How to Be Productive When Working from Home
Dear all,
It has been two weeks now working from home - 16 days to be exact for me and I feel that time has passed by so fast. I have been so busy and it has been faster than I thought it would be. I am working from home now and I am starting to like it especially after I setup my work station two weekends ago, so starting from 23 March, I was really enjoying work from home. Before that I was only using laptop and my home work desk was full of things so I missed my big L-shaped desk at the office. On the 22nd March, I had a spring cleaning in my room and it made a huge difference to the ambience and overall productivity. So rule #1, setup your work station the way you like it. You do not need to spend a lot of money but with what you have, make the best of it. Two years ago when I moved to this island for work, my dad and sister helped me design my room. We got a proper study table and office chair (with cushion seating and wheels) but I rarely use it. I would go to the office or spend longer hours there in order to finish my work, thus, I try not to work at home when possible. My office chair is still wrapped with plastic on the cushion and these have been so handy now that I am working from home. I spend hours behind the laptop and meetings can go up to 2 hours straight with no break. I am working on a critical project and pretty urgent - hence why I have been super busy these past few weeks.
Today I am so happy because I reached a small milestone in the project. If you see my screen, it is full of colour and looks like random art but it is a product of many days of hard work. I felt so proud to see the outcome and thankful that we have reached a second part of the project. For me, if I have decided to commit to something, I will give my best and fullest commitment. Work is pretty high on my priority list at the moment in life. I am early in my career so one motivation to be productive is to perform well and to get things done. Rule #2 Do it now. No delays, if you think of doing something, just do it now. Do not think of later or tomorrow. Other things may come up and you may prolong what you initially planned to do. This will lead to continued procrastination and it will make you less productive because you feel like you are behind. How you feel about yourself and your work and your accomplishment also plays a role.
Rule #3 Positive self talk. People tend to emphasise on physical work or things that can be measured and observed. We focus less on the mental state and emotional well-being. The truth is this is the main source of motivation - self- belief and feeling good on the inside. If you have a positive thought of yourself, you are motivated to do more. You will also believe you can achieve and hence why you do it. If you have a lot of negative talk, you will perform less and become less motivated and productive. Listen to your heart and mind - let them talk to each other. Be kind to yourself and set goals and targets. I know the outside world right now can be demotivating and can put your spirit down. However, have hope that things will be better and have belief that there is good out of the situation - it can be a positive learning experience for all of us in this world. Make the best of it while you have the downtime now. If all goes back to normal tomorrow, you may miss how things are now and you may not have the luxury of working from home or spending time at home. Family time is not something many people appreciate especially those who are not close with family so this is the time to bond with them. For those with family, enjoy your time with them - bond and talk and do things together. For those alone or away from family, do not feel like you are at a disadvantage. Mainstream thoughts are not always true. People who are not in a particular situation will always feel like it is more difficult than it actually is. When you are in that situation, you realise it is not that bad. I am not by myself but have a few friends who are and they seem cool about it. Every situation has its pros and cons. Being by yourself, is also nice and you can fully connect with yourself and have lots of me-time which is a luxury to many people especially people with big families and kids. So, stay positive regardless of your situation.
Rule #4. Have discipline. For me office hours are still office hours, I would only take a lunch break and get back to work. Anything else can wait after office hours or the weekend. I am disciplined that way. Even working from home, I find that I am chatting less with people hence more productive. Discipline is very important in anything you do. Create a schedule or have a routine.
Rule #5. Choose what to do with your time wisely. On a positive note, I am saving time in my day by not needing to put makeup, remove makeup, choose my clothes, dress up for work, drive to work, drive back, drive out for lunchtime with colleagues and activities after work. Wow. I just realised that I save time in a single day by not having to do these and I find that I can accomplish more work. It is great because the things mentioned above could easily take up 3-4 hours of your time in the day. So, this is a period of time when you can skip the above and easily just wakeup, have breakfast, shower, do work, lunch and back to work. The fun part is that as soon as I am done I rest on my bed and its a great feeling because I was thinking, how lucky after all that hard work and thinking I do not have to drive back home and simply walk a few steps only and reach my bed. My rule is that I try to not do work on my bed - it will make me feel too relaxed which can lower productivity. You need some level of urgency and stress in order to be productive.
There goes my 5 rules for being productive when working from home. Take care everyone and stay safe.
