and you’re not punishing yourself for anything. The change can be hard, don’t be pushy with yourself, and do not try to micromanage yourself. Do not forget to take time for yourself and do the things that you actually want.

Track your time

For professionals, time is crucial. Also unlike money, it’s something that you cannot earn. The day is 24 hours with 60 minutes an hour and that’s it. There’s no more of it.

You keep an eye on the things that are important to you as an individual right? For your health, you see a doctor whenever you are not feeling well, your bank shows you each and every transaction that you made in your bank account. But, especially if you’re working remotely, no one tells you how you’re using your time, so you need to start tracking your time before it’s too late.

At first, time tracking may sound scary. It can sound like a sign of micro-management. I know, I thought that too. But you know what, if you do it right, it’s a game-changer for your productivity. Also, prepare to be surprised to see the amount of time that this quick thing took you also to the time that you’ve spent on this thing that you’ve kept procrastinating because you were taught that it’ll take your whole day.

Be organized

Don’t start your day without planning it. In remote working, no one will plan your days in your place. In the other words, you’re your own manager. Do not micro-manage yourself but manage. Have goals on several timestamps (daily, weekly, monthly). Keep your goals reachable and stick to them. Lastly, keep daily to-do lists and prepare them from the day before.

Be consistent

Consistency is the key to making a change or adoption. Start with baby steps and then walk to finally run.

Be professional

Your team has surely had employees from different cultures, sometimes from different time zones. Always keep in mind possible cultural differences with your colleagues and treat them as you want them to treat you. Give them the benefit of the doubt whenever possible before going directly to the verdict on them.

Analyze & optimize

Once you start tracking your time, you’ll find yourself with lots of data on yourself. In this post-GDPR era, this kind of data is priceless, so treat it as it is worth it. Analyze your data to find out the things that it takes you the most time and then optimize your workflow to reduce the time that you spent on these things. On the other hand, as humans we tend to over-optimize or do premature optimization, to avoid this happening to you, try to optimize one thing at a time.

Seek for discomfort

A comfort zone defines as a psychological state in which things feel familiar to a person and they are at ease and (perceive they are) in control of their environment, experiencing low levels of anxiety and stress. In this zone, a steady level of performance is possible. When you try to take control of things that you don’t have already control over, you’ll automatically leave your comfort zone. That’s why when you’re making changes to your daily routines by adding new techniques like time tracking, you’ll feel uncomfortable at first but it’ll make you expand your comfort zone in a long run. If you want to be a better version of yourself or you just want to improve things in your life, you need continuously seek discomfort.

These were some of the most common problems and general solutions for these problems to increase your productivity when working remotely and all of these are based on our experiences at Vif. If you’ve liked this article and you want to see more productivity-related content, please follow us and we’ll see you soon 👋🏼.