Most people dream about the ability to work from the comfort of their own home, giving up their commute in favour of laying in, family and exercise time. But working remotely isn’t as great as it sounds, as we have now been forced to realise. Sure, you get to stay home, but it can be harder to focus on actually working with all the distractions around, lurking over your head, staying productive at home can take a little extra effort.
Luckily for us, being a digital marketing company, the transition to working remotely from home wasn’t a massive hurdle, as the majority of our work is done digitally and online anyway. However, there are a few key fundamentals we try to stick to in order to stay as productive as possible and keep business running as usual.
The first and most crucial tip is communication, a fairly obvious one I know, but one that maybe isn’t being taken advantage of to the fullest. Clear communication with your boss and peers and knowing exactly what’s expected of you is key. Most people spend their days in close proximity to their boss, meaning communication is easy and effortless. It shouldn’t have to be any different whilst at home, so having really clear-set expectations for communications day to day and utilising tools such as emails, skype calls and zoom conferences will for sure increase productivity.
Secondly, it’s important to treat it like a real job. Just because you can stay in your pyjamas all day doesn’t mean you should. By sticking to a similar morning routine as with your normal schedule is very beneficial when it comes to productivity. Also, allocate a set working space from home to use as your office, even the simplest of changes like plugging in a mouse and keyboard and working off a monitor rather than a laptop in bed can be much more prolific.
Lastly, minimise the risk of distractions as much as possible. Without anybody checking over your shoulder it is easy to succumb to the temptation of quick two-hour binge of that one Netflix show you’ve been dying to watch. Utilising app time limits and blocking certain apps during work hours is great way to kill that temptation and keep your brain focused. Furthermore, try to avoid multi-tasking, even if you think you can work with the TV on in the background, this will lead to a decrease in productivity because it takes your brain extra time to switch mental gears between tasks.
At Manifesto Design we are utilising programmes like Hootsuite to manage multiple twitter accounts and other social media channels from one tool. We are keeping up to date with our clients continuing to offer them our regular services and we are always available to assist new ones with meetings over skype to discuss any digital ventures with our team.
Let us know how you are coping with working from home!
– William Lee –