There are plenty of practical advantages to working at home. Nevertheless, a remote working environment can present its own unique challenges that can impede your productivity. These tips and tricks can help you maximize your efficiency and also make working from home a more comfortable, enjoyable experience.
Create a Comfortable Environment That Facilitates Focus
Put some thought and effort into shaping a workspace that you can feel comfortable in for an extended period of time. Including a few smart features can support your energy levels and help you concentrate.
Consider using aromatherapy to stay alert and engaged while you work at home. Use Young Living Essential Oils to infuse your workspace with scents that promote focus. Scents such as grapefruit or peppermine have an energizing effect, and they can enhance mental clarity. If you’re feeling a little anxious about a challenge or setback, calming scents such as lavender or chamomile might help you rein in anxiety and maintain positive momentum. These products are derived from natural, sustainable sources, so they are an excellent choice for any type of aromatherapy.
Set up an ergonomic workstation. In particular, you need a comfortable work chair with adequate lumbar support, arm rests, and adjustable height. If you have lower back problems, having a footrest or another place to put your feet up might make staying seated in a chair less strenuous for you. Make sure your monitor is at the same height as your eye level to avoid impinging nerves in your neck or upper back.
In addition, make it a point to keep your space tidy. Being in an orderly, clean environment can be a big help in keeping your attention on your work assignments
Get in Work Mode
In an environment that lacks the same formality of an office, getting lax about your responsibilities could be a problem. Integrate a few elements into your routine that help you differentiate your work life from your home life. For starters, silence your cell phone. You wouldn’t be scrolling social media or actively contributing to a group chat on WhatsApp if you were in the office, and you shouldn’t be doing it from home.
Next, get in the habit of keeping other electronics turned off. Having a television on in the background might seem like you’re just giving your workspace a little ambience, but it’s probably just going to be too distracting for you. If silence is truly deafening, try playing some mellow music at a low volume.
Use Organizational Tools
Many people find it helpful to “clock in” when they sit down to start work from their home office. You can use your phone’s stopwatch feature on its clock, or you can use a time management app to time your work sessions. This simple but practical tool will help you tabulate the actual hours that you’ve expended by giving you a convenient way to track your breaks.
A task management aid is another good technological tool that can help you monitor and improve your efficiency. You can use it to keep track of important deadlines or create your own deadlines in order to ensure that you are not spending too much or too little time on any single agenda item.
In addition, you use time and task management programs to assign varying levels of priority to different items on your to-do list. Harnessing this feature will optimize the way that you approach your workload. People sometimes fall into the trap of veering towards the least demanding tasks that they need to rather than the hardest or highest-priority tasks. Laying out your objectives in a clear, organized format that you can refer to in a glance is going to help you keep things in perspective and channel your energy strategically.
Ultimately, as part of the remote workforce, you don’t have to spend time getting to and from work, you don’t have to have to share space with people who distract you, and you don’t have to dress in any particular way. In contrast, commuting from your kitchen to your home office is no sweat, the only people who might distract you are the people who you are closest to, and wearing comfortable clothes all of the time feels awesome. These perks can sometimes make it tough to keep your head in the game, so you have to be conscientious about keeping your energy and focus on your work.
