How To Work Efficiently From Home?

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

People constantly argue about where to work more productively: in the office among colleagues or at home alone? In fact, both options have their own advantages and disadvantages. But today we'll talk about how to work effectively without leaving your home.

Situation

We need to have a separate workplace to create an appropriate atmosphere. Remember, great writers, composers, painters and sculptors created their masterpieces while working from home. Most often they had a separate office or a whole workshop, where no one could disturb them and where everything was ready to go. Enough paper and ink, canvas prepared, brushes washed, tools laid out.

Can you proudly state that your workplace looks exactly the same? Do you feel confident and comfortable sitting down at the table? We work more efficiently when it is convenient for us, when we have everything we need for work and it is convenient to use it. You may not have your own office (I don't). But let it have your own table or at least a small laptop table. This should be a separate workplace that you make as convenient as possible for you. Do not let someone touch your belongings and arrange them as they please. If the folder with the papers is in the same place where you left it yesterday, it gives you a feeling of confidence and comfort.

Check separately if your tools are suitable for the job. Perhaps the computer is already too old, it cannot cope with the tasks being performed, it constantly freezes, thereby taking up time and nerves? Do you feel sorry for the money to upgrade it or buy new equipment? In vain! By saving on equipment that helps you in your work, you are losing the quality of your labor. No need to buy the latest model with tons of useless features. For comfortable work with documents, an inexpensive device will be enough.

Mood

What is most often preventing us from working effectively at home? Lots of distractions. Can you tune in to a workflow? It couldn't be easier! For example, the GTD methodology includes a planning technique that will be useful to us even in its simplest form.

To catch the wave of work, take a look at the to-do list for today and think about it for at least a couple of minutes. Your mind will immediately be filled with thoughts about work. You haven't created a to-do list yet? Then follow these simple steps:

1. Free yourself from just a few minutes. Do not look at anything, do not read, do not write. Just sit back and think. If nothing comes to mind, sit quietly, without thoughts.
2. Concentrate on what you are working on. Tell yourself about your own project, place it in the focus of attention and hold it there.
3. Determine what associations arise when you think about this project. Most likely, they will be related to what exactly needs to be done to complete it.
4. Write down the associations that appear in a column.
5. Try again to focus on associations and write new ones.

The result is a list of associations associated with your work, more precisely with a specific project, layout or article. Most likely (for 99, 9% of people this is so), this list will be our list of actions. The steps you need to take to complete the job.

If your list looks just like a bunch of associations and bears little resemblance to a traditional checklist, add “do,” “do,” “commission,” or “submit” to each item. And you're done!

Routine

A typical day at the office is more or less predictable. You know who is coming, when, with whom to discuss the past weekend, and when to take a coffee break. It is much more difficult to predict a working day at home in this way, here we are easier and faster to relax and get distracted by trifles.

To stop losing your mood on a regular basis, be clear about your daily routine. For example, you work from 10:00 to 13:00, then take a lunch break and start work again at 14:00. If you smoke, mark the time of the smoke break separately. Yes, like in a factory: an hour of work - 10 minutes smoke break. And please try not to do this while you work. It will only be distracting. After a break or smoke break, review the to-do list again. This will get you back to work.

Conditions

Homes are often distracted by things that shouldn't be at work. I often hear: "I can't work at home - the TV is interfering." Each TV has an off button. And if you think that such a sound background does not matter, then you are wrong.

It, one way or another, occupies a part of your consciousness, reducing its capacity and taking away some of the energy. Let's draw an analogy with a computer. Programs running in the background still use a certain amount of resources, reducing overall performance. Likewise, additional sources of information consume the resources of our brain.

So just turn off anything that is not work-related and might be distracting. A phrase or shot can awaken an association that will pull you out of a focused state. It seemed like they worked, worked and suddenly remembered that they had forgotten to buy bread. And why do you need this?

Ask loved ones to respect your work time and space and not distract you. If someone is watching TV in the same room (and even at full volume), buy them headphones. Offended? Buy headphones yourself. Noise canceling.

Planning

We have already done the initial planning at the stage of attunement to work using the technique of free association. But for now, let's get to this more formally.

So, tomorrow you would like to work from home. Write down everything that you intend to do, what result to get and what to achieve. Be clear about the ultimate goal of your efforts. What actions are required for this? Which of these actions can you take tomorrow? Choose a specific sector of work.

With this mindset, it's not only easy to make the to-do list itself, but it's also easy to follow. And when it’s easy and simple to do what you set out to do, you work with the right time management technology.