Have you hit a wall and become overwhelmed with working remotely? Maybe you didn’t set good habits for working from home because you thought it would be temporary, or you have hit some snags settling into a long-term remote work routine that really works for you.
We know that remote work can be difficult at times and that being forced into it unexpectedly due to a global health crisis comes with its own set of challenges.
We’ve been a full-time remote team from the beginning, and consider ourselves experts at working as a remote team. Here are the six tips we recommend to make your day a little easier, less stressful, and hopefully more productive!
Make a to-do list and prioritize by deadline
We know it can be overwhelming to have so many tasks and not know where to start. If your tasks are scrambled and unclear you’ll waste a lot of time figuring out what’s going on and what to do next. You’ll save yourself a lot of frustration when everything you need to do is clearly laid out by date/time. Not a fan of physically writing things down and prefer to do everything digitally? Then our next tip is perfect for you.
Take advantage of digital tools
There are tons of digital tools available to help make work easier for you. Things like Google Calendar are helpful to schedule out your day, and tools like Dropbox and Google Drive keep all your documents in an easily accessible place and promote collaboration within your team. If you’d like a full list of our top free tools for digital organizers, get it here.
Take breaks
Regardless of where you’re working from, taking regular breaks is essential to ensure you don’t get burned out. Go for a quick walk around your house, take your pets outside, or water your plants — any activity that’ll get your mind refreshed and ready to work again is great.
Keep regular hours
Just because you’re working from home doesn’t mean you shouldn’t follow a schedule. It’s important to not work all night. Even though you may not physically have an office space to leave, make sure you put a divide between work and time for yourself.
Limit distractions
To limit distractions, start by dedicating a workspace that won’t surround you with disruptive elements. This can be difficult in small spaces or when there are others at home. If your space is limited, we recommend doing something as simple as moving chairs or tables around to a spot that isn’t conducive to watching TV, falling asleep, or cooking. We know working from home can be hard, especially when you have partners, kids, and pets that can distract you. If you’re unable to limit the physical distractions in the place you work in, try scheduling timers to start and stop breaks. Work for a while and then during your break be as distracted as you need to be until your timer goes off to start working again.
Join online communities to stay connected
This tip is a little less work related and more for your general mental health. We know it can get lonely working from home, especially if you live alone, and that’s why we suggest joining online communities to stay connected. Whether these be related to your professional work or personal hobbies, it’s important to be socially distanced but not socially isolated.
Give yourself grace
Our current circumstances can be very stressful and you might not be able to perform at your best all the time. Even though you’re working from home you should still take care of yourself by taking vacation days, sick days, and mental health days.