Remote Work Tips and Tricks

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Working remotely is an increasingly popular practice, as it involves doing your job from home or rather away from the office. Such a thing has its distinct advantages and disadvantages, but if you organize the work well, it can surely be effective. However, before you read about remote work, you can check more about flexible and agile working.

 🚀Read The Ultimate Guide to Productivity🚀

Even though it’s a job where you don’t have to leave your home, it’s not that simple or easy. It is necessary to organize your daily routine accordingly, which is exactly where remote work tips and tricks come in handy. This article will talk about several of them, guaranteed to make your remote sessions productive.

Find a Workspace

In order to get started, the workspace has to be ensured. Usually, it’s a study room. A working table has to be clear, so you can organize your workspace the way you want.

Make yourself space for papers and documentation for your work and sort them out.

Working in an environment where you’re surrounded with papers, reports and other working documents, motivates and allows you to focus. There is a lot to be gained from organizing your workspace just like you would do in an office.

Invest in Work Equipment

In today’s world, quality work equipment makes your life easier. That’s why it is quite necessary to invest in technology, like getting a PC or laptop. Stock yourself up with all the tools needed for the job you’re doing, which also includes plain office supplies.

There are companies which will buy all the needed equipment for their employees, while others expect you to provide your own. Don’t let that discourage you, even if you don’t get your needed equipment, it’s a good idea to buy your own. It will surely be profitable and usable in future. After all, it’s an investment in your own future.

Schedule it

Making a schedule and sticking to it is the key point of organizing your day. If the day has structure, you’ll find remote work tasks to be easier. It’s quite popular to create “to-do” lists, which include priorities of your tasks and objectives for the month.

Scheduling allows you to manage productivity. Even if your productivity is not that good, some tasks can be left out for the following day. Therefore, scheduling task compensations makes it possible to work without any major interruptions.

Take a Break

None can work without a break. It’s the key to every successful job, so everyone needs it at some point. It increases productivity as you get much-needed strength to continue the job. Take a break, go make yourself coffee or tea, catch some fresh air, relax and then keep on working. The difference in efficiency will be more than obvious.

Communicate with a Company

When you work remotely, you are not able to communicate with colleagues in person, so using communication platforms is a must. Slack platform, for instance, is a cloud-based set of proprietary team collaboration tools and services, which might be a good option.

Also, consider setting automatic responses via email to the recipient. Think about templated messages, such as: “Contact me around 3 PM” or “Can’t answer at the moment. Will get back to you.” This is a good way to manage your time and reduce distractions. It allows you to finish the job without interruptions.

When there is a need for face-to-face communication, a good alternative could be Skype or some other live video chat platform.

Concentrate without Distractions

In order not to lose concentration, it’s necessary to reduce distractions. They are always present, though. When working from home, loud music, a messy table, family interruptions, and other distractions must be prevented.

Multitasking like checking social media or watching TV could greatly affect productivity.

According to Dr. David Meyer from American Psychological Association, it’s advisable not to do more than one task at a time, otherwise productivity decreases by 40%.

Determine Working Hours

Working from home shouldn’t mean not having working hours. Schedule it regularly as if you were working from the office.

It is very important to know when to stop.

Otherwise, you might get overload with work, what also leads to decreased productivity and efficiency. When your working time is over, simply shut down the devices and put them away, not to come to temptation.

Find Peak Hours

When you work remotely, companies often offer flexible working hours. Usually, people work the best in the morning, but everyone has different habits. So, if it’s possible to determine working hours, find what time fits you the best.

What are your peak hours?

That is when productivity is the highest. Schedule tasks the way you can get the best out of the day. Most important tasks, with the highest priorities, should be scheduled when you work the best.

Enjoy

The most obvious reason why people want to work remotely is that it offers them a more flexible lifestyle. Remote employees are notably less stressed and have higher morale than their in-office counterparts. In a report published by Royal Society for Public Health in the UK, it was found that 55% of participants felt more stressed as a result of their commute. However, happier, healthier employees produce better work and feel more committed to their companies. From this perspective, remote work is just a very good business option.

Now, let’s see some workplace predictions for 2020 from ZeroCater. 

Picture 1. Workplace prediction 2020

Conclusion

Sold on this lifestyle?

It is pretty appealing, I know.

The idea of waking up and living your life in a way that is most suited to your personal and professional goals, along with your habits and idiosyncrasies sounds almost too good to be true. There are lots of steps you should consider and determine when organizing it, but this way of living is possible for you, no matter where you’re at in life right now.

Remote work is still a relatively new concept in the professional world. With technology advancing at a faster rate than ever before, old concerns like communication and productivity tracking have been eradicated and more companies are looking into offering remote work as an option for their employees.

If you’re interested in living a more flexible lifestyle, or want to pursue a new way of thinking about personal and professional growth, check this Remote Playbook, by Toptal.