Productivity Strategies During COVID-19

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there's been much disruption to the traditional operations in many sectors all over the world. The way people work has been affected, with many companies suggesting or mandating their workers to begin to work from home for their safety.

In these hard times, individuals and companies must develop remote work strategies to stay productive while working from home. Those who are able to establish effective productivity strategies now will be able to keep up with remote work post pandemic.

Whether you are new to working remotely or have been in the game for long, here are six productivity strategies that will work magic for you and your team even amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

1. Create the Ideal Workspace

The first necessary step to stay productive while working from home is creating a perfect workspace. Working from home does not necessarily mean you can set up an office anywhere within the house, such as from the comfort of your couch, bedroom, or other excessively convenient places.

It’s much better to designate a specific space within your home and to treat it as an office. Please don't go there unless it's time for work; don't allow others to come in uninvited; set up a comfortable chair and table; leave your work tools behind after the day's job.

2. Create a Workable Plan and a Daily Routine

Some things sound unnecessary or weird even, but people who take advantage mostly have exciting stories to tell. Having a plan is necessary to stay productive while working from home. Scheduling activities, taking break times, meditating, and knowing when to call it quits for the day—these are far too important to be ignored.

Moreover, keeping a daily routine as you would if you were to report at a traditional office setting every day helps to keep your mind alert and ready for work. Routine activities such as taking a walk, drinking a cup of coffee, hitting the gym, and so on, can help boost your performance throughout the day.

3. Take Measures to Shut Out Distractions

According to work-from-home productivity data on Rescuetime blog, remote workers had a 4% increase in the average daily time spent on their most important work and an 18% reduction in the time spent on communication than office workers.

While people who work from home tend to be more productive than their office counterparts, it’s still a fact that working from home may be a source of more distractions than in a traditional office setting.

That's why you must shut out distractions from family, pets, friends, and neighbors. Sometimes, you may be the distraction you need to deal with, and it would help if you can do your laundry or clean the dishes at a more convenient time other than time for work.

If you had to report at a physical office every day, you can bet that your friends won't bother checking on you. However, people tend to think you have the luxury of time when working from home. Making your friends know you are firm with your schedule will help you to shut out distractions and stay productive.

4. Use Telecommuting Software

Working from home can be easier than you think. Based on facts from the 2020 state of remote work report on Buffer, 20% of interviewed remote workers say their biggest challenge working remotely is collaboration and communication. Another 20% claimed their biggest challenge is loneliness.

With companies and individuals utilizing the right work-from-home tools in their remote work business, this percentage could reduce tremendously. For example, communication tools, such as Slack and Zoom, can help remote workers to keep in touch with their organization and feel like they are important to their company. Using emails is good, but these better communication tools that are tailored for remote work are more functional.

One other thing that remote workers need to take advantage of is using time tracker apps. People can get too confident and do other non-work-related activities within scheduled work hours, and they may not even realize the amount of time wasted doing other things.

Using time tracker apps can help monitor remote employee activities with features such as mouse and keyboard tracking, screen sharing, and real-time logging of events. It can also help to generate automatic reports and invoice directly from the app.

5. Maintain Your Social Life Outside Work

It can be challenging to create a balance between working remotely and maintaining a healthy social life. It would even take a family that understands the nature of working remotely not to take things too personally when you don't spend so much time with them.

With most remote employees admitting that they are the happiest when they spend at least 76% of their time working remotely, it may be challenging to take some time to build social relationships. However, having healthy social relationships also help to boost productivity.

6. Find a Friend or Group of Work-from-Home Friends

Relating and discussing with people helps to trigger creativity, especially if the discussions are with that aim. It’s even better when your friends and the people you relate with also work from home; this helps to form a mastermind that will drive you and your association into higher levels of productivity.

Conclusion

These strategies, from setting up an ideal workspace, shutting out distractions, creating a routine, using time tracker apps, and more, are not out-of-this-world techniques. Several companies and individuals who are making the most of remote work have stuck to these same practices for years. Integrating them into your operations will help you reach higher heights of productivity while working from home.

About the Author:

Finidi Lawson is a tech enthusiast and a Windows 10 expert who writes for Traqq. His passion is finding effective solutions to Windows 10 problems and resolving the most complicated software and hardware issues. Armed with a high level of expertise and a deep understanding of how computer technology works, Finidi believes that his mission is helping people get the most out of their devices.

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