How To Stay Productive While Working From Home (7 Productivity Tips)

Many workplaces have shifted to a work-from-home model, and some companies are even abolishing the traditional physical office setting completely.

However, remote workers experience difficulties adjusting to the new routine, distractions at home, problems managing kids, lack of motivation, constant fatigue and headaches, and even mental health issues.

Looking into some of the best productivity tips to help you stay motivated and get work done, let’s boost your productivity and help you stay productive while working at the comforts of your home.

How to Stay Productive While Working From Home?

Working from home has a lot of benefits; you can wear whatever you want, take breaks whenever you want, and work at your own pace. But some remote employees are struggling to stay productive at home and not working in an office.

So how do you counter these challenges as a remote team? What are some working from home tips that can help increase your productivity while working remotely at your home setting?

Here are some work from home productivity tips to keep your productivity levels up and stay productive working from home.

1. Create a dedicated productive workspace

Creating a dedicated space for your home office is quite essential. Without a proper workspace, working can be incredibly tough and you’re more likely to get distracted. Although working from your bed may seem tempting, it can impact your productivity.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when setting up your workspace:

• Pick a space that is isolated from the rest of the house to minimize all sorts of distractions.
• Invest in a quality desk and a comfortable office chair with good support for your spine. Since you’ll be working long hours, it’s important that you’re comfortable.
• Buy all the necessary office supplies you’ll need as well as electronic items such as headphones, webcam, microphone, printer, etc.
• Personalize your space by adding accessories such as plants or paintings to mimic a real office. This also helps you feel less isolated from the outside world.

2. Take frequent breaks and naps too

Just like in a real workspace, taking breaks from work at home is necessary. It refreshes your mind, reduces stress, and boosts your overall productivity. It also gives your eyes much-needed rest from staring at the screen all day.

There are a lot of ways you can de-stress during breaks.

• Stay active and taking a walk inside your house or around your neighborhood is an excellent idea that also provides much-needed physical activity.
• If reading helps you relax, grab a book, and make yourself comfortable.
• If your work permits, taking a short nap is also a good option. You can set an alarm to wake you up after 20-30 minutes.
• Talking to family members and friends also helps you freshen up and take your mind off work.
• Use the Pomodoro Technique and help section your work time and rest time.

3. Try to maintain a work schedule and stick to it

Working from home doesn’t mean you should work whenever you want. Working at a different time each day can seriously impact your productivity. Thus, it is important to set work hours for yourself, just like in a real office setting. These hours should be the same every day, with breaks and mealtimes included.

Setting work hours and sticking to them helps you maintain a healthy work-life balance and prevents you from getting unorganized and disoriented.

Structuring your workday when you are working remotely can help improve your productivity.

Besides work, maintaining a work schedule helps you create time for family, recreation, and other responsibilities.

4. Work out a plan to limit distractions at home

Having distractions at your workplace isn’t good. It not only reduces your productivity but also takes away your peace and stresses you out. There can be a number of distractions while you’re working from home. These include:

• Family members talking and unknowingly create a disturbance
• Children crying for your attention (common for most working parents)
• Noise from adjoining houses/apartments
• Digital distractions such as social media notifications or calls and messages not related to work

Steps to limit distractions at home and be more productive

1. First, create a designated workspace in your home. This could be a separate room or even just a corner of a room. Make sure the space is quiet and free of clutter.
2. Then, talk to your family members and convey your working hours beforehand to minimize disturbance.
3. Finally, to prevent your kids from interfering with your work, you can plan activities in advance that keep them engaged or get help from friends/neighbors/other family members for supervision purposes. Hunting out companies offering child-care services is also worthwhile.

5. Don’t delay or skip meals

Sometimes, while working from home, you may become too engrossed in work to think about anything else. Or, since you’re alone in your home office, it may be easy to lose track of time. As a result, you may delay taking your meals or avoid them altogether.

Avoid skipping meals when you’re working. Meals provide much-needed nutrition to keep you going, so having them on time is important. Also, skipping meals can be dangerous for your health, which can affect your productivity.

6. Allocate time to fulfill other responsibilities at home

Since you’re now working from home, there may be some other responsibilities besides work that you may need to fulfill. These may include doing groceries, driving kids to school, seeing your pets, or getting your laundry sorted.

Try to get some of these tasks done before or after work.

Fulfill the remaining responsibilities in your breaks if you aren’t resting.

Doing simple, daily tasks is also a good way to refresh your mind before you resume work.

7. Try to get up early

Knowing that you don’t have to head out and make a dash for the office can tempt you to stay in bed longer. But getting up early gives you the ability to plan your day in advance, take a walk, have breakfast, and catch up on emails before you start working. It makes you more productive and helps you get a fresh start.

Apple CEO Tim Cook wakes up at 4 am to read, Michele Obama wakes up at 4.30 am to start her day with a workout.

According to Harvard Biologist Christoph Randler, morning people are more productive than evening types, simply because they are more proactive and willing to take action to wake up early.

Benefits of Working From Home on Increase Productivity

Yes, working from home can make you more productive and is beneficial for both the employees and employers. Working from home has benefited the United States economy by almost 5 percent by increasing employees’ productivity.

According to a study conducted in the United States by WFHreasearch.

• 6 out of 10 workers found that working from home allows them to become more productive.
• 3 out of 10 workers feel there is no difference in the level of productivity between working from home or working on-site.
• 1 out of 10 workers feels that working from home seems to be less productive.

The increase in productivity is mainly because of a few factors:

• Remote work technology (Zoom, Microsoft Teams, WebEx, Google Meeting, etc.) goes mainstream and many companies are adopting new technologies which allow remote working possible.
• Reduce the need for long commuting which allows the workers to start work feeling fresh and improves their work efficiency.
• Reduce interruptions by coworkers and bosses which occur frequently in the office environment.

Getting Productive While Working Remotely Is Easy

Staying productive while working from home can be pretty easy if you follow these tips. And with the increased adoption of new technology which allows virtual collaboration and communication, working from home will soon be even more common.

With many of the big tech companies having their entire workforce working from home, we need to prepare for the future of work and probably start setting up our home office so we can be more productive and have fun working from home.