The UK’s state of lockdown has recently been extended to the middle of May. For many, that means a fifth week of working from home. Although you might be in the swing of things by now, fully adapted to a new way of working, it’s also around now that you might see bad habits forming.
To remain productive, you’ll need to be efficient and effective. Both are equally important but the difference between the two is subtle and can sometimes be confused. Broadly speaking, they can be summed up as follows: being effective means doing the right things, being efficient means doing things right.
With the potential for another month or more of home working, it’s important to bear both in mind. Maintain your carefully built routines, continue avoiding distractions, and ensure you remain physically and emotionally healthy.
To help you stay at the top of your game, here’s your guide to seven of the best ways to stay effective and efficient when working from home.
1. Create a workspace
Whilst you might not have a home office to hunker down in, it is important to set yourself up a workstation. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a desk in the spare room, the kitchen or dining table, or a picnic bench in the garden, it just needs to feel like your own space.
Having your own ‘office’ set-up will help you get into an appropriate work mode and this, in turn, will aid efficiency – helping to ensure you’re doing the right things. It can also help you maintain a good posture, avoid distractions, and help with tip number two – distinguishing between home and work mode.
2. Distinguish between home and work mode
When you step away from your office space at the end of the day it is important to shut your laptop and forget about work for the evening, just as you would if you were commuting home from the office.
Acknowledging a firm cut-off between home and work means having a routine and sticking to it as much as possible.
As Professor William Castellano of New Jersey’s Rutgers University recently told the New York Times, “Get up at the same time and do all the things you would typically do to get ready for work. Thinking about how you’re going to structure your day similarly.”
You might not have a commute to contend with each morning, but getting showered, brushing your teeth and getting into ‘work mode’ before you sit down in your home office space is important. The same is true at the end of the day.
3. Work in short bursts
If you were at work you’d be catching up with colleagues, going on a tea run, or attending catch-ups and meetings. It’s important that you still communicate with colleagues regularly (see tip five) but you also need to make sure you schedule your own breaks.
The break can be short – a stretch and a gaze out into the garden whilst the kettle boils will do – but it’s important to step away from your screen. Give yourself a few minutes once an hour to break off from what you’re doing and reset.
Sitting down constantly, especially when your daily commute has been reduced to a sleepy-eyed walk downstairs, is detrimental to your physical wellbeing, and if you want to remain productive, you need to give your brain a break too.
4. Take some air
The current lockdown rules dictate that you can only take exercise for an hour a day so use that time wisely.
Take your full lunch hour and be sure to forget work for that hour. Dr Michael Mosely recently told the Telegraph: “With families finding themselves at home together, you must prioritise relaxation time. Often, I’ll go for a run to help me unwind.”
Get out of the house in the middle of the day and you’ll return to your makeshift office reinvigorated. Freeing up your brain for an hour might even help subconsciously, providing you with new ideas.
If you can’t or opt not to take your exercise break at lunch, be sure to step into the garden if you have one, or at the very least open some windows. The fresh air will help with both effectiveness and efficiency.
5. Manage distractions
Working from home will look different for everyone. Whether you have a home office (with a door that locks) or children off school and making constant demands on your attention, you’ll be juggling different commitments in a different environment.
As much as possible, it is important to remember that you’re at work. Anything that you couldn’t do if you were at the office you shouldn’t be doing now, just because you’re working from home.
This is not easy in practice, especially where kids or the latest hit series on Netflix is involved. On the plus side though, it also means saying no to washing up, ironing, and doing those small DIY jobs you’ve been meaning to do around the house.
6. Be realistic
You wouldn’t overpromise and under-deliver to a client or customer, so it’s important you don’t fall into that trap with yourself. Be realistic.
You might have saved an hour or two on the commute but that doesn’t mean your working day is any longer or that you can work more effectively without the distractions of the office. You’ve replaced one set of challenges with a new and different set.
Set yourself a to-do list but ensure it’s realistic. Rather than a long list that goes unfinished, try making a shorter list and take the feel-good hit of finishing it. Treat any additional work you manage to get done as a bonus.
Also aim to get most of the list done at the time when you’re most productive. For many of us that will be the morning, with a trough in productivity after lunch, but use whatever plan fits into your working day.
7. Communication
Gone, albeit temporarily, are the days when you could lean over and speak to a colleague on the next desk or take a quick stroll to question someone in the next-door office.
Thankfully, a multitude of apps and pieces of software exist to make communicating with your colleagues easy.
Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Slack, Skype – all can make it easy for you and your team to remain in constant communication. The software exists, so use it.
A recent article from US news channel CNBC, confirms ‘you don’t have to be constantly checking and replying to emails but at the very least, have regular check-ins with your manager and team.’ Keep to the same meeting routine but do it electronically.
The nuances of the spoken word can’t be replicated by an email or an instant message so where possible, even if it’s only to ask a simple question, give a colleague a call.
Misunderstandings and misinterpretations can happen when working remotely but constant communication – ensuring everyone knows their individual tasks, their position in the chain, and exactly what is expected of them – will help your team or business continue to run smoothly.
