Americans are looking at a future where working remotely is the new normal. The key to working from home successfully is staying productive, motivated, and managing your time efficiently. Lucky for you, there are a few tips that you can incorporate into your schedule that will help you stay on top of deadlines while enjoying a healthy work-life balance.
Get Used to Daily Meetings
Working remotely does away with those organic work-related conversations that take place in-office. Embrace the virtual team and one-on-one meetings with managers. Though attending meetings might take up time you might use working, they are essential in managing workflows and help team members communicate effectively.
Maximize Fragmented Time
Fragmented time occurs in short blocks, mostly between scheduled meetings. Stay intentional about this time and use it to get started on (or knock something off) your to-do list. You’ll be surprised at how much you can get done in short bursts of time.
Set Clear Boundaries
Working from home can feel a little like juggling. You want to make sure that those multiple balls (home, work, and family) stay in the air. You can only do this by structuring your day around your work and home responsibilities. Keep an open line of communication between your boss and team so that they know which hours you can be available for impromptu calls and work.
Plan Your Week
Do this at the end of the week or on Monday morning. Set goals about what you want to achieve outside of meetings, brainstorming sessions, and impromptu calls. Then allocate chunks of time for you to get work done. Working toward short term goals will get you closer to meeting project deadlines and is much more effective than keeping your work calendar open-ended.
Have a Results-Oriented Approach
Employees who are working from out of the office tend to spend way more time working than they did in the office. This is often to compensate for the loss of visibility that comes from working in an office. Instead of focussing on the hours, you spend on your computer, pay attention to your results and deliverables. This will ensure that you don’t keep working from morning to night and will keep you focused too.