XOXO,
LittleMissMeen
It has been two weeks now working from home - 16 days to be exact for me and I feel that time has passed by so fast. I have been so busy and it has been faster than I thought it would be. I am working from home now and I am starting to like it especially after I setup my work station two weekends ago, so starting from 23 March, I was really enjoying work from home. Before that I was only using laptop and my home work desk was full of things so I missed my big L-shaped desk at the office. On the 22nd March, I had a spring cleaning in my room and it made a huge difference to the ambience and overall productivity. So rule #1, setup your work station the way you like it. You do not need to spend a lot of money but with what you have, make the best of it. Two years ago when I moved to this island for work, my dad and sister helped me design my room. We got a proper study table and office chair (with cushion seating and wheels) but I rarely use it. I would go to the office or spend longer hours there in order to finish my work, thus, I try not to work at home when possible. My office chair is still wrapped with plastic on the cushion and these have been so handy now that I am working from home. I spend hours behind the laptop and meetings can go up to 2 hours straight with no break. I am working on a critical project and pretty urgent - hence why I have been super busy these past few weeks.
Today I am so happy because I reached a small milestone in the project. If you see my screen, it is full of colour and looks like random art but it is a product of many days of hard work. I felt so proud to see the outcome and thankful that we have reached a second part of the project. For me, if I have decided to commit to something, I will give my best and fullest commitment. Work is pretty high on my priority list at the moment in life. I am early in my career so one motivation to be productive is to perform well and to get things done. Rule #2 Do it now. No delays, if you think of doing something, just do it now. Do not think of later or tomorrow. Other things may come up and you may prolong what you initially planned to do. This will lead to continued procrastination and it will make you less productive because you feel like you are behind. How you feel about yourself and your work and your accomplishment also plays a role.
Rule #3 Positive self talk. People tend to emphasise on physical work or things that can be measured and observed. We focus less on the mental state and emotional well-being. The truth is this is the main source of motivation - self- belief and feeling good on the inside. If you have a positive thought of yourself, you are motivated to do more. You will also believe you can achieve and hence why you do it. If you have a lot of negative talk, you will perform less and become less motivated and productive. Listen to your heart and mind - let them talk to each other. Be kind to yourself and set goals and targets. I know the outside world right now can be demotivating and can put your spirit down. However, have hope that things will be better and have belief that there is good out of the situation - it can be a positive learning experience for all of us in this world. Make the best of it while you have the downtime now. If all goes back to normal tomorrow, you may miss how things are now and you may not have the luxury of working from home or spending time at home. Family time is not something many people appreciate especially those who are not close with family so this is the time to bond with them. For those with family, enjoy your time with them - bond and talk and do things together. For those alone or away from family, do not feel like you are at a disadvantage. Mainstream thoughts are not always true. People who are not in a particular situation will always feel like it is more difficult than it actually is. When you are in that situation, you realise it is not that bad. I am not by myself but have a few friends who are and they seem cool about it. Every situation has its pros and cons. Being by yourself, is also nice and you can fully connect with yourself and have lots of me-time which is a luxury to many people especially people with big families and kids. So, stay positive regardless of your situation.
Rule #4. Have discipline. For me office hours are still office hours, I would only take a lunch break and get back to work. Anything else can wait after office hours or the weekend. I am disciplined that way. Even working from home, I find that I am chatting less with people hence more productive. Discipline is very important in anything you do. Create a schedule or have a routine.
Rule #5. Choose what to do with your time wisely. On a positive note, I am saving time in my day by not needing to put makeup, remove makeup, choose my clothes, dress up for work, drive to work, drive back, drive out for lunchtime with colleagues and activities after work. Wow. I just realised that I save time in a single day by not having to do these and I find that I can accomplish more work. It is great because the things mentioned above could easily take up 3-4 hours of your time in the day. So, this is a period of time when you can skip the above and easily just wakeup, have breakfast, shower, do work, lunch and back to work. The fun part is that as soon as I am done I rest on my bed and its a great feeling because I was thinking, how lucky after all that hard work and thinking I do not have to drive back home and simply walk a few steps only and reach my bed. My rule is that I try to not do work on my bed - it will make me feel too relaxed which can lower productivity. You need some level of urgency and stress in order to be productive.
There goes my 5 rules for being productive when working from home. Take care everyone and stay safe.
XOXO,
LittleMissMeen
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