Do you ever feel drained and uninspired when it’s time to work from home? Working from home has become increasingly popular in the modern age, providing a unique combination of convenience and flexibility. Despite this, it can be challenging to manage your workflow when separating your professional and personal lives.
Many professionals find themselves losing hours in slumps of low productivity. Thankfully, some simple tips can help boost your efficiency without forcing you to sacrifice your much-needed breaks or make too many changes.
1. Separate work mail from personal mail
It is crucial to separate work mail from personal mail while working remotely to maximize productivity and time efficiency.
Online Mail
- Create separate email accounts for business and recreational use.
- Utilize multiple folders and filters for sorting your emails.
- Use online software like Gmail to automate sorting emails into designated folders while protecting your inbox against spam and malicious phishing activities.
Physical Mail
Keeping track of work mail can be complicated without a dedicated space and systematized approach. Setting up a PO box for work mail is one way to ensure efficient management of important correspondence and documents. You’ll have greater control over the organization and security of sensitive documents.
2. Meal prep
Meal prepping is a fool-proof way to stay on top of your day and ensure you have healthy and energizing meals during working hours. Not only does it take time to prepare meals every day, but being home all day can lead to unhealthy snacking or quick but inadequate meals.
There are plenty of ways to meal prep successfully, such as investing in good cookware, taking an hour out of your Sunday for grocery shopping and food prepping, making use of leftovers or slow cooker meals, and batch cooking. Taking the time to plan will free up valuable work hours throughout the week and ensure that you’ll have something delicious you look forward to eating when lunchtime arrives.
3. Set reminders
Not only will reminders help you break up long stretches of work, but your mental and physical well-being will benefit from getting away from the desk every few hours. Breaks don’t always need to be longer than fifteen minutes – small breaks that include walking outside or making a quick call can make all the difference when trying to achieve more efficient workdays at home.
To set reminders, try dedicating tasks to particular times of the day and setting alarms or calendar notifications for anticipated blocks of time. You can also write down your desired breaks on paper and envision them as part of a timeline throughout the day.
4. Set boundaries
Creating healthy boundaries helps differentiate between work hours and life hours, leaving less room for mixing the two. It can also prevent burnout while encouraging success. Separate yourself from domestic interruptions by informing family members when you plan on taking uninterrupted focus time so they know not to bother you during those hours.
Designate specific times during the day for dealing with work issues to ensure that you aren’t distracted by personal matters as you try to accomplish your business goals.
5. Take breaks
To efficiently work from home day after day while avoiding burnout and maximizing productivity, it’s essential to take regular breaks. Breaks can be as simple as taking a brisk walk outside in the fresh air or enjoying a coffee or tea break with friends or family.
Regular breaks allow you to refocus your attention on your tasks and reset emotionally or mentally so you can get back to work refreshed and ready to tackle new challenges productively.
6. Stay socially active
If you are not careful, you may find it hard to maintain a healthy work-life balance. Staying socially active while working from home is an essential element of the equation to prevent isolation.
Developing achievable goals of connection to friends and family and frequenting institutions such as libraries, churches, or parks can help. Moreover, intentional involvement in extracurricular activities is also smart. Hobbies or clubs are great outlets for interacting with others who share common interests.
7. Dedicate a workspace
Working in the same environment you rest in can adversely lead to a lack of focus, unhealthy habits, and stress. Having an established space separate from daily life can help increase productivity, reduce distractions, and keep the lines between work and home life less blurred.
There are several ways to go about dedicating a workspace that works best for you. Consider finding a space with good natural light, whether at the dining room table or in a home office, where you can set up your laptop, monitor, mouse, and other equipment.
8. Please your senses
Pleasing your senses by creating an inviting environment can increase productivity and allow you to focus better on the task at hand.
How to do this:
- Incorporate elements of nature, such as plants or framed images from nature
- Utilize scents to create a relaxing atmosphere — for instance, diffusers with calming essential oils
- Keep cords neat and out of the way to reduce clutter and stressors
- Select colors that induce tranquility or provide energy
9. Use your sick days
Even though you work from home, you must take care of your health. If you feel sick or unwell, use your sick days to relax and unwind. Taking time off is important because if you ignore your body’s needs and push through the pain, it can result in prolonged health issues.
10. Have an after-work routine
Creating an after-work routine allows you to separate your work and home time, improving productivity during both. Having a clear end-of-day plan tailored to your lifestyle is essential to maximize success with remote work.
Examples of a successful after-work routine include meditating for a few minutes to refocus energy, making a quick plan for the next day’s tasks to help you stay organized, and setting clear boundaries between work life and personal life by clearly shutting down. For example, you can shut down any programs related to work at a specific time each day.
11. Stay organized
Taking the time to organize one’s workspace and create a schedule can help ensure that work tasks don’t get overlooked and projects remain on track. Working in an organized way helps improve focus, keeps distraction to a minimum, and helps fulfill obligations.
When thinking about staying organized, it can be helpful to develop an effective system for responding to emails should be a priority and schedule blocks of time to focus on particular tasks. Setting up regular check-ins with colleagues is also beneficial for providing project updates and guidance.
Before you go
The rise of the remote workforce has brought a new way of working to the forefront of today’s society. Working from home can be great for productivity, but it also requires careful organization and self-discipline to maximize efficiency. To effectively work from home, follow the tips above, such as communicating, meal prepping, taking breaks, setting boundaries, and so on.
