Working remotely? Here are 4 easy ways to maintain your productivity.
Don’t get me wrong, working remotely is an absolute dream.
I don’t feel tied to a desk – and I have the opportunity to work in locations that promote, rather than hinder, my productivity. However, it can be a challenge to work remotely.
For one, getting sucked into Netflix binges is WAY too easy. And, focusing on tasks around the house can be distracting when you’re there all day. Whatever it may be, it’s incredibly easy to be distracted from work when you’re working remotely.
So, I’d like to share a few of the ways that I’ve found to maintain my productivity in this still-somewhat-new work format:
Adjust your schedule
If you have the flexibility to manage your own hours, play around with them to examine when you’re most productive. For me, I know I’m most productive in the mornings. So while I’d rather get an early morning workout in, I know that I’m way more productive with work in the AM. So, I’ll typically hit the kickboxing gym in the evening and focus on my most important tasks in the morning.
Find your spot
Now that we’ve talked about discovering when you’re most productive, it’s important to chat about where you’re most productive. For me, it’s cafés. I typically hit my favorite local cafés throughout the week. There’s something about the calming music, curious chatter, oh…and the A+ espresso, that keeps me coming back. And keeps me on task. It could also be that I don’t want to be perusing sites wasting my time while everyone can see my screen. Either way, it works.
Plan out your week
For the first few months of working remotely and primarily for myself, I was winging it – to put it lightly. I had my tasks and I knew what was most important, but my schedule was all over the place.
Then, I began planning out my week. Now, you don’t need an expensive or robust tool to do this. In fact, I’m simply using my Google calendar! I block off times throughout the week to work on tasks for each specific client. I even leave the alerts on when scheduling out my time so that I’d have a 15-minute heads up before I needed to switch gears.
Batch your tasks
I’ll be the first to admit that I haven’t been the best at batching my tasks the past week (…..or two), but that one glorious week when I did batch all of my tasks? It was indeed….glorious. I was so incredibly productive. I felt like I was single tasking – finally! And, I was able to get more done because I was batching my tasks by client, which meant I wasn’t going back to open content calendars and scheduling tools multiple times for the same client. It was one and done.
An easy way to do this is to batch your tasks by client or type, or however else you categorize your work. Then – only work on those tasks during the allotted time you’ve blocked off on your calendar.
Are you working remotely this year? How do you maintain your productivity?
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