In this post, check out some tips to make your home office productive and efficient.
10 tips to enhance your home office
If you need to learn how to deal with working from home and still don’t know what to do to become more motivated, check out the tips we’ve prepared below!
1. Define your workspace
The first step in making your home office more productive is to set up a workspace. Choose which part of the house is quieter and has less traffic. If possible, choose a space near a window with natural light to help reduce energy costs.
Also, include the objects and furniture you might need to achieve your goals. Do not forget all the materials required for the duration of the day, so you should not waste some time looking for them.
2. Keep the environment organized
To stay productive and efficient, it is essential to keep your space organized. A space with items scattered around and out of place can make you feel distracted and unable to focus on the tasks you need to do.
In addition, it will take you longer to find the materials you need for work, and this will impact your routine. The ideal is to keep your environment tidy and with only the essentials close to you, in order to optimize your time .
3. Establish a routine
After defining a workspace and keeping the environment organized, to make your home office more productive, you need to have a routine of activities.
Prepare for the next day by creating a list of all the activities and meetings you have to conduct. Determine their relevance level in order to sort out the more urgent ones first.
Also, take note of how long it takes to complete each action. This will help you organize and plan your day. Over time, this planning can be done in advance, requiring only small adjustments throughout the week.
4. Respect the schedules
More than establishing a routine, you need to respect your schedule. When you stop doing tasks, they will pile up and this can snowball. The impacts of this action on your day-to-day life can harm your performance and effectiveness in carrying out tasks.
Therefore, always try to follow the plan and only stop doing an activity when it no longer makes sense or really needs to be rescheduled for another time.
5. Take breaks
Don’t think that to be productive you have to work eight hours straight, without taking breaks to refresh your mind or even go to the bathroom. Rest periods are important so that you can relax and return to your activities later with greater energy.
When creating your daily plan, set a lunch time and moments to take short breaks, whether for a snack or to rest your mind. You will stay motivated and have more focus by adopting these measures in your routine.
6. Don’t wear pajamas
Why take off your pajamas if you’re working from home and don’t need to go out, right? Well, you should know that this seemingly harmless choice can seriously harm your performance while working from home.
Wearing pajamas is linked to bedtime. Therefore, your brain starts to prepare for rest and slows down. This can reduce your focus, affecting productivity.
Therefore, when you wake up, try to follow your normal routine, as if you were getting ready for work, and change out of your pajamas.
7. Listen to music
Did you know that listening to music has many benefits for increasing productivity at work? It can improve concentration, mood and efficiency in performing tasks. However, it is important to consider which type of music contributes to these benefits.
8. Know how to say “no”
For many, working from home is still a new reality and can raise doubts, especially for those who live with you. Therefore, it is important to explain that, during a certain time, you will be dedicated to work activities and will not be able to perform other tasks, but that you will always let people know when you are available.
At times, then, you need to know how to say “no” when something is asked of you and this coincides with a professional task.
However, for those who have children or small children at home, certain things cannot be left aside, right? The best thing to do is to coordinate the child’s routine with that of the residents of the house and establish who will be responsible for each task.
9. Disconnect
Avoid anything that could cause distractions. If your cell phone or social media are not necessary for work, for example, try not to access them frequently. Ideally, you should only do this during breaks. If there is a television in the place where you are working, always leave it off.
10. Have professional goals
Take advantage of this time to set professional goals and invest in the actions necessary to achieve them. Therefore, set yourself some challenges. Whenever you achieve them, set new ones! To achieve professional success , you need to have a career plan and be continually training yourself.
We know very well that working from home can present some challenges, but you know yourself better than anyone else and understand what can help or affect your professional development .