Photo by Nelly Antoniadou on Unsplash
Working from home can be challenging to some of us. At first it was sounds fun where you can set your own time, not to worry having your boss watching over you, having snacks while preparing presentation slides, having an online meeting on your couch.
Working from home can also define as not productive to some people. You may feel low energy, lonely, procrastinating and distracted with confusion on selecting which snacks suits your meeting today.
How to be productive working from home ? I’ve been working partially remote and been hanging out (both online and offline) with digital nomads for the past few years. Talking about how to be productive working from home. These are some notes I’ve been taking that might be able to help you to be productive working from home.
Let’s begin our working from home…
1. Good internet connection
A mobile hotspot might be the best option
Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash
To be able to work from home this is the first and important thing you will definitely need to be productive. Bad internet connection is not just bad for you but also for other team member.
Where 5 years ago you will only need to make sure that your internet connectivity allows you to at least sending email and web browser, nowadays where video conferencing is something commonly use for online collaboration, you will need a faster and reliable internet connectivity.
I would recommend you for at least 10 Mbps for your internet speeds to allows you for smooth experience on Video Conferencing. Of course, if you have multiple multiple devices connected at a time then you may need a faster internet connection.
When selecting for internet provider to use, you need to consider your location. No internet provider covers the entire country. The best internet in one area might not be available in another. It is also recommended to have more than 1 connectivity available just in case technical difficulties happened in your area.
2. Plan your day
Start your day early and plan for tasks you want to accomplish today. Rise early is a habit that most of successful people share. The earlier you start, the earlier you can plan your day.
Plan it as detail as you can and cross it as you accomplish them. Small accomplishment may boost your confidence in accomplishing bigger one. Task as small as making up your bed or brewing your single-origin coffee to Task as big as a panel call with your stakeholders. Prioritize them and set the time when you want to do them. Spare 5-minutes in between for a quick break or stretching.
If you’re not a morning person, try to have this list prepare before bed the night before and set a loud alarm clock for the next morning. One of my friend have his what-to-order for lunch ready the night before so he won’t waste any effort for decision making.
Essentially by preparing your day before starting them allows you to prepare yourself for the most important tasks without have to missing out less important one now but draining you out later.
3. Have your working corner at home
Separate working corner from personal corner
Photo by Izabelle Acheson on Unsplash
Though working from the comfort of my bed was the first thing that came to my mind when i heard i can work from home, but that is actually the first thing that my digital nomad friends told me not to. Psychologically in the long run working on the bed would confused your brain between working and resting. This would mess your body clock and your mood whenever you caught something at work. Let the bed be your sanctuary.
It is good though if you have your own working room or working desk complete with electric plug, printer, working trays and phone line. But it isn’t essential. Instead pick somewhere in your home, it can be a corner in your home where you can focus doing your tasks. Preferably with solid surface where you can use as a decent background image when you’re having a video call.
Your work corner can be your sofa, bean bag, dining table, balcony, or even your terrace. Have your working corner comfortable and far from distractions. Keep it tidy after work so you won’t have to spend so much time the next morning tidying it up. Design it to minimize distractions during work.
This separation may create a commuting experience to your brain simply by physically moving from your personal corner towards your working corner. This may triggers your brain to switch from slacking mode to productive mode when you are in the working corner.
4. Use tools
You need the right tool to do the right job in the right way.
Photo by Carlos Muza on Unsplash
To be productive working from home you will definitely need some tools to allow you to be productively collaborating and communicating. Some tools that were commonly used are Slack, Zoom, Trello, Asana, Google Drive, Dropbox, Google Suits, Evernote, OneNote, and VPN.
Those tools are somehow allows you to interconnect each app with one another which helps you to be more productive. For example, setting up a conference call meeting on Zoom allows you to add to your Google Calendar to reminds you as well as send an invite on Slack channel to invite others.
You can also connecting Trello and Slack so whenever there’s an update on progress, it can automatically send a notification to your team member on a Slack channel.
A cloud storage app like G Drive or Dropbox allows you to share and access files anywhere. You only need to save it on a folder and share it to your team member to access it anywhere. Changes are properly logged so you know who, when and what was change on your shared file.
Working from home is a challenge, and to be productive working from home is another different challenge. Those are some tips i collectively taking.
Do you have a tips on how to be productive working from home? Please share on the comment section below.
