At E-Max, we’re all about increasing your efficiency and that won’t stop with COVID-19. To help all of our customers, contacts and everyone else currently working from home, we’ve asked the members of our team who regularly work from home for some tips on how to stay productive. Hope this helps and remember – it won’t be forever!
1. Get up and get dressed
Lounging around in your PJs all day sounds great but it’s unlikely to help you do your most productive work. Dressing in clothes you’d wear to the office (think dress down Friday) is a good signal to your brain that this is a working day. And whilst some creative geniuses such as John Lennon, Truman Capote and the great Winston Churchill, worked effectively from their beds, many lesser mortals may find it a struggle. Making your bed your workspace sends mixed signals to your brain, making it more difficult to either get a good night’s sleep or a good day’s work output!
2. Create a comfortable work environment – but move around occasionally
It might be at your kitchen table, a desk in your study or even a humongous beanbag but wherever you work from, make sure it’s comfortable and has the tools you need to perform your role. If you have a laptop with a small screen, consider whether you need a larger fixed monitor if you are going to be looking at it all day – your neck and back will thank you!
Throw in some personal elements – what might inspire you or keep you focused? Pictures of the family, a calming landscape or some desk toys help make this area your own. Setting up a regular spot gives your brain another trigger that it’s time to work.
Of course, you shouldn’t feel as though you can’t move from that area during your working hours – you’ll probably perform better at some tasks in a different location, like reading a lengthy report in your favourite armchair or sofa. Moving around at regular intervals gets the blood flowing and ensures you stay fresh.
3. Stick to a consistent schedule
Set a time to start work and stick to it. Time can disappear when there’s no-one else around: a ‘quick’ look at social media or a news website (especially now!) can easily blow out to half an hour, as can doing one or two household chores before you get down to work. Instead, decide when you are going to start in the morning and keep to it.
You may still have online or phone meetings to attend, as well as clients to speak with, so sticking to your regular business hours may work best for you – or can you start at the time you would be leaving the house to commute and finish earlier? Or vice versa? Gaining back your travel time is definitely a bonus of working from home.
Equally as important as your start time is deciding when to to finish your workday. Without a commute home, many people find it hard to switch off mentally from a day’s work. When it’s time, make sure you close the laptop, try not to look at your emails and move on to your usual post-work routine. Everyone needs proper downtime.
4. Stay focused with a To Do list
A To Do list is a great device. Not only does it help you set priorities around your most important tasks, it can also give you a real sense of accomplishment or achievement as you tick things off that list. And that’s also a real confidence booster, especially in current times, when things are changing daily. You’ve got this!
5. Take regular breaks and eat well
As we said above, it’s important to move around during the day. Consider how you work – are you better off completing a task over a couple of hours and then taking a break. Or would you respond better to a scheduled 5-10 min break every hour, on the hour? Either way, by giving your brain regular breathers, you’ll be fresher and more alert as when you come back to your tasks. (And it gives you a few minutes at a time to knock off those mundane but necessary household task like another load of washing or unload the dishwasher – hey, there’s got to be some ‘benefits’!)
Staying healthy is more important now than ever. Don’t munch through all the junk food in your cupboards – it may give you a quick lift in blood sugar but overall will only slow you down. Instead, try to find nutritious snacks to eat throughout the day with a decent GI, like fruit, nuts, etc. And remember to keep drinking plenty of fluids.
6. Stay in touch with others
If you’re one of the millions who have been asked to work from home for social distancing purposes, you may find working alone quite isolating and challenging initially. Take time to contact your colleagues, bounce ideas off each other, continue to collaborate on projects and ask the same questions you would have in the office. With stacks of free virtual meetings software and apps available, it’s easy to stay in touch and good to know you’re not alone.
7. Have a back up plan
If your internet and/or power goes out, the house is full of children, pets or adults (begging the question of which of those is most disruptive?) or your neighbour decides today is a good day to cut down his trees with a chainsaw, working from home becomes even more challenging. Make a Plan B for emergencies. Can you go to a friend’s, a library, lock yourself in the garden shed or even sit in your car in range of some wi-fi? Can you hotspot from your phone, invest in a power bank or use your personal laptop? Look at what options you have and how they can resolve your challenges.
Follow these tips and you’ll soon be working productively from home. However, if you want to be as productive when you get back to your worksite, why not see what E-Max ERP can do for your manufacturing or engineering company. We are also working from home so give us a call on 0141 644 4424, drop us an email or take a look around our website to find out more. We’re offering online demos so you can see our manufacturing ERP system in action without breaching social distancing requirements. Stay well.
